Perzys Āeterña | Hope Mikaelson

Chapter 6

The Night Hag wasn't a Night Hag at all.

"An Oneiroi?" asked Kaleb, bewildered. "A black-winged what?"

"Shapeshifting dream demon," said Hope and Landon in unison.

Already, it sounded terrible. Rhysaenya was ceasing to feel surprised each time a new creature emerged from Malivore. She would have thought a dragon would be the biggest weapon, but clearly, she turned out useless to him.

A gargoyle was vaguely familiar to her, and wouldn't have been threatening until he whipped out his grayscale-inducing claws. Zombies were pushing it, but she supposed it was easy to believe after her grandfather read that chapter of A Song of Ice and Fire to her. MG had called them walkers, so how different could they have been from White Walkers? They got lucky with them.

The Necromancer had proven the worst, and that was perhaps because he'd employed psychological manipulation instead of arriving with brute force. That being said, it seemed the Night Hag/Oneiroi might be in the running with The Necromancer if it was using everyone's worst fears as a weapon.

Hope continued despite the bleak looks on their faces, "I know it sounds bad, but now that we know what the creature is, we can fight it."

Raf held out his hands. "How the hell are we supposed to kill a dream demon?"

"Leave that part to me. But since I can't fall asleep without compromising the location of the urn, I need someone else to pull it out of the dream plane and into our waking reality."

"So, Freddy Krueger," said MG. "Like I said."

"And is there an instruction manual for this?" asked Rhysaenya. "Or are we just expected to go to sleep, grab hold, and hope for the best?"

"That'll be the case if it's anything like the movies," replied MG excitedly.

Kaleb laughed dryly. "Yeah, okay. Is it too late to get on the evacuation bus?"

"No," said Hope. "I mean, I'm not gonna ask all of you to stay for this, it has to be your choice."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. Landon stood up, "I'm not leaving unless Hope does."

"We already know the answer to that," murmured Hope.

"I'm not leaving Landon behind," offered Raf.

"And I'm not shying away from another adventure," said Rhysaenya, despite an itch in the back of her mind letting her know this was a bad idea.

MG stood up, patting his chest. "I'm a founding member of the Super Squad, so I can't bail."

Kaleb scoffed. "Y'all are gonna get yourselves killed." Apparently, everyone was on board with that. The vampire sighed. "If MG stays, I stay. No child left behind."

MG wasn't at all displeased with being called a child. In fact, it only made his smile grow, so contagious that Rhysaenya laughed lightly and shook her head.

Hope looked around, making sure they were all truly remaining there of their own volition. "In that case," she said, "it's naptime."

They gathered into the gym, setting out mats and pillows for their project. Hope was trying to convince Landon to stay awake with her so they could monitor the others' progress, but Landon stubbornly insisted on participating despite not having any supernatural abilities that might help them grab hold of the Oneiroi. Then again, Rhysaenya realized that maybe Hope was onto something. Landon had stolen both the knife and the urn unknowingly. Maybe he and the creature could connect on another level.

"If I die," said Rhysaenya, laying between Raf and MG and tucking her hands behind her head, "burn my body on a pyre then spread my ashes over the ocean."