THE QUEEN'S CROWN [2]

07 : SECRET SOULMATE

        Something told her that Kol wasn't lying when he told her he was in Denver. That just made her nervous. It wasn't about seeing him—the idea irritated her more than anything—but about Charlie seeing him. It was her birthday and Lily wanted it to go well and so far, nothing had gone as planned. She hadn't made her the big breakfast she promised herself she would, they weren't meant to go see a reminder of the town they were temporarily meant to be leaving behind and they most definitely weren't meant to be running into Kol freaking Mikaelson. That was the last thing she wanted.

At the same time, the idea of actually learning more about magic had felt her hesitate when he told her he was more than willing to teach her. She knew nothing about the Original, other than the fact that he seemed like an asshole. She didn't want to date him, she didn't want to know him, but she did want to be strong. Charlie had spent so much of her life protecting her and doing whatever she could to ensure that she was safe that Lily wanted to return the favor. She wanted to be able to stand up and say that she could use her own magic to defend herself. She had this power and yet never used it, not the way she could. She had seen the way Charlie gravitated towards Elijah, the way she looked at him and as much as the idea of loving someone like that appealed to her, Lily wasn't looking for that kind of soulmate in Kol. She just wanted to learn from him. If he was willing to teach her, maybe she shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.

But today was about Charlie.

"I can't see him—can we go?" Lily begged once they reached the park, eager to leave in case Kol decided to appear out of nowhere, which she wouldn't put past him.

Charlie turned to her sister in surprise. "We haven't even started looking."

"I hate crowds,"

"It's not that bad." She looped her arm through Lily's and they made their way across the field, where Lily could see more than just a few people lingering. The truth was, Lily only hated crowds because they got in her way and today was not one of those days. She just needed an excuse. "It's a nice day."

"Lottie, he's not here. He stood us up." She sighed, wondering if she texted Kol and ask him to leave them alone just for today, if he would do it. He didn't seem like the kind of guy that liked being told what to do though. "Can we go back to the house? I'll even help Elijah clean the mess I made."

The things she was willing to do.

"How considerate of you. But I'm gonna wait for him and so are you."

"I didn't even-" she began in protest.

"Whose birthday is it?" The smirk on her face made Lily want to argue, but she had made a point of telling Charlie that she wanted today to be about her and that meant doing what she wanted. "See. You want me to go along with this day that really isn't that big of a deal-"

"Lottie-"

"Then the least you can do is do this for me." Charlie gave her a small smile and when Lily nodded, deciding that it was useless to try and lie her way out of it, she grinned and pulled her into a side hug. "So what do you want to do while we wait for Jeremy?"

Lily let her lead her to a bench, where they sat down. "It's your birthday."

"Yeah, but you don't even wanna be here. Why is that?" She asked and the younger witch felt her heart quicken. Just pretend as if nothing's wrong. You're a good actress, remember? "Lils, what's going on? You've been on edge since we've had breakfast."

"So have you. You seem more tense than anything." She had noticed it. It wasn't very hard to. While Charlie seemed better at keeping secrets than she was, her little phone call with Stefan hadn't gone unnoticed by her. She had been more than happy to answer his call, seemingly because he was the only one out of the Salvatore brothers that still wanted to talk to her, but when she came back, something was amiss. Lily disliked being kept in the dark, but that was a family trait it seemed, as Charlie knew something was up with her too. Lily didn't care about keeping her texts with Kol to herself but she did want to know what exactly Stefan had said to unnerve Charlie so much, especially on her birthday. "What was it that Stefan said that bothered you so much?"