Gods & Monsters ✧ Elijah Mikaelson

XXV ✧ Forget

Lol I update this way too often

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Chapter Twenty-Five

She had never seen so many of them. So many shadows darting across the ballroom, attacking both reapers and white-eyes.

Some of them noticed that the Mikaelson's were there, but Ajal had arrived in the time that Avarice was gone. He, along with Pin and Levi, were quick to use their scythes and eliminate any that got too close.

"Avarice!" Levi shouted loudly. She looked at him and saw that his skin was gleaming with sweat as he swung wildly at any mare he could see. "There's too many of them!"

Avarice ran over to them, and Elijah bolted to his family. He wanted to keep them safe, but of course, knew that he had no possible way to do so. He was just as vulnerable as them.

Some of the older mares had claws, and when Avarice got closer to her friends, she saw that their clothes had been torn. The mares sliced at everything, and caused the reapers to bleed wildly when they were harmed. As long as they weren't touched for too long, they were fine. Avarice wasn't even sure if the same rules applied to Ajal or Robert, seeing how they weren't the same kind of reaper as them. It was even more rare for the grim reapers to see the mares than it was for the dream reapers.

"Levi, take them to the coat room," she told him, though it came out as more of a command. She was considered a royal especially in this situation. Attacks like this, though they were rare, had happened before. No one ever questioned the authority of the Seven. "Cast a boundary spell."

When Avarice had killed a vast amount of the mares, she could see Robert out of the corner of her eye. He was a able to attend this time, and now he was fighting alongside his husband.

Another mare came right in front of her, and as she was about to slice at it with her scythe, another one cut the mare right down the middle. The dust flew apart and faded in the air, exposing Kaige standing behind where the mare had once been.

She did not want to say thank you, so she simply nodded.

The youngest of the reapers had left, but the older ones, such as Avarice, Aspin, Levi, and Kaige, were killing the mares. Even some of the people not equipped to deal with such attacks, like Ajal and Robert, were helping them. They were not the reapers that normally dealt with mares, but they stayed anyway.

It was a long fight, and the by the end of it, Avarice's dress was nearly torn to shreds. She felt terrible that the gift she had received had been ripped. She would have to make it up to Aspin later.

As far as she knew, no one had been harmed by the mares. At least, that was what she had thought.

"Avarice!" Levi shouted from the hallway.

Kaige, Avarice, Ajal, Robert, and Aspin all looked at each other in concern. Then they ran out into the hallway, and somehow, Avarice already knew that someone was hurt.

She knew that it was one of the Mikaelson's, and before she even reached the coat room, she felt the guilt. She was certain that it was her fault, and even more so when she went into the coat room and saw what had happened.

Levi was leaning against the wall with his right hand covering his left bicep. Avarice saw that his palm covered a deep wound, which was now covering his entire hand in blood. He looked like he was about to fall, and Avarice darted over to him. He did fall, and it appeared to be from blood loss. He nearly went to his knees before Avarice caught him around the shoulders, her own hand covering his and covering the wound in the process. He hissed at the new pressure.

"I'm fine," he assured her. "I'm fine. G-Go to Elijah."

She was silent for a moment. "Elijah?"

"The... The mare," he said, his voice soft and croaky.

"I've got him," Robert said, rushing over with Aspin right behind him.

Avarice immediately went to the other side of the coat room, and was horrified at what she saw.

Elijah was laying on the ground, his skin pale and covered in sweat. The chest of his shirt was ripped in three deep lines, and she saw that he had deep wounds that were healing on their own. She knew that the mares had gotten in, and Levi hadn't been strong enough to keep them at bay by himself. They had harmed Elijah, and now he was desiccating.

Elijah Mikaelson was dying, and there wasn't a single thing Avarice could do about it.

"I have more than enough extra rooms," Kaige said as he came up behind them. "You can stay here while we figure this out."

"Figure what out?" Avarice growled.

"How to save him."

Avarice looked at him over her shoulder, and they both knew that there was little to no hope.

"Fine. We'll go."

Klaus and Kol were quick to help their brother up, while Freya and Rebekah were somewhere in between determined and panicking. They were not going to let their brother die, but they also didn't know what to do. They were not familiar with the mares like Avarice and her friends were.

When they add set him down on the bed in one of the rooms, Avarice helped to remove his shirt and take a closer look at his wounds. He was unconscious, and the wounds were healing, but not very quickly. She used her magic to boost the healing process, then had Ajal help with bandaging the wounds. Robert came back into the room to say that Levi was going to be perfectly fine, but that he was sleeping and Aspin would be staying with him for the night.

She was terrified for Elijah's life. She didn't know if he would survive, and she had no idea how to be certain that he would. Even so, everything felt numb. It was like she was still in shock.

Avarice, out of the corner of her eye, saw Kaige, Robert, and Ajal leave the room. She wondered what they were talking about, and while the others were focused on Elijah, she went to the doorway.

They were standing in front of the window at the end of the hallway, and Kaige had just finished speaking when Ajal and Robert both erupted in something between shock and anger.

"You did what?!" Ajal shouted at Kaige.

"Calm yourself," Kaige growled. "Bringing the wards down was the smart thing to do at the time because it allowed people to come in without trouble. You know that certain species have difficulty getting past the mare wards, especially your kind-"

"That is no excuse! What the hell were you thinking, Kaige?!" Robert roared.

"I forgot to put them back up. It was a mistake."

"An innocent man is about to die because of you!" Robert continued, sounding more and more animalistic than before.

"He is rather used to that," Avarice said, her voice soft at first.

She stepped through the doorway, her hands at her sides and curled into tight fists. Her eyes were trained on the floor, not rising to look up at him. When she finally did, she saw the fear flash in his eyes.

Kaige was afraid. And he most certainly should have been.