♡ 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗲 ♡

𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 seven

getaway car.

─── ༺♥༻ ───

A FLICKERED FLAME kissed the palm of Joshua Parker's hand as he set the candle down lightly. The scented wax splattered patterns across his porcelain skin and sank between the ridges of wrinkled knuckles that tossed one spellbook page to the other.

"Kai has to stay there. There's no other way around it." He swallowed thickly. "Liv and Luke, my twins, they're due to merge. There'll be a ceremony. With Kai out, do you realise how bad that could be for all of us?"

"When you say merge, you don't actually mean merge.. do you?" Damon shifted as he stared at the old man, an uneasy feeling settling in his stomach.

Joshua turned to the vampire, regaining his posture and wiping the splatters of wax across his distressed jeans. "That's exactly what I mean. If Kai gets out, he'll head straight for Jo. His ability to siphon magic will overwhelm Jo, she will die, and our coven will be left to the whims of a madman."

"Which is now moot thanks to Blonde and Blonder, thank goodness." He mocked, "Look. Let's talk about this Ascendant-"

Joshua shook his head in dismay, turning his back to the Salvatore. "I won't let him out, Damon."

"All right. I wasn't gonna say anything because you're his dad and all, but if he gets out, I'll just kill him. It's that simple." Damon stated, rather cockily.

"I've watched Jo her whole life. She's done well on her own, survived wars, and became a doctor. If Jo merges with Kai, she will cease to exist. Kai won't just be our coven's problem. He'll be everyone's problem."

Joshua knew Kai's killing spree wouldn't end with his family, as his son's bloodthirsty antics knew no end. Damon watched curiously as the man dropped a golden locket containing Jo's photograph into a bowl and pursed his lips into a foreign chant.

"Phesmatos incendere ad pulvox."

"What the hell are you doing?" Damon demanded, stepping forward with eyebrows laced together with a string of concern that bunched up his face into a scowl.

"If Kai has access to the Ascendant and is sharing his prison with some being, he will eventually find his way out. At least this will keep him from merging." Joshua stared down at the melting locket, a glint of determination and cruelty staring back.

Damon stuttered, unable to process the situation. "You're just gonna take out Jo?"

"The coven comes before family."

The vampire sped towards him, gripping the witch's arms as he pinned him against the wall. He'd crush them beneath his fingers and break the man in two, but before he could even cause a bruise, the familiar stinging sensation in his brain fought back.

It wasn't long until Damon was collapsing onto the floor, Joshua silently subduing him with magic.

He stared down at the pained Salvatore, turning towards the fireplace. He grabbed a wooden candlestick off the mantel and snapped it in half creating a rudimentary stake. Damon wondered if this was how he'd die, at the hands of a psychotic witch while his girlfriend despised him, his friend stuck in a prison world with a psychopath and Stefan ignoring the obvious feelings Caroline Forbes held for him.

His train of thought was cut short as his brother rushed in, holding a peculiar-looking knife against Joshua's throat, and settled it against his collar. Although Stefan too was shortly subdued with magic - falling to the ground in pain.

"Invisique."

Joshua disappeared from sight, leaving Stefan and Damon sharing a knowing look and twinning pain.

"Well, I guess the, uh, disappearing act's their shtick," Stefan grunted sarcastically, wincing at his aching bones.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Kai Parker cocked his head to the side, taking in Freya's smaller frame with his eyes while the edges of his lips pulled upwards into a smile.

"I look ridiculous."

She was wearing his clothes. Again. Mainly because her fun trip to an ancient prison world wasn't something she inteded to pack for. Or to prepare for, in the very least. His wardrobe consisted of everything mid to late ninetines, mixed with questionable fabrics and boyish fashion more suited to a twelve year old, but she couldn't complain. Even though she totally wanted to.

The sleeve length was miles too big and draped heavy fabric over her fingertips until her hands disappeared beneath the hem. It smelt of heavy-scented cologne -- pine needle and something sour -- while the buttons seeemed hand-stitched on from years of ownership.

Kai crossed his arms, eyes stationed to her waist rather than her eyes. "I don't know, I like it."

Freya nodded blandly, avoiding his own so the blush on her cheeks wouldn't coat. "And I can't wear your sister's clothes why?"

"It'd be weird."

"Weirder than living with a sociopath who dresses like a teenage boy?"

He gave her an amused look.

"Weird because terrible things happened in those clothes. Like attempted murder -- and girlhood." He took a step forward, swiping at her wrist and folding the extra fabric up over her knuckles. "You're better off in these, I never killed anyone in my good clothes."

Her hand didn't jolt away. Not the way it first would -- instead, she flickered her eyes up to him and allowed him to adjust the flannel with his fingers. "Ah, so the bare minimum."

"Well, kinda, I did other things in it but nothing evil."

Freya's face scrunched up before the flannel was quickly shaken from her shoulders. "Oh, god, thanks for the warning." Her hair snagged on the buttons. "Sometimes you're not even evil you're just annoying."

Watching as she struggled to unhook the strands of hair from around the embroidered buttons, Kai winced sarcastically.

"Yeah, it's why I'm gonna soak up this moment of your suffering." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and plastered a smile across his face as her nails fumbled with the knotted collar. "Maybe you can write about it in your notebook. All the cons I have."

Freya rolled her eyes. Seems a thin piece of paper and heart-shaped cursive had struck a nerve.

"I'll make sure to add sensitive to that list then." She huffed out, tangling her hair even more so in the process.

Kai watched as she turned away from him, discontent in her eyes, and hissed lowly as another button pulled at the strands of hair. Her breath drew coarse and her patience wore thinner than the flannel still hanging from her shoulders.

She hoped he'd walk away; avoid her line of sight and leave her to dig herself a bigger hole to hide in than intended. Or maybe he'd tease her. Work up a frustrated tint of red on her cheeks until the tugging on her hair felt like a stress release. Maybe he'd do nothing but stand there and be a grim reminder of just how many cons had.

Kai didn't do any. Instead, she felt his hands pull at her shoulders and an annoyed look of defeat coat his features like sticky tar. "Move your hands."

"And give you better access to break my neck?"

She could feel his knuckles brush against her ear, a chill radiating up her spine and frosting her neck as his nails began to trace that, too. It was unintentional. His hands untangling the buttons from her hair didn't seem that close to her face, but with each loop of stitching he pulled, the more she could feel the warmth of his fingers underneath her jaw.

He snickered lowly. So low, in fact, mint barely tainted the air around her. "Don't tempt me."

Freya didn't glance away this time. She watched him curiously, rather. Cascading an unwavering stare on his face that felt sharper than any of the knives he had ever used, she only blinked a couple of times in between.

She didn't stop when his hands pricked her collarbone or when his eyes met hers for just a singular moment. It was an empty word -- just her and him -- feeling the presence of another in a lonely world like rain in a long drought.

"Be prepared to lose half your hair in this," Kai commented, breaking the silence first with a simple raise of his brows.

"This is the work of your shabby stitching, Parker."

He snickered again. This time, though, it fizzled into an actual laugh. Genuine. Something she hadn't heard from him before. "You take care of your clothes and they take care of you, Dovey."

She winced as hair strands tugged at her skull. "And this is them taking care of me, is it?"

"Yeah, never worked for me that well either." He pulled his hands away with a frown. "You're all good."

Freya noticed how he didn't step back. A part of her, buried somewhere beneath the twists and turns of her internal organs, wasn't sure if she wanted him to. Platonically. Friendly.

Running her fingers through her hair, Rey glanced down away from his gaze and shuddered the flannel from her elbows. Kai wouldn't admit it but it was sad to see it go. The black in it matched her eyes -- and the scent of it made her match him.

Scooping it up from the floor, she swung it over her shoulder and ignored how it pricked the straps of her tank top. Kai noticed it though. He noticed how her skin contrasted with the white cotton, how indents of soft feathers printed against her shoulder blades, and how much better she looked in things that fitted her form.

It took him a while to speak again.

"Through the hall and to the left."

Freya glanced up. "What?"

"My sister's bedroom." He paused, blowing out his words through a big huff. "Through the hall. To the left."

Cupid crossed her arms. "Exciting information. What do I do with it?"

Kai rolled his eyes like pinballs planted inside his skull. He was trying to be nice. She was being sarcastic. "You can wear her clothes, just don't be surprised if I get the urge to cut out your spleen."

He brushed past her, shoulder sliding against her own. "I'll keep an eye out for the warning signs," Freya mumbled curiously. "I thought it was weird?"

"It is." Kai paused. "But so is untwining curled hair out of my buttons."

Pursing her lips, Rey didn't bother to press any further and backed into the hallway with her hands twirling behind her back. "Okay, raincloud. Just don't kill me before I get the chance to wear something that isn't flannel."

"I'll be waiting."

He murmured out the words knowing full well they weren't true.

Because as pretty as she'd look in a dress, he never wanted to see it.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

"Hey. Thanks for doing this." Bonnie sent Liv a grateful smile, noticing the beads of sweat coating her forehead as each step to them was taken in a rush.

"Don't worry about it. I needed an excuse to get out of that frat house. Way too much boy, Gross." Liv nodded along. "You got everything?"

"Yep. Blood from a Bennett-- Bonnie's to be exact-- and an Ascendant from whatever the hell your last name is." Damon chirped in, his girlfriend beside him.

"Parker. So this is the famous Ascendant?" Liv inspected it, staring up at the trio with a quirked brow.

Damon nodded innocently, Bonnie and Elena eyeing each other suspiciously. "Yup."

"Surprised that Jo gave it up." The witch quirked, earning a guilty look from Damon. While he had taken it without her permission, and her knowledge, and compelled her boyfriend to steal it from her, it was all done in the name of friendship. Or that's what he'd practiced to say when Bonnie would eventually scold him for it.

Elena glanced between the two, suspicion creeping up on her like a ghost. "Why?"

"It's the only thing keeping Kai locked in his prison. If he gets out, he's coming after Jo." Liv responded flatly. Kai Parker being a cold, calculated sociopath was a simple fact for her. His actions spoke louder than any words. He was the campfire horror story their father would tell them about -- only he was much more real than anything the mind could conjure.

"Well, good old Jo-- heh heh--helping us out. Can we do this, please?" Damon laughed awkwardly, snapping the silence in two with a sharp breath. "I don't wanna be put on the Big Guy's bad side for not helping one of his kids."

"Whatever. So I'm gonna need the moon to activate the Ascendant. It will be viable for about 8 hours, so once I send you over, the clock's ticking." Liv began, rummaging through her bag with her free hand. "How many are going over to see my psychotic brother?"

Bonnie, Damon, and Elena all raised a hand as Liv sent them a distasteful look. "You guys need hobbies."

"And how do we get back?" Bonnie frowned. While going back for Cupid was a must, she didn't want to be stuck there again. Not if she could help it.

Liv handed them each a vial; a crimson sticky liquid contained within them. "Drink these."

"What is that?" Elena scrunched up her face at the gooey texture.

"It's my blood. It will link you to me so I can find you and bring you back. Give this one to Freya, too." She handed Bonnie one last vial -- who wondered how much of an inconvenience it must've been to sit and make each one. Although, it must've been a bigger inconvenience to be directly involved in her 'psychotic brothers' possible escape. So, she decided not to comment on it.

The trio nodded, tossing back the vials like a red tequila shot, and winced at the bright light that surrounded them like burning sun rays.

"8 hours!"

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Freya felt out of place in Josette's room. Stood like a diamond in a lump of coal, or a flower in the snow, she wasn't meant to be there. Kai's room was inviting in the sense that it was the only one still in use. There was evidence of passing time through the messy sheets and empty clothing hangers. With Josette, everything seemed to be stuck in a loop of 1994 forever.

From the old band posters on her walls to the makeup brushes left out on the desk, still cloudy from powder, it was just as eerie as a crime scene would be.

Goosebumps rose on her skin. At least Jo was still alive. Somewhere. Growing older with each passing day.

It wasn't long until she ducked out of the room with nothing but the same tank top and a new heavyweight sitting on her chest.

"You're right," She called out to the empty hallway. "It's weird."

Although, there was no sarcastic remark yelled back. Or a frustrating tease about how right he always was. There was silence. A long, suffocating, lonely silence.

That was until Kai's pager buzzed from the bedroom. A bedroom he no longer resided in.

03171.

"What?"

Freya then quirked a brow and twisted the phone upside down curiously.

I LIED.

The pager became a knife in her hands, dropping into her gut and slicing up her stomach until it became an endless pit her heart fell right through. Her fingers curled around the pager, swiping her thumb across the screen until the pixels darkened beneath her fingerprint.

Okay, so, he lied. He did that a lot. Whether it was little white ones that webbed around his words like chiffon or bigger, darker ones that grew from the root like an overgrown weed, she knew this by now. His honesty wasn't one of the few pros she had written down in her pink-papered notebook.

Burning rubber soaked up her senses while screeching tires echoed in her ears. The pager slipped from her hands and clattered to the floor -- as did the thumping of her heart in her chest and her feet against the carpet.

She could barely hang on to the windowsill as she leaned against it, eyes squinting slightly at the bright sun. The shiny reflection of the car glimmered patterns on her face as it frowned at the sight of it leaving. She frowned at the thought of Kai leaving -- because he told her he wouldn't.

I'll be waiting.

So, that was the lie, then.

Freya chewed on the inner side of her cheek until she was sure she could feel a cold blast of air blow through it. She was rotting, probably. Souring up like a pomegranate picked past its prime. Love was the only thing in the world that started out as a social creature and would die as one, and love couldn't survive by itself. Love couldn't love itself.

So love would sit on the carpet, dust collecting in her hair, and allow time to pass in nothing but the occasional bump of her own heartbeat and occasional, self-critical blinks.

Her knees buckled as she stood up, clenching her fists into bouquets of thorned roses and sharp dove beaks, and kicked the flannel out of her sight.

Her shadow spilled across the walls like fresh blood splatters from years before and painted silhouettes of something holy in the hellmouth of Portland. Swiping up her notebook, the paper wrinkled underneath her hands and tore at the seams -- leaving nothing but a long list of cons and an empty space of pros.

He abandoned her, all alone in a prison world she didn't recognize, and was cruel enough to teach how her loneliness could kill better than he ever could.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Bonnie trailed behind her friends, staring down at the gravel as she anxiously kicked a stone. Her thoughts were eating her up, stripping her down right to the bone. The cold wind became harsher as she swore she could feel it inside of her instead.

"Just, be careful, guys. There's a pork-rind-munching psycho around here somewhere." Damon reminded as Bonnie shuddered. Kai and Freya were the topic that stuck to her brain like a parasite. Perhaps that was what was eating her up.

It was Kai she didn't trust. Bonnie shuddered as she recalled how he looked at her like something to ruin. An idea to disprove. A person to kill, inside or out.

Elena gave her a side look.

"I would've turned psychotic too if I was stuck here for 18 years,"

The Bennett pushed the thoughts away, her own tides swinging back and forth onto her sand, and faced the sun instead. "Just keep your eyes peeled."

Damon loathed the empty town as soon as it hit his eyes. It was too bright, too warm.. too still. He really didn't miss it.

"What happens if we don't find her?" He perked, turning his head toward Bonnie.

"We have to."

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Kai glanced through the rear-view mirror of his getaway car, lips digging hard enough into his lip to feel the indent of them through the skin. He had no guilt for what he had done; he never would, could, or should because that's who he was. Stripping a monster down to its bare parts - teeth, fur, and fangs - wouldn't change the skeleton of what it really was.

And Malachai was content in being that monster. He just wasn't content with Freya making him ponder if he could be anything else.

It wasn't fair the way she made his bad habits look human.

But Kai wasn't the only person fed up with her.

"I'm gonna kill her." Samael murmured to the deceased, scribbling down their name into his notebook. "Like actually kill her, where is she?"

Poor choice of words when talking to the soul of someone who just had been. "I mean, the last thing I need is Thanatos all up in my business. He takes this job way more seriously than I do -- like, have me on the other side of it serious."

The recently deceased parted their pale lips to speak but heard Samael's voice fill up the quick silence.

"It's not like Bastet can pick up all of her slack and the Erotes would have her head if they knew she was so far behind." He pressed his lips together, jotting his pen over the blue puppy stickers. "But you know, she's my sister. They're worried about her Cupid conterpart.. I'm worried about her."

The man finally took a breath. "Will you take me to the afterlife already? I feel like I'm dying all over again!"

Sam blinked frantically. "Oh, yeah, buddy, sure." His words practically fell from his mouth. "Now, you might feel a little pain. A little cold, but it's perfectly normal. Just don't ask the fates about their eye, it pisses them off."

"The what-"

Sam tapped his scythe against the floor causing it to crumble beneath him. The man fell through, a panicked yell escaping his lips as the Underworld opened up in the disguise of hospital lineoulium. The reaping of human souls was a day job to Samael -- an easy passage of time that he'd never feel pass.

He plucked out the small, pink cockail umbrella from his pocket and shuddered a heavy sigh. "Where are you, Frey?"

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Portland.

A nightmare hellsite she never wanted to see again.

Hotwiring a car wasn't as easy as Kai made it look, maybe because she spent more time looking at his hands rather than what he did with them, and she scolded herself for the amount of electric burns that now littered her own.

Not more than how she scolded herself for giving Kai Parker an ounce of her trust, though.

He was in her blood -- her veins. A grim reminder of how heartless humans could be and how some, deep down, didn't deserve love. He was a tightening on her ribcage. A dandelion in her dying field. He was so much at once and at that moment, nothing at all.

She'd make him fall in love and hope it'd break his bitter heart. That's how evil she could be.

In a fit of frustration, her hands slammed against the steering wheel and the wires tossed out of her hands. The last thing Freya would do was let Kai win. Even if she had to escape with her teeth, nails and wings alike, she would. And she'd become the devil on his shoulder. Rotting his heart with her rusty arrows and plucking him posioned roses, she'd become the angel of war she was built from.

With another slam of her hands, the car roared to life. Much like her temper.

Cupid lay backward in her seat with a newfound passion.

Love was a minor skill. Her hatred? It knew no bounds.

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Bonnie wandered the Salvatore boarding house, Elena and Damon pacing behind her with smalltalk and suspicious second-glances.

"She's not here." Damon muttered dryly, running a pale hand through his hair. "Why wouldn't she be here, it's the only place she'd recognise."

"Maybe she got lost."

He shook his head in dismay at Elena. "Or Kai buried her in a ditch somewhere." The Salvatore paused and reached hastily for the phone. "If Kai has Cupid, we need to talk to him."

"So you're just gonna call him?" Elena quirked a brow at her boyfriend, crossing her arms.

Damon ignored her light taunts and balanced the phone between his ear and neck with a sarcastic smile lacing his lips. "I'm gonna page him actually."

Elena stared at her boyfriend quizzically, awaiting an explanation.

"Sorry. Forgot you were two in 1994. Pagers are an ancient form of telecommunication."

"I know what a pager is. How does it work?"

Damon grabbed the phone, huffing loudly. "We dial jackass's number 555-HIYA-KAI..."

Silence filled the air as the phone rang, a looming look of anticipation on everyone's faces. Yet to no avail, there was no answer.

"What now?"

Damon Salvatore simply threw himself down on his couch, patting the seat next to him for his girlfriend. "Now, we sit by the phone like a 13-year-old girl and wait."

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Freya was a bad driver. A reckless one, even.

She was so caught up in her mind that she didn't realise how long she had been driving. It was all in one direction; same streets and country scenery for miles. All she could remember was the way the leather steering wheel felt underneath her nails and the way her heart raced quicker than the tires did.

She could keep driving for another few miles on end, passing in and out of conciousness, until she reached the end of the world.

Kai's pager made sure she didn't. Buzzing from beside her in the passenger seat, numbers spilled across the pixelated screen. One hand balanced on the wheel while the other dug through the glovebox hastily. Phones were a few years after -- or before? -- her prime. She wasn't all that fussed with technology. Another thing she found in common with Kai. That and how much she hated him.

She tore through the parking tickets and empty wrappers to find just that. A phone.

Now all she had to do was keep her eyes on the road at the same time as the numbers.

Her hands were shaky and her confidence was a little crooked but each number followed the same tune as the last. It rang for a few seconds, but a raging voice soon replaced the tune.

"Kai, if you so much as touch one brown hair on her annoying little head, I will kill you and-"

Freya let out a heavy breath and clutched the wheel passionately.

"Hi, Damon." She chuckled down the phone, earning a relieved sigh from the vampire.

"Freya? Where's Kai?" She heard Bonnie voice, urgency lacing the tone.

"I.. I don't know." Rey hissed. "Somewhere. Probably. He left me in Portland."

"Portland? Is that where you are?" Damon questioned.

The angel shrugged, but quickly realized they couldn't see her. "Well, I hotwired a car, and I'm on my way back to Mystic Falls."

"Who knew little Miss moral compass had a little edge?" he chuckled. "Where are you?"

She thought back to the signs that passed in a blur. The empty streets and signs that she could barely read from her quick passage. "I was in Muncie? A while ago. I think."

Damon checked his watch and turned to Elena. "Well, Muncie's about 6 1/2 hours away, give or take a knuckle."

"Liv's pulling us out in 7." Elena reminded the vampire, shooting a doubtful look towards Bonnie.

Damon ignored their looks and readjusted the phone to his ear. "If you don't stop to use the little angel's room-"

"I can make it in time. I'm getting out of here." She replied confidently as she pushed the brown hair out of her face. "I'll see you soon."

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

Hours passed. Almost too many.

"She should be here by now," Bonnie commented worriedly, Elena's head laying on Damon's shoulder as she leaned against the white pillar's of her best friend's old home.

"Maybe she's lost. She has a terrible sense of direction - let's not forget how she literally plummeted into Kai's world... that's if Kai hasn't got her. If he has I'm gonna rip his stupid head off his lanky body." Damon stood up, biting down on his thumb in worry.

Bonnie shared an amused look with Elena. "It's good to know you still have some compassion in that cold, stone heart of yours, Damon." she began. "I'm sure she's fine."

Damon sat back on the porch swing as he stared at his girlfriend with adoration as she shifted underneath his gaze. "...I'm sorry I compelled away our memories. They were only half mine." she apologized, looking down at their hands and intertwining them.

"We'll make new ones." Damon rubbed her shoulder, placing his other hand on her cheek. "I love you, Elena. No amount of compulsion will ever change that."

Meanwhile, Bonnie anxiously waited on the curb as a reflective car came into view. Relief settled in her chest as the angel stepped out of it, hurry in her pace. "Do I still have time?"

Bonnie nodded, pulling Freya in for a hug. "Yeah, fifteen minutes on the clock."

Cupid bit down on her lip, worried where Kai could be. "We might wanna hurry this up, cause he does too." anxiety was evident in her voice, maybe even fear.

Not fear for herself though. Her friends, however, were a different scenario.

"Hey Cupid!" Damon from beside a brunette she didn't recognise. It didn't take a genius to work out it was the Elena Gilbert. "Clocks tickin."

An overwhelming feeling washed over her in seconds. Kai abandoned her -- and now, she was going to do the same. "Okay, yeah. I'm actually getting out of here."

Elena handed her a vial of blood, furrowing her brows at the strong scent of sour pineneedles. "You drink this and we'll be transported back into the land of the living."

"That's it, no catch?" She quirked a brow, her eyes shifting from the liquid to Elena.

The brunette Gilbert shook her head, turning to Damon who mirrored her actions. "Now, the world is a little different from 1994, things like that," he pointed to her arrows, "Aren't normal."

Snap.

Freya nodded as Bonnie glanced around suspiciously, she should've sworn she heard something.

"Pass them here. I'll take good care of them."

Her hand passed them over reluctantly. They were special to her. Not because Cupid was nothing without her arrows, but it's the only thing reminded her of who she was on the outside.

"Fine," she felt them slip from her fingertips. "But if you break one, I'll-"

"Kill him?"

A familiar voice echoed from behind her as a large gust of wind thwarted around her; Bonnie, Elena and Damon all tossing into the pillars beside her.

Kai Parker gleamed a bitter smile. "Did you forget I have magic, Rey?"

Within an instant, she felt a hand roughly push her against their chest as a large switchblade came in contact with her neck.

"Anyone tries anything, she dies." Kai warned the group as they rose from the ground.

"You always gotta make such a dramatic entrance, huh?" Freya swallowed, the large blade within inches of her skin.

She felt the vibrations of his chuckle on her back as they erupted from his chest. "You know me too well."

Bonnie chanted under her breath, but Kai pressed the blade closer to her neck. "Hey!" He growled. "I suggest you stop unless you want gutted angel for dinner."

Ava nodded towards them, gesturing at their vials of blood. Even if it wasn't a bluff, even if he poked holes in her body, it took a little more than that to keep her caged.

"Sorry, I'm gonna have to cut this reunion short." She mumbled to Kai as she grabbed the vial and threw the liquid in her mouth.

Kai dropped the knife, pulling at her arms so she was now facing him. "No!"

He clenched his jaw, eyes narrowed at hers, before softening for a singular moment. In a flash, he pulled at her jaw and roughly planted his lips on hers, tasting the blood that still lingered on her lips.

Kai's hands became softer on her jaw. His glares fell into closed eyes and the kiss became less about what sat on her lips and instead who they belonged to. It was about what they felt like. How peculiar it felt. How it didn't feel that wrong to begin with. How for a second, he wasn't thinking about escpaing.

They all descended into a white light, a euphoric feeling flowing within them. Three from the magic, two from themselves.

Freya was free, but it was only the beginning of one huge problem.

So was Kai.

✧ 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 5,197. ✧

a/n: screaming !