Forever Original | Alaric Saltzman

Chapter 23

Elijah was the first to move toward her.

"Hayley," he breathed, looking at the exhausted-looking woman in front of them. He touched her face as if unsure if she was real. "How are you here?"

She stepped forward, a bit dazed. "I woke up in the church," she answered numbly. "I felt this hunger... I knew what I needed. I can feel her. She's here. I can feel my baby."

Hilda clapped her hands over her mouth. "You died with the baby's blood still in your system!"

"She's in transition," Klaus confirmed.

Elijah looked horrified. "Which means she has to drink the blood of the child if she is to survive."

"To be reborn a hybrid," Klaus murmured.

Hayley stared blankly at them. "I don't care about me. I'm gonna go find our daughter."

She walked out and the three Originals followed. It was unsettling how quickly and surely Hayley moved, but Hilda knew that this was a good sign. They moved fast, and arrived just in time.

"Nouvelle vie, nouvelle âme, mélange avec nous," chanted the witches at the altar. Genevieve had just raised the knife above the baby's head.

"NOO!" screamed Hayley.

The witches were startled. Elijah picked up a nearby urn and threw it full force, slamming it into Genevieve's hand and sending her flying back, knocking the knife to the floor. The Originals moved forward, but Monique and Abigail stepped forward, linking hands and pointing their free palms at the group, beginning to chant, "La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur..."

They were knocked to the ground, as if with a large beam. "You fools!" said Monique, as though she was any better than them. "To come against us in our place of power in our strongest hour? You don't face three, you face us all!"

"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur..."

There was a blur in the air and suddenly, Hilda saw the faces of hundreds of the dead witches that had come together to stop them from interrupting the sacrifice. They tried to move forward, clawing into the ground, but there seemed to be an invisible barrier they couldn't pass through. When they came close to it, it burned in their cores and send them further back. Every last muscle in Hilda's body ached as she tried to get to her feet. The power was too great.

"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur..."

"I have— a plan," Hilda croaked as she watched Hayley dart off to the side, getting out of the range of the spell. "I have to... corrupt the spell..."

"How?" gasped Klaus beside her, struggling to move without intense pain.

"La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur... La mère, le père, le frère, la sœur..."

"I know... the incantation. Just try to fight it, and I will go as long as I can..." She pressed her palms hard onto the ground. Perhaps she was not a witch, but she had power, and she knew that she had the power to corrupt a spell with an incantation that the Ancestors would not like. It was a long shot, and she had only done it once before with Kol's help, but they had no other choice.

She dug her nails into the cracks between the gravel on the floor. "Corrumpere perturber blòk, maji couper. Putridus pourri kòwonpi, causis ruinosus deranje, obstructionum bloquer maji, cessare sispann rete."

The effect was instantaneous. There was a glitch in the illusion of the Ancestors and few disappeared. Klaus was able to break free, diving off in the opposite direction as Hayley to try and get the baby, who was crying a the altar.