Gods & Monsters ✧ Elijah Mikaelson

XXIII ✧ I Am The Storm

Elijah is being a smug and evil lil bastard in this chapter and I love it

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Chapter Twenty-Three

"Forgive me, where on earth are my manners?" Elijah said with a grin. He removed his hand from Avarice's to hold it out to Kaige. "I am Elijah Mikaelson. And you must be Kaige."

Avarice had to bite her bottom lip to stop from smiling. No one except for her and Jagger ever referred to the man as "Kaige" to his face. Everyone called him "Lord Kaige" when they were in his presence.

"Yes..." Kaige said, nearly absent-mindedly. He glared down at Elijah's hand with contempt and looked like he wanted to simply break it, but instead decided to play nicely and gave the Noble One's hand a firm shake. "I am."

The other Mikaelson's had been swarmed by the reapers, but Aspin and Levi were there to play mediator. Therefore, all of Avarice's attention was on Elijah and Kaige.

"You have a lovely home, though I must say that I do adore Avarice's in comparison. This one, though, is much more... homely."

Kaige raised a brow at him. He was clearly insulted, and he had a right to be. Elijah was faking politeness and Avarice found it absolutely amazing.

"Well, Mr. Mikaelson, I was hoping that you could perhaps spare Avarice for a dance?" He asked in the form of a question, but it was very, very clear that it was a demand.

"Actually, I'm rather thirsty," Avarice said. "How about you go and greet your other guests, Kaige?" she said his name as if it was poison her tongue. "My dear friends and I may be the most powerful ones here, but we most certainly aren't the only ones of importance."

She didn't miss the way that Kaige's lips parted to argue. Mostly because she had implied that she and the Mikaelson's were stronger than him. She walked away before he could stop her, and glanced back to see Elijah turning back to his siblings, while Kaige's eyes lingered.

He left her be for more than an hour afterwards, but as he was speaking to one of the very excited and young reapers about possibly training under Levi or Aspin in future, he came up beside her.

"L-Lord Kaige," the boy said, quickly bowing.

Kaige grinned. "Hello there. May I please have a moment with Lady Avarice?"

The boy nodded, and scurried off. She looked back at Kaige, her jaw clenched.

"Kaige, I have had the graciousness to actually appear at your ball tonight. I do not wish to speak with you, and you know it. Why must you make this difficult?"

"I could ask you the same," he replied. "One dance is all I ask, Avarice. Only one."

"One is too many."

"Please? Just one."

Hearing him beg pulled at Avarice's heart strings. It made her flash back to the times when they were friends, and even on their way to being more. But she hated those memories now. They felt fake. Even so, as a toast to old times, she took his outstretched hand.

"Fine."

His face broke out into a smile, and he led her into the middle of the dance floor. The other pairings looked over once or twice before their eyes were completely fixed on them. They bowed before each other, and then Kaige took Avarice into his arms and held her. He did not have a tight hold, and yet, when she looked into his eyes, she felt as if she had lost all ability to run away. He did not intimidate her, but he did make her concerned. He was one of the most powerful reapers in the world, and he wanted nothing more than to gain her trust. It bothered her.

It was a long while before he finally spoke.

"Avarice, surely you do know that they cannot stay here forever," he said.

"What makes you think I was planning on that? They have people to go home to, Kaige. I would never keep them here."

"Were you planning on going with them, then?"

Her breath caught in her throat. The thought had crossed her mind once or twice, but she had a job to do. She could not just drop everything and leave. She had Pin and Levi and Vanessa. She would never think of leaving them forever.

"If you do go with them, then what will happen when someone tries to kill them? They have many enemies, Avarice. Those enemies are strong. Will you kill those enemies first? Would you go against your own word, against the fates? Would you really kill another person for them?"

She didn't speak. She didn't want to say a single word to him. She knew that the song was about to end. All she had to do was wait it out.

"Our world is dangerous because it is ours. It is filled with people that revel in death because it is all they know. You think all of the reapers want the Mikaelson's here? I assure you, some do not."

"Oh?" she asked. "And how did you find that out, Kaige? Have you been sneaking around, doing what you do best? Hiding your true intentions behind kind facades?"

"How I came across this information matters not. What does matter is that there is a storm coming. I do not know when, I do not know how, but I know that it will harm us all in one way or another."

Her hand that was held in his clutched at his palm a little harder, and he glanced at their hands before leaning down to speak in her ear over the music.

"You cannot hide from the storm that will follow if you continue your involvement with the Mikaelson's, Avarice."

She wondered, was that a threat? Was it him that would cause this trouble for her and the Mikaelson's? Either way, he should have known better.

She moved her arm around his neck a little more, and he stepped closer to her. Her chest was up against his at that moment, and her lips were by his ear.

"Oh, darling," she hissed in his ear, and he shivered slightly before freezing. "I am the storm."

With that, she pulled away from him and took a step back.

"Threaten me again at your own risk, Kaige. You never know, I may not be as merciful as I was 1100 years ago."

He paled as he remembered the night she was speaking of, and she could have sworn that his hand twitched as it reached to graze along his scar. His hand did not reach his face before he quickly put it back at his side, clutching his hands into fists. She turned and walked away, not turning once to see him as she left him behind.

She left the ballroom, determined to not go back again.