The Red Queen | Lucien Castle & Tristan de Martel

Chapter 26

Everyone but Klaus was welcoming.

At Elijah's insistence, they'd let Freya stay at the Compound. Klaus insisted he saw himself in her, that he saw anger and fear, that she was a damaged creature and there was no way in hell he'd value her input. Maybe that's why he hated her, because she mirrored him. And he let her stay with them because he kept her close, as one would tend to do with enemies.

They were all in agreement– if Freya betrayed them, they'd take matters into their own hands. But they didn't anticipate that it would happen. None of them wanted it to come down to that, though they would if it meant protecting Hope.

Freya had spent her first day there helping Finn and Elijah with their alliance, having unlinked a particular witch from some children she had apparently kidnapped and channeled to perform dark magic. As a reward, the three Mikaelson witches had been allowed to anchor their magic into New Orleans, giving them a boost in power to prepare them against Dahlia.

They had plans in place in case things went wrong. Madison and Ariane had agreed to wait in a safe house nearby. If anything happened, they would help transition Hope and Hayley to a new location to wait out a fight. Elijah had already brought out the elixir he acquired for Katherine Pierce, keeping it on standby in case anyone hurt Cami.

Dahlia had arrived out of nowhere. Hayley had been out on a walk with Hope (and Jackson, who'd tagged along to try and bond with the two of them) when she came to them in the middle of the street. Klaus had found them in the nick of time, having rushed out after them when he realized they were gone.

"Isn't that the point of a fortress?" said Klaus, displeased, once Hayley was sitting at the dining room table holding her head in her hands. "It does a better job of protecting you when you stay within its walls?"

"Okay!" sighed Hayley. "We get it. Now, let's just figure out what the hell we're gonna do."

"She found Hope," said Vivalda, throwing her hands up. "So now we at least know she's nearby. I say we track her down."

"She's watching our every move," said Klaus. "That spell she performed, able to see through the eyes of anyone who passed..."

"She calls it 'kenning,'" said Freya. "Using proxies to watch her enemies from afar. But I've never seen it done on quite this scale."

"Awesome," said Hayley sarcastically. "So, basically every Hurricane-chugging, boob-flashing tourist on Bourbon Street is a potential spy."

"The good news," began Freya, gesturing to a tray with a silver tea kettle and eight tea cups of brown liquid, "is I know a little about how her magic works. This tonic will at least prevent her from using any of us."

Rebekah began to pass the cups around, everyone taking a moment to cringe at the thought of consuming it once the smell reached their noses. "Well, come on! This should work like a charm! Bottoms up!" Everyone but Klaus drank.

"You know," said Vivalda sweetly, "you can't complain about being left out of anything if you intentionally don't participate in group activities."

Finn nodded in agreement. "Have you a reason not to drink the tea, Niklaus?"

He shrugged. "I prefer biscuits with my tea."

Elijah rolled his eyes as Kol snickered. "Of course."

"Besides," said Klaus, "our minds are far too strong to be invaded by kenning spells. No, what we experienced was a test– Dahlia's watching to see how we respond to aggression. She's preparing for battle. My guess is sooner, rather than later."

"So what, then?" said Vivalda. "We can't respond by underestimating her. Drink the damn tea. I say we track her down and in the meantime make the preparations for if Hayley and Hope need to be taken to a safe house. Madison and Ariane will be ready at a moment's notice, but it may put us at a disadvantage to draw Dahlia out of the city. Unfamiliar territory won't be in our best interests."