Heartlines ▹ Elena Gilbert [1]

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
BLACK AND WHITE

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

     Rowan stared at Rebekah's desiccated body and tried to decide, not for the first time, whether she should risk pulling the dagger out.

She hadn't known about Elena daggering Rebekah immediately. She hadn't known for a full week, actually, Damon and Elena both believing that Rowan would fly into a rage once she found out. And fly into a rage she had, her voice rising into a harsh yell after she'd finally been told, her rant about trust and betraying an Original hitting Elena and Damon like punches. They had taken the verbal beating in shameful silence—well, Elena had been ashamed. She'd been the one to do it, without telling anyone of her plan beforehand. Damon just listened to Rowan rant with minor grimaces and winces that probably had more to do with volume rather than guilt. It wasn't until Rowan had started winding down, her own guilt starting to eat away at her for some unknown reason, that Elena had explained why she'd done it. Rebekah, at the end of the day, had loved Klaus for a thousand years; there was no way she was going to be able to sit aside and watch as their father killed him. It was for the plan. And now, keeping the dagger inside of Rebekah's chest was the only way to keep Elena safe. Rebekah would come after her now, no doubt about that.

And now here Rowan was, two weeks past the homecoming dance, debating for the twelfth time that week whether to wake her friend up. Two weeks since Rebekah had been daggered, Mikael had died, and Rowan and Stefan had ruined the plan to kill Klaus. Stefan was the biggest betrayer of that night, according to Rowan's friends. Rowan had actually stuck around to explain; she had simply wanted freedom from Klaus, confirmed freedom, and saving him got it. It was no secret she hadn't trusted Mikael to begin with, so everyone had forgiven her rather easily, but Stefan wasn't so lucky. He didn't much care, though. No one else but Rowan knew what he had done that night, once he was free, and Rowan intended to keep it that way.

The most nerve-wracking thing about the last two weeks, though, was the silence. Klaus had not retaliated after the Mikael plan, not yet anyway, and Rowan felt like she was balancing on the edge of a cliff. She jumped at every sudden sound, constantly looked over her shoulder, and was irritable most of the time. She couldn't believe Klaus and Henrik had simply vanished from Mystic Falls, not after the plan had so horrendously failed. Even Katherine had ran for the hills, despite being part of the reason Klaus was saved in the first place. No one else knew that Damon was going to die along with him that night, and Stefan wanted to keep it that way. It was easier for him if he was the villain now, and Rowan wasn't going to take that away from him.

Rowan's eyes strayed toward Rebekah again, and without meaning to, her hand reached forward. It wrapped around the dagger hilt and froze there. She bit down on her bottom lip. Maybe she could talk Rebekah down somehow. Maybe she could forgive them. She'd forgiven Klaus for this same thing so many times. Maybe—