WILD ROSE | N. MIKAELSON

fourteen

Madison frowned and crossed her arms over her chest as she spoke with Elijah. She had tried to convince him to let her go visit the witches with him, but he had refused, claiming Klaus would have his head of anything happened to her.

"Seriously?" She groaned. "They're not gonna hurt me, I'm the Supreme. I don't know how many times I'm gonna have to tell you guys this."

"The answer is no, and that's final," Elijah gave her a stern look.

Madison raised her hands in mock surrounded before sighing and leaving the room with a pout.

-

The Supreme hummed quietly to herself as she walked through the compound, boredly waiting for Elijah to return with news of Klaus and Rebekah.

"Madison!" His familiar voice called out from the study.

"Ugh, finally took you long enough – " Madison cut herself off when her hazel eyes landed on his shirtless chest, which was now covered in tattoos. "I have no idea what is happening right now, but I'm not... mad."

"I need you to make a list of these names," Elijah instructed as Hayley joined the pair.

Madison nodded, beginning to look at the names that had been tattooed across his body while they waited for Marcel to return with a pen and paper.

"Sabine?" She read aloud.

"Elijah, what is this?" The werewolf questioned.

"I believe they represent the names of the women Celeste inhabited for the past two centuries."

"It's called a Devinette," Madison explained as Marcel handed the pen and paper to her. "It's old school. Kind of a riddle. Witches use them to teach their kids. Solve it, and it disappears."

"Why? What's the point?"

"Celeste forced me to make a choice between yourself and Madison, and my siblings, and now she means to mock that choice, taunting me with a childish game," Elijah frowned, his concern for his siblings growing as each moment passed. "The longer the game, the more they suffer. To find Klaus and Rebekah, we need to solve this riddle. The solution lies somewhere in these names."

"The name next to Sabine, Annie La Fleur, she's the witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago, remember?" Marcel glanced at Madison. "Never knew why, but I can find out."

"Oh, I remember her," Madison recalled. "She was a nice girl. We died in the same area."

-

Madison had explained what had happened Annie La Fleur to Hayley, with Elijah on speakerphone as he walked down a busy street.

"Wait, she killed herself?" Hayley questioned, fixing her position on the couch so that she was more comfortable.

"Yeah, she drowned herself in the Mississippi," Madison nodded, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

"Celeste was clearly tired of the body and ready to take Sabine's," Elijah chimed in.

"How do you know that?"

"Because she leaped to her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss."

"It's kind of poetic, I guess," the Supreme shrugged, "in a creepy vendetta sorta way."

"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us," the Original sighed through the receiver. "Madison, I have to go. I'll call you back."