Severed Heaven (Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson)

Chapter Thirty-One: If You Catch The White Oak Bullets

I had perfected the art of my overused locator spells to try to find Aurora. Every single element I used to strengthen my chanting seemed invented on the spur of the moment.

It was my own rebuttal when Elijah called which set me free. I was relieved to see his name appear on my phone, and I accepted the call instantly. "Please, tell me that you found the lunatic ex?" I sighed wearily into the phone.

There was a short silence on the other side, which did not give me a affirmative feeling. His anxieties about the missing white oak, I could tell, were completely overshadowed by what followed his conscious at the very moment. "Well, from the looks of things I'd say the lunatic ex found Freya." He said, and even when I couldn't see him, I knew he was struggling to keep his cool about this. His sister's disappearance cast the urgent matter of the missing white oak in a shaded corner, and now seemed to belong to a segment of time to which neither of us had access whatsoever.

On the nervous doodling I had traced around these words before snatching my coat from its hanger, I was still trying to recover from last night's news about that white oak. Perhaps, I wanted to relive that moment of such anxiety, both to mask my worry about Freya and to remind myself not to crumble if I was going to see her hybrid bother again.

After blowing out the candles, I slipped on my coat with Elijah on speaker. "I'll come to you, and track her down." I said.

Everything about last night's argument had suddenly vanished. I remembered nothing. It was all just a faded memory struggling to make sense as I waited for Elijah to give me approval. "There's no need. I got something." He then said to my surprise. I stopped right in my tracks and lived through his brief pause rather impatiently. Somehow hearing him sigh through the phone again reminded me of a couple of nights ago, when he was here, with me. "Meet us at the edge of the forest." There was zero hesitation in his voice when he said that, so I didn't dare question it, and hung up.

I rushed out of my apartment. My heart was racing with terror. At least last night there was no fear of failing, the fear of being thrown behind all barriers of hope. I had no choice but to overcome this fear of losing Freya.

Now by that I was slowly overcoming that fear the closer I got to the woods, had this anxiety been present all along, though latent, like a presage and a warning of killer reefs beyond the squall? And why had I never felt this fear before? Was this the very first time? This panic? What was it about waiting that was beginning to feel like torture? As I knew from my own experience how cruel Aurora actually was, every single second that Freya was with her was pure threat and danger.

I was so unhinged even still when I met with both the brothers at the edge of the woods. I sensed that every second that she was missing, all that was passing by was time— lost time, passing by, passing by, and passing by again.

Seeing Niklaus' face again did nothing for me. The anger did not rush back in, and for the very first time my heart made peace with his, the equanimity remaining in the deepest parts of my chest, flowing through all its four chambers, clinging to my mind in such protection. I could not have myself distracted at this time. What concerned me was finding the very witch who had supported me ever since my arrival in this city, and what did not concern me was her brother who happened to have pushed my buttons only a few hours ago. I would not let myself get distracted by silly heated feelings.

Unending minutes of strolling through these woods were enough for my composure to cease. I could not stand it much longer, and Elijah and Niklaus were on the same restive page. As the time rushed by, without obtaining a single sign, the three of us were starting to grow hasty. There was impatience now, and there was restlessness. It wasn't until Niklaus spoke that my hope slightly surged. "Freya's not in there." He said with a hopeful indication in his voice, and then he stopped in his tracks, Elijah and I following his actions. "She was, I can smell her blood, but the stronger scent is due west."