Perzys Āeterña | Hope Mikaelson

Chapter 25

Lizzie and Jed had come to see them.

Rhysaenya and Ryan knew it was going to end badly from the moment they saw the pair sitting on a couple of chairs in the hotel lobby. Hope wasn't afraid. Why should she be? She didn't care about them. But Rhysaenya did. And she knew that Lizzie and Jed might end up dead for having come to challenge her. Why else would they have come?

The worst part was that she was sure Hope could easily keep her and Ryan from interfering in whatever was about to happen. It was all in the hands of the Seven now.

"Not who I was betting on," said Hope, leading them into one of the hotel's conference rooms. "But I guess I did underestimate your stupidity."

"You killed Ethan's mom," said Jed angrily. "For no reason."

"Oh, what is it going to take for you people to understand that my humanity being off means I don't care?" She stopped in her tracks once Rhysaenya closed the door, gesturing to Lizzie's jacket. "Think a stake is going to help you?"

At least they hadn't come unarmed. But Rhysaenya wished they'd brought a better fight. This wasn't going to help their case. What were the odds of them taking Hope down even if she, Ryan, Lizzie, and Jed worked together? Hope could probably flick her wrist and break all their necks at the same time.

Lizzie smiled darkly, holding out her weapon and revealing it was carved from red oak. "It's not just any stake."

Hope raised her eyebrows. "I honestly didn't see this coming." She didn't seem too worried.

The blonde tried to look smug. "The real Vardemus actually has a pretty useful therapy box that helped me discover a new side of myself."

"The side that cosplays as a vampire hunter with her rabid dog?" Hope snorted, ignoring the offended look on Jed's face. "Do you honestly believe Dumb and Dumber can pull this off?"

"We're willing to do whatever it takes to end this," said Jed coldly. "We were all there that night, Hope. We saw what The Watcher did to the school after coming back from saving your ass."

"Pity you couldn't save Sebastian."

"We would have stood by you through anything. We knew it wasn't your fault Raf died. But turning it off? Demanding we all pitch in to bring you back? Then going and doing this? Sheriff Machado did nothing to you. And Dr. Saltzman–"

Hope held out her arms. "And how exactly do you expect to fight me without dying?"

"I like our odds," said Lizzie, seeing that Rhysaenya and Ryan weren't exactly leaping at the chance to stop them. But they weren't trying to jump into the fight, either. Ryan kept looking at Rhysaenya as if to convince her that they needed to get the hell out and let nature run its course. Lizzie and Jed had dug their graves.

The tribrid began to circle them. "See, here's the thing you need to understand about therapy. Knowing what you need to do and going through with it are two different things. You've never killed anyone, Lizzie. Everyone else in this room has." She brushed her hair away from her chest. "Now's your chance. Let's see if you have it in you."

Lizzie hesitated, perhaps hoping someone would stop her. Had she not thought this through? Had she not expected she might need to deal the final blow?

Rhysaenya was praying they hadn't come alone, praying that this was all part of a larger plan, that the Mikaelsons were waiting outside to take Hope away from all this and fix her. There had to be more to this, right? They couldn't have been stupid enough to come so ill-prepared...

The witch held the stake up, hand trembling as Hope moved closer, giving her a clean shot. Rhysaenya knew she wasn't going to go through with it. She couldn't. Not even Jed seemed keen on being the one to kill Hope.