The Red Herring Revives: A Mikaelson Love Story

Chapter 54: Five Cursed

"I'm going to kill her." Klaus said as he began to pace. "I am going to gut her and wear her intestines like a necklace. I will use her bones as instruments. I'll—"

"Would you just stop?" Hayley roared. "I have had enough of your murder fantasies because that is exactly what they are. Fantasies! Unless you know how to kill her—"

"I can use you for practice if you aren't careful." Klaus threatened.

"Niklaus, leave her alone." Elijah interjected.

"You'd be hurting the baby." I murmured absentmindedly, causing the other three to turn me.

I'd been pretty quiet since finding out Hayley was pregnant with my baby. Or I guess the baby was hers now.

"Iliana, I am so sorry this happened to you." Elijah told me for what felt like the hundredth time. "You didn't deserve this."

"Didn't I?" I said with a scoff.

"Fiore tricks people." Klaus added. "She makes you think she cares about you, but she is a liar—an incredibly good one. And when you think you are safest, that is when she strikes."

"She warned me. She warned you." I muttered bitterly. "She didn't lie. She told me if I helped her, she would reward me. She told you by midnight it would be too late. She told us to be afraid of her and we weren't! But we should've been. We should've listened."

Klaus wanted to say something to comfort me, but I had just cleanly sliced any defence he had for himself.

"You cannot blame yourself for this." Elijah insisted. "This is no one's fault but Fiore's."

"Hayley, I don't think I can ever say enough how sorry I am." I mumbled. "I wanted to be powerful and she took it out on you. I never should've let you get involved with this family. It's cursed. We're cursed."

Now the room had turned to a depressing silence because no one had the words to take away the pain. I just wish my pain was the same.

"Enough wallowing!" Klaus snapped as he got to his feet, ready to repeat the cycle. "I'm going to—"

"Let me guess, rip off her arms and feed them to her?" Fiore said as she walked into the compound. At first, no one so much as let out a breath. "Oh no, how wrong am I?"

"I will ensure that you never feel joy ever again." Klaus said as he rushed Fiore.

But she was unmoved, simply holding up her hand and throwing Klaus through a wall. Elijah looked a mix between shocked and angry when she turned her attention to him.

"Your turn next I presume?" She asked nonchalantly.

Elijah threw himself at her, but without even acknowledging him further, a simple flick of her wrist snapped his neck and left him in a collapsed heap on the floor.

"Now ladies, I trust you aren't as foolhardy." Fiore said as she examined the Klaus sized hole in the wall. "If I kill you, I have a sneaking suspicion you aren't as durable as they are."

The silence continued as Fiore finally turned to look at us. Only for that silence to be replaced by Fiore's howling laugh.

"I can't believe that actually worked." As she walked towards us, a chair began to levitate before landing in front of Hayley and I, where Fiore decided to sit. "Very quiet, you two."

"I don't have anything to say to you." Hayley said through gritted teeth.

"No questions about how all this works?" Fiore asked.

"Fine." The wolf spat out. "How does it work?"

"I am glad you asked, Miss Labonair." The Enigma leaned in as she examined Hayley's pregnant belly. "Iliana wanted protection for her baby. I told her that a Crescent queen is queen of the wolves. Were this baby a Crescent it would have the protection of all the wolves. And now it does."

"So the baby isn't even mine anymore?" I asked.

"I'm not that cruel." Fiore answered with a roll of her eyes. "The baby belongs to the three of you. Part Klaus, Part Iliana, Part Hayley."

"But—"

"I did what you asked Iliana." Fiore told me. "Just not how you asked."

"This is very different." I shot back.

"So was I supposed to forget that your brother murdered my husband?" Fiore asked me, the rage now on her side. "I gave you every chance to make us even and you never took it. Instead you tried to use Marcel to manipulate me."

"That is not what happened!"

"I can read your mind." Fiore said with a shake of her head. "Every thought in your head is visible to me. The bartender got the witch's help by appealing to her humanity. Why not try to do the same with me?"

"It wasn't like that!"

"Yes, it was!" Fiore said with a bitter laugh. "Admit it. You didn't bring up his name to help me! You did it to help yourself. But Marcel is strong and smart and when he regains control of this city, you'll see just how idiotic is was to use him to manipulate me. You thought he would make me weak. But I told you, I will never be made weak again. And certainly not by the likes of you."

I nodded, knowing this was a losing battle anyway. "Will the baby be safe?"

"What?"

"The baby." I repeated. "Will the baby be safe?"

"Yes?"

I nodded and got to my feet, ready to put an end to this godawful year. "I'm sorry about what they did to Kol. But I wasn't there. I didn't have a part in it. And for the last time—I did not kill your husband."