The Good Daughter

Three

"Plying me with drinks isn't going to make me like this mysterious person." I rolled a glass between my hands.

Said person was late.

Very late.

"What was that? In there?"

"No idea what you mean."

"Yes, you do." He deadpanned. "With the chains."

I downed what was left of my drink. "Doesn't mean I'll talk about it."

"I'll just go ask Klaus."

"Then go ask him."

A blonde sat herself across from us and the bartender nodded at her before she could get a word out. "Marcel." Her gaze drifted over to me. "It's the girl. In the family paintings."

"Freya," Marcel's head tipped toward me. "Morgan. Morgan, Freya. She's their long lost older sister."

Why not. I let out a laugh. "Of course there's another Mikaelson. Just when the world had enough of them."

Her expression hardened. "That's my family."

"She's touchy about them."

"I'd say I earned insulting rights. After all they've done." I spun my ring.

Marcel whispered conspiratorially. "She's Elijah's kid. One night he found her-"

"It's not important." I shifted. "Anyway, when can I leave?"

"You're not at all interested in what's happened in the time you were daggered?" Freya's brow rose.

"No. From what I can tell, Elijah is indisposed, Nik is trapped. The two people most insistent on keeping me in my place as a Mikaelson aren't here. I am finally free."

Freya's mouth opened and Marcel laid a hand on her shoulder. "This is her choice."

That was nice. Someone recognizing that. "They slaughtered my brothers because I had loyalty toward them."

She crossed her arms. "I'm sure they had their reasons."

I set my glass down before I shattered it. "I want to go home to Mystic Falls, where I was born, I want to see what other damage they've inflicted on that town, and not to be bothered by Mikaelson drama."

"Elijah raised you."

"That doesn't mean anything. He sought to take away my freedom, people that I love, anything that would make me leave. I didn't have a choice. I never did, I just didn't realize it until I was on my own."

Her expression flickered. "Strange. Elijah always spoke about you in such high regard."

Marcel glanced between us. "That's true."

"Whose side are you on?!" I was drawing too many people's attention. "If they respected me so much, why was I in a box?"

She hesitated.

"Exactly. Did you know my coffin was made so that they didn't need a dagger? They could just lock me inside and that would be that until they deemed I'd learned my lesson."

"They've never done that." Marcel messed with the paper that once covered a straw.

"It was an option. The fact that they even had the foresight to add that or to dagger me without the white oak ash is wrong." I ran a hand through my hair. "And it's not as if you understand. You've never experienced the dagger."

"You hate them." It wasn't a question. Freya stared me down.

"No." I knew that at least. "Pissed at them? Afraid of them? Yes, but who isn't. They inspire that kind of emotion in everyone."

I needed to be calm.

I forced myself to sit back against my chair, a mask slipping into place just as easily as it always did.

"Your plan then, is to recover from the dagger and return to Mystic Falls?"

"I intend to do so alone as well. No one even considered a Mikaelson would be welcome back in my town."

"New Orleans would be that way too, with the exception of Freya." Marcel threw his straw paper down. "And you. You always have a home here."

"See I don't have any exceptions. No Mikaelsons, period."

Marcel's phone rang, and he barely glanced at it, before getting up. "Don't kill each other while I'm gone?"

If Marcel was leaving, so was I.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Freya leaned in. "You know he's the reason they're not here right? I have to find the cure to his bite so they don't all fucking die. I have to pretend to be on his side so he doesn't get suspicious and start having me tailed."

"Fuck them." I moved to stand and she caught my arm. I tore it from her grasp. "You're not searching my memories."

She startled. "I wasn't-"

"Yes you were. Or you were trying to show me something. I have no fucking interest. Don't touch me."

She didn't like me.

Which was fine.

I didn't like her. "I'll only be here as long as it takes to show Marcel I'm in control, then I'm out."