𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬

𝟺

Hayley and Aeliana walked in to see Nik feeding Audrey and Hope sweets for breakfast.

"Good morning. I guess apple turnover is fruit."

"Well, I saw no harm in indulging their sweet tooth. All things in moderation, of course."

Aeliana raised her brow. "So is the five pounds of candy, each, in their room considered moderation?"

Him and the girls held back a chuckle of laughter, making Hayley smile.

"Okay. Don't eat too many. You'll get a stomachache. Can we talk?"

Nik followed them over to his study, Aeliana cutting right to the chase. "Have you seen Elijah?"

"I thought he was with you. I haven't seen him since he left for Marcel's last night."

Aeliana's face paled. "He never came home last night," she immediately pulled out her phone and started calling him, barely hearing Nik tell Hayley he was going to go to Marcel's to see if he ever showed.

"He's not answering the phone. He wouldn't have just, not come home! Hayley, what if The Hollow got him?"

Hayley immediately sat her down on the couch. "Okay, breathe. Let's find out out Klaus says before we start to-"

She was cut off by Aeliana's phone going off, seeing it was Nik.

"Is he there?"

"Marcel said he never showed."

She hung up and looked over at Hayley. "Can I panic now?"

Freya came in at that moment with Vincent. "No, not yet. I'll find him.

She started chanting, but was stopped. "He's cloaked by magic. I can feel it."

The bone started moving, making everyone look at it in alarm. "That's her. That's the Hollow. She has Elijah, and now she wants that bone."

Aeliana looked over at Vincent. "In exchange for Elijah?"

"No, you don't understand. There won't be an exchange. She needs Elijah to die in order to channel the energy from his sacrifice. She's already poisoned him with the rose thorns. She wants this bone by sundown. If she doesn't get it, then she's gonna come here and she's gonna take it. And when she does, she's gonna burn this entire city to the ground. You want a plan of attack, it comes down to this. Use the element of surprise. Now, Marcel will hand over the bone, and then stab the Hollow with Hayley's blood, and then I'm gonna cast the spell that buries her."

Hayley looked at him in confusion. "The Ancestors' spell requires a sacrifice. An Original has to die."

"Yeah, and right now, the Hollow is gonna use Elijah's death to come back, but there's a window where I can use the sacrifice to shove her back into her grave."

Aeliana stood up and got in Vincent's face. "You're joking, right? You're talking about just allowing The Hollow to sacrifice my husband, the father of our child! Like oh, yes, no problem at all!"

Nik came in and placed his hands on Aeliana's shoulders. "You'll forgive me for stating the obvious, but your plan does nothing to save my brother. In fact, it relies entirely upon his death."

Marcel held the both of them back. "Easy. He's just trying to help."

"Guys, Elijah's already dead. Now, the only thing that we can do right now is figure out whether or not that death is gonna count for something."

Aeliana shrugged out of Nik's grip, only to get held back by Marcel again. "That's not up to you! He's my husband, and I say he is not dying today! Let go of me, Marcel!"