The Devil's Match | n.mikaelson

Chapter 26

⚠️ TW: Violence, gore, murder. ⚠️ 

Just before dawn, Klaus stood in the compound watching as Karoline, Freya, Bonnie, and Kai worked together with a few of the New Orleans witches to get through the barrier spell again. Luckily they broke through, but it seemed almost... easy. Too easy. 

Karoline looked up at Klaus and held her hand out for the piece of blue fabric riddled in dry blood from Cas's dress from the fateful night of the Christmas gala all those months ago. "Let's do this."

Klaus took a deep breath and handed over the piece of fabric. "This better work."

"Even though it was my dress, it has her blood. It'll work." Karoline plopped the fabric into the burning fire and watched as it burnt to nothing but ash. Once that was done, she placed the ashes on a map, and together she started chanting with the other witches.

Klaus watched eagerly with one hand over his mouth as the trail of ashes began to move steadily in a line, hoping to god this was working. He watched as it slowly stopped on a very particular spot, an old compound nearby the city, but well hidden in the bayou. "There. That's where she's being kept." He wrote the coordinates down quickly but furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Why would they keep her there?"

"You mean you know the place?" Kai looked at Klaus with his eyebrows furrowed as well.

"Somewhat. It used to be an old military base, but was used primarily for the housing of war criminals. This was back in the days of the first World War. It's like a compound meets mass warehouse of sorts. The place is absolutely massive from what I can recall, and there's only one road in and out."

"So she could be anywhere in there?" Karoline looked down at the map and frowned when the ashes began to move again, but more like they were creeping this time. "She's moving around."

"She's likely moving so she can continue hiding. She was able to escape her cell last night." Klaus watched the ashes move until they stopped again.

"You mean she's been hiding all night in that place?" Bonnie looked up from the map in surprise.

Klaus nodded once. "She's smart, and resourceful. She knows how to hide and knows how to remain unseen unless she wants to be."

Karoline hummed in agreement with Klaus. "It's how she was able to remain anonymous for so long back in New York. She's good at hiding." She looked up at him again. "You got the coordinates?"

Klaus held up the paper where they were written.

"Then let's go. Everyone's waiting outside." Kai stood up and cracked his knuckles, a smirk on his face. "It's been a while since I've made some heads roll."

Klaus rolled his eyes at Kai but couldn't help but agree. It had indeed been a while since he made a few heads roll as well. But he had a feeling far more than heads rolling today was going to occur.

*****

Cas dove to the floor and slid underneath a random narrow hole in a wall just as a few of Mark's lackeys rounded a corner. Maybe her being so skinny now, much more so than before, was a good thing. More opportunities to hide. She held her breath as they ran past, pressing her back against the wall. She was growing more and more exhausted, but she was running on pure adrenaline at this point. She closed her eyes for a moment to catch her breath when a hand clamped over her mouth. She went to yell out of instinct, but when she saw it was her hallucination, she shut up and didn't make a sound. But... why could she feel the hand again? Maybe she really was going insane.

The hallucination put a finger to her lips and the two listened as more footsteps ran past. But once the coast was clear, the hallucination moved her hand away from her mouth and kneeled down in front of her. She had an outfit change this time, now wearing a gorgeous black ballgown. "You made it out of the cell."