[ Chapter Twenty-Seven ]

THE WARM RAYS of the rising sun shone through the thin maroon curtains that covered the large windows around Raylynn and Klaus's bedroom. In the middle of the night, Ryan released his hold on his mother and managed to shift his tiny feet between them, successfully kicking her off the bed and onto the hard floor. Raylynn would have reclaimed her spot, but Ryan rolled over and sprawled across the mattress with no space left. So instead of fighting him, Raylynn left her son's room for her own.

Raylynn groaned, rolling away from the light to shove her face into the bare chest of the man beside her. "Make the sun go away," she grumbled into his skin.

Klaus huffed and moved his arm to wrap around her back, pulling her closer to him. "How do you suggest I do that, love?"

"I don't know. You're the almighty, immortal hybrid. Think of something."

Klaus laughed, causing the rumbles to shake Raylynn. "I can do many things, but controlling the weather is not one of them."

Raylynn lifted her head to meet his gaze. "Well, that's a bummer. It'd come in really handy if you could."

A grin spread across Klaus's lips. "After all these years, you're still the same woman that threatened to slit my throat open in my sleep."

"I wouldn't say that," Raylynn drawled, pushing herself up a bit to see him better. "Now, I'd just threaten to kick your ass." She smiled.

Klaus chuckled until a tiny knock sounded on the bedroom door.

Without waiting for an invitation, the door opened and Ryan, still in his pajamas, shuffled across the threshold. He raised a hand to rub at his eyes. "Momma," he called out between yawns, "I'm hungry."

Raylynn sighed and pushed to sit up. "Why are those always the first words out of your mouth in the morning?" she questioned as her son padded to the side of the bed.

"He is your son, love," Klaus quipped, standing from the bed to grab a grey long-sleeve shirt to slip over his head.

Raylynn sent the man a playful glare. "You're funny. I guess Ryan's the only who gets pancakes today," she said and looked back to watch the little boy's eyes light up.

"I want syrup," Ryan exclaimed, bouncing on his heels. "Lots of syrup."

Raylynn huffed, but she nodded with a smile. "Sure, Ry. You can have all the syrup you want."

"Yes!" Ryan shouted, before he spun on his heel and raced from the room.

Raylynn called after him, "get dressed, little king, or I'm going to eat it all by myself!" She threw the duvet from her body and moved toward the long dresser on the other side of the room.

Klaus entered the adjacent bathroom to finish getting ready for the day. Once dressed in warm clothes to fight the autumn air, he would leave the compound to inform Marcel about their departure. They would uphold the end of their deal, to leave New Orleans following the defeat of the Hollow.

Raylynn pulled out a top drawer, scanning the various tops and dresses inside. Before she could grab one, Klaus appeared behind her in the mirror hung on the wall.

"I've been thinking."

"That's always dangerous," Raylynn voiced with a smirk toward him in the reflective glass.

Klaus gave her an amused stared, before he continued. "I was thinking about where our family should migrate to next, considering New Orleans is no longer an option."

Raylynn pressed her lips together and turned to face him. "I think - that Ryan and Hope should have a say. I mean, your family has already been to almost every part of the globe. They've only lived here and Hayley and I's safe-house in Texas. It's only fair that hey should have a choice in where we move."

Klaus pondered the thought and then nodded. "I believe you're right," he stated and leaned down to capture her lips in a quick kiss.

When they pulled apart, Raylynn grinned. "Aren't I always?"

_______

Once Klaus and Elijah left the compound to speak with Marcel, Raylynn busied herself in the kitchen to make her son, and whoever else was hungry, breakfast. She flipped a fluffy brown pancake in the iron skillet on the stove, while Ryan sat at the island counter behind her, munching on an already finished slice of bacon.

"Alright," Raylynn voiced as she placed the pancake with the others on a separate plate. She switched off the burner and carried the pancakes to set in front of her son. "We need to have a little talk, Ry."

Ryan looked up from where she placed the plate on the granite countertop. "What kind of talk?" he asked.

Raylynn released a long breath, leaning against the counter with her open palms. "You know that we're gonna be leaving New Orleans soon, right?" Ryan nodded. "Well, I wanted to know where you wanted to go when we leave. Any place in the world."

Ryan thought about it for a moment and said, "I wanna go see castles."

Raylynn used a fork to place a smaller pancake onto his plate and drenched it in syrup. "You want to live somewhere with castles?" she questioned, watching as he began to shovel the food into his mouth. "Okay. Well, there are castles in a lot of places. Do you have a certain one in mind?"

Ryan swallowed. His brightened expression fell a bit. "Somewhere that doesn't have a lot of people. Where I don't have to worry about scaring anyone with my magic."

Raylynn frowned. She often worried about that. About how Ryan's magic would affect him, and whether he would be able to conceal it around average humans. And while he loved his powers, he never wanted to hurt anyone or get his family in trouble. He just wanted a place where he could be himself without the fear that he would do either.

Raylynn knew the perfect place.

"I think that would be great, Ry," Raylynn exclaimed to her son. "A castle fit for a little king."

Ryan beamed, shoving more of his pancake between his lips.

_______

After breakfast, Raylynn received a heart-stopping text from Klaus. He claimed that the Hollow was still alive. That it was still out in the world, biding its time for an undetected strike against them.

On top of that, Hayley voiced her concerns about Hope. The little girl seemed odd. At least, odder than usual. Instead of the art crazed kid she had been almost every day of her life, Hope failed to pick up a pencil all day. She even ignored, or forgot, the special handshake with her mother.

Raylynn paced back and forth across the length of the upstairs study, while Hayley took up residence on the couch, fiddling with her thumbs on her knees. Ryan stayed in his room and played with his toys, making it clear that he wanted nothing to do with his sister. He must have picked up on Hope's strange behavior.

Freya strode into the study later that morning when Raylynn and Hayley thought of what to do about Hope. A bright smile on her lips as she said, "so, I know we're not always the most open around here, but I have to tell someone." Her expression dropped, noticing the two distraught women. "What's wrong?"

"Freya, I've been thinking all morning about what happened last night," Hayley began, alluding to what the Hollow did when they went after it. The spirit immobilized Freya and Hayley, taking several vials of blood from the hybrid. What? They did not know, until now. "The Hollow had me. She could have killed me, but she didn't. She just took my blood and left. Why?"

Freya pressed her lips together in a tight line. "Blood can be sued for a number of reasons. Locator spells, healing spells, linking spells..."

"Linking spells," Raylynn repated, cutting the witch off.

Hayley lifted her gaze from her hands to meet Freya's gaze. "And she didn't link herself to me." He reached over to pick up a silver, child's hairbrush she wrapped in a cloth. Hope's hairbrush. "I took this from Hope's room." She stood and held it out to item to the blonde. "Do a reading on this. Tell me what kind of energy you feel."

Freya took the hairbrush and sat down as she closed her eyes, clenching her hands around the handle. She took a deep breath as her magic unraveled. After a moment, Freya slammed the brush onto the coffee table and rocketed to her feet. "It's the Hollow's magic."

Raylynn's heart pounded harder. "I felt it earlier. At least, I thought I did," she stated, not wanting to be right about her suspicion.

"Labonair blood was supposed to kill her," Hayley exclaimed toward the eldest Mikaelson.

Freya shook her head. "Unless she taped into your bloodline deliberately. Found a way to overcome the power and turn it into a strength."

"She knows that I won't hurt my own daughter," Hayley breathed, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip.

Raylynn flicked her gaze between both women. "What're we gonna do?"

_______

Raylynn rushed to Ryan's bedroom, making sure that the little boy stayed within the walls. Just to be on the safe side, she placed a boundary spell on the room. She did want the Hollow to get to him like she did Hope, especially now that she knew its magic ran through her and her son's veins.

With Ryan safe and sound, Raylynn met up with Hayley and Freya to find a way to contain the Hollow. They managed to render Hope unconscious, hopefully giving them enough time to separate the malevolent spirit from the little girl's body.

Raylynn stood across from Freya as she drew a salt ring around the edges of a table. Hayley ran into the room with the mystical pendant able to hold a soul.

"Hope's still out. You think this will work?" Hayley questioned, handing the pendant to the blonde.

"The pendant was built to hold a person of Mikaelson blood. So, it will hold Hope," Freya said and took the item in her hands. "I did my best to repair it." She raised it to hover above the salt circle, before it shattered into dozens of pieces.

Raylynn jumped, whirling on her heel to where someone, or something, entered the foyer.

The human form of the Hollow. Inadu. "Valiant effort, but Hope belongs to me." She raised her hand, twisted her wrist to send Freya backward.

Freya sailed through the air and slammed into a wall, knocking her unconscious.

Hayley sneered toward the spirit. "Over my dead body." She sped forward, only to stumble through its body.

"So be it," Inadu said in a flat manner, shoving her hand to send Hayley through the table behind her. Wooden shards shot through the air and littered the ground in what remained of the piece of furniture.

Hayley glared as she pushed herself from the ground. "Hope will fight you."

"I feel her love for you. It's a shame it's not enough," Inadu voiced and set her eyes on the wooden shrapnel. She a flick of her hand, one of them soared from the ground and imbedded in Hayley's chest.

Raylynn moved to save her, but Inadu shoved Hayley's immobilized form across the room to slam into a metal grate. Her body dangled from the rails.

A near animalistic growl ripped through Raylynn's lips as she faced the spirit. "You bitch!" she yelled, raising her hands to send a blast of blue sparks her way. They simply passed through the Hollow's transparent body.

An instant later, the Hollow dissolved from view, leaving Raylynn alone with a temporarily dead Hayley and an unconscious Freya. Her heart thudded in her chest when she realized that the Hollow was no longer in sight. It could be anywhere in the compound - even near her son.

"RYAN!" Raylynn screamed and raced to the second floor where her son's bedroom was located. Her boots thundered up the stairs and through the halls as she reached the closed door. She waved her hand to take down the boundary spell, before she threw the door open to find her son at his window, staring at a fixed point beyond the glass.

Raylynn did not hesitate to sprint toward him and wrapped him in her arms. "I need to get you out of here," she muttered and raised a hand to snap her fingers, transporting the both of them away from the Hollow and Mikaelson Compound.

<April 29, 2019>

One more chapter and then we're off to Season 5. I know a lot of people hated it, but I personally enjoyed it. I mean, minus all the death and heartbreak.

Don't forget to vote and comment.

-Jordan

P.S. Unedited chapter.