WAR OF HEARTS ↠ KOL MIKAELSON

2:12

| THE STAND:
CHAPTER TWELVE |

"Why not tell me your version of another tale? About the witch regent who was shunned by her own people and the two disappearing Monroe's?" Aya questioned Marcel with a shake of her head. 

Marcel's smile faltered, but only for a second before resuming his best poker face.

"I don't know that one. Witch politics isn't my thing." That earned him a suspicious look from the older vampire, she clearly didn't believe him.

"You were once guardian to Davina Claire, and just as the three of them about to be recruited by a consortium of the most powerful vampires in the world, her status as Regent is revoked, making her all but useless. Word is that Ares followed her, but Rhea? No where to be seen. You have to admit, that's quite a few coincidences." Aya was good with words, she calculated them perfectly. Luckily for Marcel, he had thought his own words through. His instinct to protect Davina was far too strong to let his lies seep out.

He scoffed, "The covens hate me. You really think I got them to impeach their regent? Ares and Davina are inseparable so it's no surprise he's disappeared too. As for Rhea, I don't have a clue. Bit of a loose canon lately, that one." He knew exactly where Rhea was, she was still holed up at the Mikaelson compound.

He just couldn't tell Aya that.

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Klaus and Lucien were on the hunt for Cami, Aurora had taken her. Hardly a surprise, she was a jealous little thing. Tristan was being held captive still, the screams of pain from Hayley's hybrid bites littering his body filled the walls of the compound.

Rhea was laid in her bed. Her moments of torturing Aurora and feeling strong were long gone and the deep depression she had fell into returned tenfold. She wasn't sure there way any way out of it. She felt so torn within her own emotions, one minute she felt like she could take on the world and let her anger fill every crevice of the city and the next, she felt like a powerless, scared little girl.

It wasn't until she heard Marcel say one very distinctive sentence that she was suddenly alert, "See, I betrayed you before I even got here."

She could sense more and more bodies by the second, The Strix had grown impatient. They wanted their leader back. Sighing to herself, she hopped up out of the bed and broke out into a run to the room Tristan was being held captive. She couldn't stand by and let them destroy the compound, after all, it had been home once upon a time. There wasn't many places she could call home. She arrived to see Aya stab Freya in the stomach, she knew she had to do something so she used the strongest pain infliction spell she could muster on the woman who ordered her brothers death. Aya's whimpers of pain were the last thing on her mind as Rhea focused her attention on the other person present.

Looking at Tristan, who quite frankly, looked like hell— she raised a brow.

"You're starting a war, Tristan." He smirked weakly back at her.

"One that I'm going to win, Rhea." He paused, looking to Freya, who was gasping for breath, "You can still join us."

Rhea shook her head, "You only want me so you can activate that device. You know I can do it alone. You only made it seem like you needed my brother and Davina too because you knew they'd run together, leaving me alone and vulnerable. You don't care about me Tristan, not really. All you care about is your revenge on the Mikaelsons. That will be your ultimate downfall. That's what makes you weak. You have nothing to lose, nothing to fight for." She turned to Aya.

"You're not going to die here, Aya.. But you will. I promise you that." She let Aya out of her hold and turned to Tristan once more.

"I'm going to let you go, Tristan." His eyes widened in surprise, after her admission he expected her to kill Aya and continue to torture him, "I would hope you'd have more sense than to continue what you're doing, but I know you won't stop now." She let him out of all that bound him to the room, seeing his hesitation she carried on, "Go, before I regret my decision."

He nodded, and then he was gone. Rhea quickly got to work on healing Freya, who was bleeding out on the carpet. It didn't take too long before Freya was sitting up, slowly regaining her breath.

"Your brothers gonna wake up mad at me." Marcel nodded to Freya from the door before handing the enchanted stake to Rhea, who only looked at it confused, "When he does, be sure to remind him who his friends are." He was then also gone, leaving Freya and Rhea confused by the turn of events.

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"This stake was imbued with dark magic, and when I say dark, I don't mean voodoo New Orleans witches. I mean this stake could take down even you." Rhea informed Elijah as she and Freya inspected the stake.

Elijah was pacing, glancing around at the destruction The Strix had caused in their quest to retrieve their leader, "So apparently The Strix has no shortage of weapons."

"Well at least they don't have Marcel.." Hayley offered, but it didn't seem to please Elijah.

"I'm not so sure about that." He sounded bitter, obviously feeling betrayed.

"Look, I know he attacked you." Rhea started, "but he could've used this on you and he didn't." She gestured to the stake. Elijah didn't seem convinced.

"And, for what it's worth. He did save me." Hayley added.

"And I'm sure he was about to heal me, had Rhea not have beaten him to it." Freya stated, Elijah shook his head— still not believing that Marcel was even slightly on their side and continued pacing.

"Do I need to remind you that because of your beloved hero, Tristan is free, Rebekah is lost..." Elijah paused, seeming to stare into nothing. Rhea glanced at Freya who was already staring at her, she knew that Rhea had let him go. One look at her face and Rhea knew, so why didn't she tell anyone?

"This prophecy threatens to devour us still." Elijah finished, and a silence engulfed the room. The threat to the lives of the remaining Mikaelsons still looming about them like a thick, black cloud— just waiting to rain on them like the hell that so many thought they deserved.

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I know this is SO long overdue, but I've had the worst couple of months, went through a bit of a dark period and completely lost my passion for writing. I'm back now, starting my new job Monday and things are finally starting to look up. So I'll try and update as much as I can until Monday and then work out which days I'll be updating once I get my times.

Thank you for being so patient and continuing to love War Of Hearts even when I felt like I fell out of love with it, it means a lot. Next update soon, bye for now!

-Meg✨