Tainted | Finn Mikaelson

Chapter 13

Finn led her to her room.

"I'm sorry about that," he said. "I should have taken you and Cami out of the room before anything happened."

"You didn't know," she said quietly. "It's alright. I never really understood how brutal death could be. My parents just went to sleep, and that was that. Mikael... just burned to death. Is that how you died?"

Finn nodded. "Yes."

"Oh my god." She grabbed his hand. "I'm sorry."

"I don't really remember much," he told her. "A lot of pain for one second, then nothing. I desiccated completely before my body lit on fire. Kol had it worse. He felt pain for several seconds before he fully died— he felt the searing pain of being burned alive before it was over."

Katya whimpered, and Finn cupped her face. "It's alright. We're both back now. We're not dead."

"What's going to happen with Freya? Klaus had every reason to kill Mikael, but she won't see that."

"I will speak to her. I could do a spell on your mind to soothe you. Or even make you forget, if you wish. I know that witnessing death in such a violent form is traumatic. The rest of us are so used to it... we don't usually stop to think what it's like for those who've never seen that."

"No," she said. "I don't want to forget. I just... I think I need to sleep. Today's been... just one of those days. I'll be okay." She crawled into her bed, pulling the sheets over herself and curling up. "Do what you need to do. I'll be safe here."

Before he could stop himself, he dipped down to kiss her forehead, then quickly walked away, thinking she would have scolded him.

Katya couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she tried. She could hear movement around the house. Some objects were being broken. A bit of shouting, and then some muffled cursing.

"I'm so fucking tired," she told Cami the next afternoon when she finally got out of bed. "What the hell's been happening here?"

"Dahlia was here," said Cami.

"What? You're telling me I slept through a fight?"

"Not a fight, no. She sent in the witch Regent, Josephine LaRue, to deliver a message. I was still in bed when it happened, Klaus just told me afterward. Things aren't going too well. Rebekah says Freya gave the rest of them an ultimatum— they need to pick if they're going to support her or Klaus."

"That's absurd, the point is to work together."

"I know that, but it doesn't seem like it's about to happen. Elijah thinks we should both go to the St. James to keep Hayley company. I fully intend to, I just think I should talk to Klaus again before I go. He's... being uncooperative."

"Well, if there's anyone who can get him to play nice, it's you," said Katya. "I'll pack a few things and get to the St. James, then."

She went upstairs and stuffed just enough clothes for three days in her bag before making her way to Algiers in her car. She was just walking up to the building when she saw a strange trail of flowers leading to the entrance. A gigantic bush of black dahlias had grown over the wall, behind a woman with long black hair and equally dark clothes. She was looking in and moving her mouth, as if speaking to someone.

Katya immediately dropped to the ground and leapt behind a planter filled with other types of plants so the woman wouldn't see her. "Shit," she said, pulling out her phone to call Finn. "Damn it—" her phone kept telling her there was no signal as she tried to dial his number. She switched to attempting to call Rebekah, then Elijah, then Kol, then at last Klaus, but none of the calls were going through.