Claudia Lockwood-Mikaelson

Chapter 33 - Her Betrayal

Shouting wakes me up and I see Elijah pinning Celeste to the wall glaring at her. Nik immediately climbs out of the bed, standing up to see what is going on. Why are they in his room?

"Niklaus she just hexed Claudia," Elijah tells him angrily.

Celeste shakes her head in denial. She isn't using her magic, she is just letting Elijah hold her there. And that's not the action of a guilty person. I frown in confusion.

"She did Klaus, we both saw her," Maeve says.

I look at Celeste in disbelief. While I don't like her for what she did to Maeve, I find it hard to believe she would actually try to cause me harm. Elijah finally lets go of her, now that she is surrounded with everyone's attention on her.

"Is this true?" Nik demands. She shakes her head but her loud heartbeat says otherwise. She realises we know the instant it appears on our faces. I can feel the pull of the hex, to refuse food and blood for longer. I know Elijah and Maeve are telling the truth.

I blink and Nik has sped over to Celeste, holding her up by her throat nearly choking her. He is shaking in fury, but I don't have the energy to try to calm him down. I don't even know when he had the time to put his boxer shorts back on, I'm still under the covers completely naked. Kol must have already left this morning.

"Elijah please," Celeste pleads with him over Nik's shoulder. "Don't let him hurt me, I love you."

"It was you all along," Nik brushes off her words. "How long have you been plotting against me, my mate, my family?"

"Let her go Niklaus," Elijah requests and Nik stares at him incredulously. "I will not allow my brother to harm you if you tell us the truth Celeste. You have my word."

Nik smirks and releases his hold on her. Easily working out what Elijah's clever tactics are to get her to reveal the truth. She swallows hard and takes in a shaky breath, trusting in his promise.

Silly woman, it is obvious to everyone but her that Elijah wants to kill her himself. Whether Nik will begrudgingly let him or not after harming me is another matter, he will want her to suffer. But Elijah will not break his promise, we all know that. And Nik will not make him break his word. Celeste is fairly safe. For now. And she knows it.

"I had to abandon my plan with your mate Elijah. My spell to break your mate bond to save you initially worked well but your bond was too strong and you overcame it when Maeve tried to poison herself. If only she had been a bit quicker, I could have you all to myself right now. But you felt guilt for denying your mate and being cruel to her, you still felt her emotional pain through the bond which alerted you to the fact your mate was in danger. You saved her when you should have let her die."

Maeve scowls at her. Finally the truth has come out, Elijah was spelled as we all suspected. Celeste continues to rant about how stupid the mate bond is and how it couldn't be overpowered or broken.

"But the strength of the bond just gave me an even better idea. Claudia could be used to hurt Klaus, to bring him pain like he did to me all those years ago. I realised to make Klaus suffer the most, I had to target his mate. You Claudia," she turns to me and I feel disgusted at her words.

How dare she? How could she betray us like this? I shoot Nik a worried look, hoping he is handling the situation okay. He is frozen as still as a statue, just taking in her horrific plan. No one speaks, in fear that Celeste might lose her train of thought or change her mind about revealing the truth.

"I intentionally revealed Klaus' secrets to you, one by one. Compulsion, then the murder of your Aunt Carol. I didn't even have to tell you about your mother, Klaus did that himself and it drove you away crushing his poor little heart just as I wanted from the very beginning."