Severed Heaven (Niklaus and Elijah Mikaelson)

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Toxicant Throne

The Crescent wolves found the most wanted Aurora at the end of the week. Relief flooded us all, because we'd grown sick of the contention, and of the waiting, the arguing.

It was strange to know that the night grew later that day, that darkness should've swallowed the world around the three of us, but to see only the pale grey light outside. It made me feel off-kilter, as if the urge to get my revenge grew steadily with every passing minute was somehow unnatural. Time slowed to an agonising crawl. No, my vengeance wasn't soothed quite yet.

I wished to avoid my rage, knowing that it would make the time pass faster. I then tried to replace it, but to no avail. The anticipation of what might happen was overpowering, a suffocating blanket of misery and fear that began for take on a life of its own. The waiting for the thing I wanted most was entirely unbearable, and I didn't just know— Elijah knew it, Niklaus knew it. Though, I certainly wasn't alone in this taste for revenge, this rancour, and all this vexation. I almost wished to get it over with, because I wanted to go back to that peaceful feeling both the brothers provided me. With the night slowly stretching on, every minute seeming to last longer than the one before it, I was relieved to see the ones we had been looking for.

There she was— arms crossed over her chest, firing a death stare our way. She was backed by dozens of her followers, and she stood rather proudly before them, awaiting the three of us with almost an obvious impatience.

However, not to greet us with open arms, but to bargain over Aurora most certainly, who looked very unconscious in the back of the truck.

With the three of us on one side, and the Strix on the other, I knew this was most likely about to become a battle field. Aya stepped forward bravely. "Gentlemen." She started to draw the tension from the cunning quiet. Her rivalry stepped through the edge of the light, and suddenly there was none of it at all. Like, the nightlight had died, and there was only darkness, fear and delusion now, and nothing else. "As I anticipated you to bring the primeval witch yet again, don't mind if I invited some friends of my own."

The expectation of what might happen was overpowering, yet Niklaus dared to step forward. I could tell how it surprise her, and everybody else. "I had planned on taking a different head tonight, but yours will do just fine." He said.

His voice was a distant one in the darkness, because my mind was laced with fury, but I could still hear it so clearly. Seconds graciously passed by in miserable fits. Aya reached for something silvery, then. It was the gun loaded with white oak bullets. That move changed everything within me. A driven surge of perception sounded from my chest, followed by the familiar rolling clicks of a broken heart lined by indignation. Times of great calamity and waiting had been productive at its best, even for the greatest minds, but this was my moment to be as vigilant as ever.

The tenor in Niklaus's voice changed for the worse. "I am getting so tired of having that vile weapon pointed at me."

"Pull that trigger and you die." Elijah tallied.

I sensed the twisted conduct of the Strix, therefore knew very well that there was something coming our way. As alert and driven as I was, I could not figure out what. Only when Aya spoke again, not once lowering that gun, I knew. "True, for now." She said, and tilted her head in near victory. As if she'd already won. As if she'd found their weakest weakness, and perhaps, that was nothing but the whole truth. "But first, I am going to take her with me."

And the future was unveiled and clear right now. As both the brother laid under threat of the white oak bullets, I never expected a fight, yet there it was. Niklaus stepped forward again, showing Aya that he was not going to withstand.

He inhaled deeply to mock her. "Unfortunately for you, however, Elizabeth is one of the things I cannot, and will not, give you."

"Well, I'm not asking." Another step closer, though she still stood a safe distance. I could hear my own heart beating. There was nothing I could do with that thing pointed at Elijah and Niklaus. "You killed one of my most powerful witches." She continued steadily. "So, I am going to need to fill that spot."