Perzys Āeterña | Hope Mikaelson

Chapter 24

They ended up getting the hotel room Hope wanted.

Aurora was chained to a chair, spelled to sit in place as Hope fiddled with a few random objects left behind in the drawers, trying to come up with a game plan to use Aurora to find The Watcher and end this once and for all.

"You stand accused," she told Aurora, "of blaspheming my family name, conspiring with The Watcher, and, well, for being a relentless bitch."

Aurora smirked. "Guilty as charged. But no matter what punishment you think of, little bird, I'm not telling you anything."

"Mhm... we'll see." She opened the curtains, letting a beam of sun hit Aurora's hand. "Take that daylight ring off her finger."

Rhysaenya remained where she was, toying with her knife on the bed. "Hey, look, I'm down for murder and torture, you know that, but I think you should torture her if you kidnapped her."

"I thought you wanted to be Maegor."

"Let's not forget how much trouble I got into for saying that."

Hope smiled. "That reminds me." She flicked her hand, opening the door as a maid walked in with their supper. "Drain your blood into a cup for me, would you?"

Rhysaenya sighed, turning her head away as the woman obediently set the tray down and used her bottle opener to slice open her wrist and let the blood leak into the spare glass. As soon as she was done, Hope beckoned the cup to Rhysaenya. "You need something to drink if you're just gonna watch," the tribrid ordered. "But I still expect you to do what I say when I give an order. Take the daylight ring off."

"Do it yourself," demanded Rhysaenya. "I voted to head dive her and then kill her. The torture, if you want to go that route, is personal and I won't interfere with it."

Aurora eyed Rhysaenya's expression while she continued to refuse. "My brother Tristan looked at me like that whenever he betrayed me."

"Oh, your brother, right," said Hope, flicking her hand and removing the daylight ring, letting Aurora's hand begin to burn as she screamed. "The brother that killed Jackson right in front of my mom, who tortured her and then was stuck in a box for years before my Uncle Elijah kicked the bucket the first time around. That brother who shut you away and never loved you enough to just deal with you. Right..."

She shut the curtain as Aurora gasped, hand already catching on fire. She waited for her to heal before ripping the curtains open again, each time letting the light hit a greater segment of her body. Rhysaenya hated the sound of Aurora's screams. She drank her blood quietly, knowing this wasn't going to be useful. Aurora wasn't going to talk because she was in pain. Hope was just enjoying this. This approach would yield nothing.

"It's been hours," said Rhysaenya, bored out of her mind. "Can we just do the head dive now and get rid of her?"

"You're being small-minded. A head dive won't work. For starters, it's painless, and look, as much as I hate to admit it, she's too strong for it."

"You're stronger! And you just admitted to wanting her to feel pain. Tell me the reason why, Hope, because I know it isn't just for fun, it's because you want to make her suffer!"

Hope was still mindlessly turning gears on her new contraption. "For what she did to Jackson, to Cami, for having kidnapped my Aunt Rebekah, for shooting my Uncle Elijah with white oak, and nearly getting my parents killed, she will suffer."

She challenged, "I thought you didn't care about anything. Why do you care about that?"

"Oh, I don't, but they are good reasons to torture her, and I'm enjoying prolonging it." She rang a small bell, beckoning the maid back in. This time, she brought with her a platter of raw meat. "Eat. Dracarys to your liking, or whatever."