✔ The Way We Burn || Kol Mikaelson (Complete)

Chapter 31

A very old friend of Kol and Nora – who happened to be a witch – lived in the North of France. After a quick stop at the old woman's house, an invite was sent to Rebekah. The content was simple. Just a few words with no mention of the name of the future bride.

Kol watched coldly the card disappear. On one hand, he could already feel a bitter disappointment at the knowledge that Rebekah wouldn't come to his wedding. As he had told Nora, Niklaus would always be Rebekah's first priority. On the other hand, he didn't actually want her to come. After all, he knew himself well. Should she ever attend his wedding, he would have expectations in the future. In the end, it would only lead to more hurt and heartache.

Surprisingly, Rebekah exceeded all his expectations and actually came. However, her goals in doing so was definitely not to attend his wedding.

The wedding was taking place in their villa in the south of the Byzantine Empire. Nora was getting dressed in their bedroom with Sage's help. Because she wanted to respect some traditions from the future, Kol had yet to catch a glimpse of her since the previous evening and didn't even know what her wedding dress looked like. All he knew was that four seamstresses worked on it for a whole week and had mixed feelings about the final result. Three of them were actually very shocked.

To say he was curious and eager to see Nora was an understatement.

Kol himself was simply dressed, even though even a single piece of the fabric he wore would be enough to feed a modest family for a year. At the very least.

After so many years, he was finally getting married. Even now, it felt like it was a dream. Nothing could go wrong today.

As he was pacing around the room, one of his friend, a witch named Noppharat, chuckled. His dark eyes, the same colors as his short hair, were following Kol's every gestures.

"Kol, what are you even worried about?" he eventually asked him.

His accent was strong as he spoke in Khmer, his maternal language. Although thirty-eight years had passed since they last saw each other, the witch had barely changed. There was just a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and a few new scars on his naked chest.

Kol replied in Khmer, "Isn't it normal to be nervous before my wedding?"

"I don't think so. It might be some odd foreign customs though. Or just something about you and Nora. I mean, don't take it wrong but you two have always been a bit weird. I will try to ask my wives when I go back home."

Kol stopped moving and let out a laugh, his anxiety forgotten for a moment. Noppharat wasn't completely wrong. Next to the man and his five wives, Nora and he, and their relationship, did seem strange.

He was going to speak again when Sage's protégé, Marcus, burst in the room with a scared expression and fear tainting his scent. A hand-shaped bruise was fading around his neck.

"Mister, there is a lady asking for you in the hall. She said she's your sister and she doesn't look very happy," Marcus quickly said in one breath.

For a second, Kol didn't react. The surprise was just too big and had him frozen. That, and he wasn't quite sure he had really understood the boy. But seeing the young vampire's panic and the frown on Noppharat's face did the trick and he left the room hastily.

Just like Marcus said, there really was his sister waiting for him in the entrance hall. Standing straight with a long red dress and her long blond hair braided in a bun on the back of her head, Rebekah was particularly eye-catching amongst the white flagstones and blue frescos.

The old manservant in charge of welcoming the guests was lying at her feet, not dead yet but his heartbeat very weak.

In front of such a sight, Kol's lips tugged into a frown, anger surging inside him. The villa belonged to Kol and Nora, a compelled human family living there in their absence to take care of the place. Two generations had already lived in the villa and the old man was the first to have been born inside these walls.