Ardent | Elijah Mikaelson

Chapter 37

Everyone else forgot to write their wishes.

All Hayley and Klaus could do, understandably, was focus on Hope. Lucy and Rebekah were more preoccupied with finding prettier paper and gel pels (which were not available) and at the end of the day, only Evangeliya had burned a wish.

"Hey!" said Rebekah, walking out with a camera. "Look what I found!" She held up the Polaroid, "I wonder if it'll work?"

"Oh, bloody hell," said Klaus, turning away with his hands on his hips.

"Come on, let's try it!" said Rebekah.

"I can take the picture," offered Lucy.

"Nonsense, we'll all be in it! Hey, Nik, do you think you can cram us all into a selfie?"

Elijah smirked, "Oh, Niklaus is a virtuoso at cramming his siblings into confined spaces."

Klaus seemed offended, "Well, I'm just glad I traveled hundreds of miles to visit my possibly-mentally-ill brother, only to have him insult me to my face!"

To Evangeliya, it sounded an awful lot like Klaus didn't want to have a picture taken. A part of her understood it; she couldn't remember the last time she posed for any picture or painting. It had been essential that she hide traces of herself to ensure she was not found back when she'd been on the run. Rebekah had used a picture of him and Marcel to lure Mikael in back in 1919.

Still, somehow, Rebekah managed to convince him. He held up the camera, blank-faced while everyone else smiled (or tried to, in Evangeliya's case).

"Aw, see?" said Rebekah as the picture developed. "I wish that it could always be like this."

"If wishes were horses," murmured Elijah.

Klaus finished, "Beggars would ride." He sighed. "You realize we'll have to burn it. You want me to make a wish for the family, Rebekah? I wish it didn't have to be like this. But, it does." He offered the picture to Hayley, "We can't risk it falling into the wrong hands."

"I'll spell it," offered Lucy sadly. "You and Hayley should be able to keep this."

Hayley gave Klaus a look, encouraging him to consider it. Klaus shook his head. "My mother found you once despite your use of spells."

Sadly, Hayley tossed the picture into the fire.

"No," said Rebekah softly. "This isn't right. We deserve this, we've earned this. I won't let it slip away. I know what to do to stop Esther." She looked at Elijah and Evangeliya, "A simple majority might do, right?"

Evangeliya's face fell. "Rebekah, wait a second, it was just an idea–"

"I'm going to take her deal," said Rebekah firmly. "And when I do, I'm taking her down with me."

"How exactly will you do that? If we kill her, she'll just body jump."

"Then we stop her from jumping."

Klaus snorted. "If I knew how to bloody stop her from jumping, don't you think I would have happily murdered her ages ago?"

"Well, ages ago, you didn't have a Harvest, Bennett, or Mikaelson witch. Now you have all three. Kol knows all of her tricks, Davina and Lucy are more than capable of performing magic strong enough to give her trouble."

"But what's your actual plan?" asked Evangeliya. "How is that magic going to be used?"

Rebekah furrowed her brows. "She'll be distracted and vulnerable if I come asking to be given a new body. She has to die, that is certain, we cannot allow her to keep performing magic, but perhaps..." she tilted her head, "If she were guaranteed to return to life, she may not body jump. If she were turned into a vampire... she'd live without magic."