"Why is she here, Elijah?"

The instant she could no longer tolerate their embrace, she'd pulled away, facing the wall.

"She is a psychologist, in a sense," Elijah said simply. "I believe she may be able to persuade Niklaus to let Rebekah live. In the meantime..." he got up and adjusted the cuffs of his suit. "I need to find Sabine, also known as Celeste. She and Hayley did not appear last night."

Esmeray huffed. "Maybe Hayley decided to cut her into pieces and scatter her over the Bayou."

Elijah refrained from smiling. "I would hope she would not do such a thing, even as angry as she is about what those witches did to you. You see, Celeste was able to enter Sabine's body because her spirit has been jumping through bodies since I saw her dead, centuries ago."

"Like your mother jumped through bodies?"

"Yes. Now, I intend to coax Monique Deveraux into performing a spell that will ensure Celeste does not enter another body if she chooses to rid herself of Sabine. However, I am also intent on finding her so that I may speak to her."

Esmeray shuffled to her feet, already knowing what he was going to ask. "Just leave your blood in a glass and I'll do a Locator Spell. I'll text you about what I find."

He nodded appreciatively. "Will you be going to meet her as well?"

"Is this you offering me a chance to enact my revenge?"

"Depends on where we find her." This time, he did smile. "Know that I am grateful that you have done so much for our family. My dear, you are free to go wherever and whenever you need to. Do not remain here if it brings you pain."

Esmeray subconsciously wiped the dried tears from her cheeks. "I don't know yet. I imagine that as soon as I see Hayley, I'll forget how much I dislike it here, and I'll want to stay. At least until the baby is born."

"Just know you don't have to if you don't want to."

She assented with her head, and he vanished, leaving her able to hear a distant conversation between Cami and Klaus. She didn't pay them any attention— she didn't want to. She grabbed the materials she needed for the spell and went into the dining room to find Elijah had left his blood in a glass. Spreading a map of New Orleans over the table, Esmeray did quick work of the spell, and was pleased with the outcome.

"She's in the Bayou," she said when she called Elijah once she was on her way there in the back of a cab. "It's hard to pin down the exact location but I'm almost entirely certain that she's near the cabin I stayed at with Jackson. Can you meet me at the place where you parked your car that time? So we can walk up together."

"Of course," he told her. "Monique is nearly finished with the spell." There was a pause. "Did you speak to my brother?"

"Should I have spoken to your brother?"

"No, you shouldn't feel like you have to do anything. I was merely wondering."

Esmeray sighed. "He was still talking to Cami when I left. I don't know if he cared that I was there or not. Or if he ever even knew that I was in that sanatorium."

Elijah ran his tongue over his lips. "I told him that I rescued you. But granted the pain inflicted by the cursed blade, I expect he was too weak to come and see you."

She tried to pretend this didn't bother her. "Okay. I'll see you in the Bayou." She hung up, cutting Elijah off before he could say anything else to her.

He arrived just as the cab dropped her off. She paid her fare and looked up as Elijah smoothed down his hair, which had only become slightly untidy in the process of speeding from the Lafayette Cemetery to the Bayou. Together, the two walked up to where the wolves surrounded Hayley, Eve, and Sabine. Or Celeste— Esmeray wasn't sure what to call her anymore. The woman's hands were bound, and she was holding a mason jar filled with murky green liquid.

"Here," Celeste said, giving the jar to Hayley. "It's herbs ground into paste. It'll act as a conduit for the spell. On the next full moon, your people become human. Feed it to them, the curse will be broken."

"Great way to poison us all at once," said Hayley darkly.

"Look," Celeste said. "I know you have no reason to trust me, but, Hayley, I actually like you. I was you, caring for Elijah when he cared more for his brother, and I ended up dead. So did a lot of others. This, call it a chance for me to give you what I was too in love to give myself. It's a chance to free yourself from the Originals."

Eve didn't look very convinced. "You believe her?"

At that moment, Jackson let out a familiar growl, now sensing Elijah and Esmeray were there. The Original moved forward where all the wolves could see him. "Whatever she's promised you, it's a lie."

Hayley tried to keep the wolves from getting riled up, directing her attention to the vampire. "Elijah, it's okay. I'm okay."

Elijah could see that, but it didn't mean he was too chuffed about the current situation. "She cannot be trusted."

"She's the only one that can help my Pack," said Hayley, trying to reason with him.

"Do you have any idea what she has done to our family?" said Elijah in a clipped tone. "To Esmeray?" He gestured back to her. "You cannot place your trust in her, Hayley."

"I know you want revenge," said Hayley, "and come the next full moon, when I'm sure her cure works, she's all yours."

Elijah was staring at her in disbelief. "Are you suggesting that we hold her— her— captive for an entire month? It would take an army."

"And I've got one," said Hayley, looking around at the wolves who howled in agreement. "They'll keep her from hurting Esmeray again. So help me, or get out of my way."

Elijah paused for a moment to think. Then, in the blink of an eye, he'd used his vampire speed to disappear along with Celeste and the mason jar.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" snapped Hayley, gaping at the spot where Celeste had been standing just moments before.

"I don't think he'll kill her," said Esmeray pensively as she stepped forward slowly. Jackson immediately ran to her, and she gave him a small smile before kneeling to his level. "Considering what Elijah saw in my mind, I think he'll want to let me kill her."

Jackson had a sad look in his eyes, and he reached his paw up for her to take. Esmeray felt herself starting to tear up as she pulled him into a hug. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I hear the witches nearly killed you in a fire. They used my magic to get it done. It's a shame I didn't get to talk to you while we were both human. I didn't turn. I just... suffered."

The wolf lapped her face affectionately, and she sighed, burying her face in his fur and holding on.

"Tori."

She couldn't remember how old she was, exactly, but she must have been around four years old when it happened. On a full moon, her mother Esmeralda had taken her into the forest once the wolves had turned. They waited near the edge, and the witch held her daughter in her arms, looking into the darkness.

"See that?" asked Esmeralda, pointing to a barely discernible dark mass of fur moving their way. "That's your Papa."

Esmeray had squealed as the giant wolf as black as the night emerged from the bushes to see his daughter. Esmeralda had set her down gently, and the little girl hadn't been able to contain her excitement as she bolted forward to hug him. Rayan had been very careful not to knock her down when he did his best to hug her back, licking her face and ruffling her hair with his paws.

"Tori, be gentle with your Papa, too," said Esmeralda once she'd sat down to watch them play. Rayan had Esmeray on his back, and for the sake of not falling, she was gripping his fur very tightly.

"I'm not hurting him!" she tried to protest, since Rayan wasn't letting out any whines that would indicate that her hold was too rough. Rayan looked at his wife as if to confirm this, and the witch shrugged, smiling to herself as Esmeray giggled, trying to hold on while Rayan trotted around. This was their game— he tried to toss her off his back, and she had to see how long she could stay on.

When the night had worn on and Esmeray had grown tired, Esmeralda wrapped her in a shawl and cradled her into her chest. Her husband, off to the side, turned back into his human form, grabbing at a prepared sheet to wrap around his waist.

"Ray," Rayan whispered as he came to see if his daughter was still awake.

Her eyes were still wide open despite the exhaustion, and she smiled. "Papa, you're all dirty."

"So are you," he said, gesturing to the stains on her clothes from how much they'd been rolling around on the ground. "You can take a bath in the morning, once you rest."

"But I'm not tired," she said, making grabby hands so that he could hold her instead. "I can take a bath now."

Rayan smirked as he brought her into his arms, rubbing her back and seeing if he could perhaps lull her to sleep. "I think you should sleep first."

She'd nuzzled her head into his shoulder, her small hands wrapping around him the best they could, before she'd fallen asleep.

"Esmeray," said Hayley, coming up to her as the wolves dispersed, having been instructed to return to their dens. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, standing up and blinking away any other tears. "The witches... they told me that you're actually Andrea Labonair."

Hayley immediately blushed, and out of instinct, cradled her growing belly. "Yeah, um, Jack actually told me about that on the full moon. It's a lot to digest, being wolf royalty for the Crescents."

Esmeray refrained from mentioning the fact that they were supposed to be married. Jackson knew very well that Hayley and Elijah had something going on with each other, and it wasn't the sort of subject that needed to be discussed when Jackson couldn't say anything that they would understand.

"I feel sick," Esmeray said instead, moving to sit on a log nearer to the water. She put her head between her knees, and Jackson whined as he came over to her.

"Have you eaten anything?" Hayley asked worriedly.

The hybrid shook her head, and Jackson immediately trotted off to get her something. "Esmeray," Hayley said, sitting beside her and trying to coax her into talking. "What happened?"

"Just... stuff about Klaus," she said quietly. "The witches showed me some stuff that made me feel really insecure."

"What stuff?"

"Him with one of the witches... Genevieve. She was grabbing his leg and he was shirtless and then he fed on her... I know he's a vampire and he needs to feed but nowadays, when he needs it, he comes to me. It's stupid... but I just got in the mindset that it was an intimate thing, and seeing him do it to another woman is really annoying. And then Camille O'Connell was at the Compound today to take care of him, and he didn't come to see me, and I guess I let it get in my head that he's going to get tired of me."

Hayley took her hand and squeezed it. "Klaus is crazy and rude but he would never cheat on you, Esme. He's adored you for a really long time. He's been attracted to you since you two met. He never stopped pursuing you— the right way, I should add. In these past months that we've all been together, I've seen that you make him good. You make him a decent person. He loves you, and he's not going to be unfaithful. I don't know which exact words can make you believe that what I say is true. But I just know that the father of my child is head over heels for you and as dickish as he can be, he's loyal to those he loves. You're the one he loves most aside from this baby, which he's warmed up to a lot because of your influence. These past weeks that you were missing, he couldn't sleep. He couldn't go into your room without feeling hurt and angry. He was given leadership of the city, but he didn't want it, he wanted you. He was going to do anything and everything to find you. You're his everything, Esmeray, and he wouldn't ruin it by cheating."

The hybrid wanted to believe her, she really did. But the witches had stacked up her insecurities, and tearing them down in one day just wasn't possible.

Jackson returned with some shredded beef for Esmeray. She ate, looking sick as she forced herself to ingest it. Hayley knew she was probably dehydrated, too, and had brought her some water. The color seemed to return to her face by the time she finished her meal.

"Thank you," Esmeray whispered as Jackson sat beside her, his head over her lap. She stroked his head gently, smiling a bit to herself.

A crunching of leaves and twigs made them look up as Elijah returned with Celeste.

"You came back," said Hayley, looking surprised.

"I'll always come back," the Original told her, offering her the mason jar. "Take it. It will work."

Hayley nodded gratefully. "Eve and I will round up as many of our people as we can. Come full moon, I can finally free my family." She moved to hug Elijah, and the Original placed a gentle kiss on her head. Esmeray felt Jackson tense a bit at the sight of this, and she did her best stroking his back to calm him down.

"Hayley," Elijah said once she moved back to start walking toward the wolf encampments. "I wonder if they have any idea how lucky they are to have you."

She smiled at him before heading off with Jackson. Esmeray looked at Elijah, pointed in the direction of the encampment, and nodded before following after them. She wasn't ready to return to the Compound just yet.

The wolves were glad to have her there. The cabin Esmeray had fixed up months ago was a good place for her, Hayley, and Eve to stay in while the wolves enjoyed their dens. The three women were able to get a bit of a nicer meal later in the evening when Esmeray got to cooking some meat that Jackson brought, and after checking up on the baby, they started to chat about news that Eve had acquired from the Quarter— the witch Bastiana was dead, which meant another Harvest girl would resurrect soon.

"Thank goodness," said Esmeray once they were going to sleep. "One more down, two to go..."

But she didn't get to rest much, despite enjoying her accommodations. Celeste had performed a spell that left Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah trapped inside the borders of the Lafayette Cemetery. While Celeste was now dead, and Davina was resurrected, Klaus had brought in the indestructible white oak stake, and was still fuming after hearing of Rebekah's betrayal.

Marcel had been the one to call them. Hayley's phone had rang in the middle of the night, and Esmeray had answered it when she'd seen it was Marcel, in order to keep Hayley from being woken up.

"What the hell do you mean they're trapped?" Esmeray hissed as she hurried to get dressed. "You and Rebekah are supposed to be in another continent by now!"

"We had to come back for Davina," said Marcel, sounding embarrassed at his own foolishness.

"Damn it. Where's Davina now?"

"Cami's with her at St. Anne's Church. I wanted Davina to be the one to lift the spell to free Rebekah, but Father K thinks it's a bad idea. And to make matters worse, Bastiana placed a curse on him as soon as she came back. That hex that was put on his nephew Sean, Cami's brother, is on him now, too. I talked to Genevieve about lifting the spell and healing Kieran, but she says there's no cure once the hex is placed on him, and she also said that she won't lift the spell."

"So what do you want me to do? Lift the spell, then heal Kieran?"

"Do you think you can heal him?"

"I think I should be able to. Genevieve is a rotten bitch who's probably lying to you in the first place. And even if she doesn't think there's a cure, she doesn't know the same healing magic I do. Judging from what you told me about what Sean O'Connell did, this hex takes root in the mind. That's my specialty. Have Cami stay with him. I'll need her there, talking to him when I start healing him, so she can keep the good parts of his brain being stimulated while I heal the parts that are being turned rotten."

Marcel sounded incredibly relieved. "Thank you. Where are you? I can pick you up and bring you to the Cemetery. If anyone can talk Klaus down to keep him from hurting Rebekah, it's you. She's been updating me, and right now, even Elijah's struggling."

Esmeray bit her lip. "Look, I don't want to talk to him face to face, Marcel. For personal reasons, I'm not ready for that at the moment. I'll go, I'll lift the barrier, and hope they had enough time to talk it out. Rebekah will need to run like hell as soon as the barrier drops."

Marcel came to get her at the edge of the Bayou woods. He hadn't inquired about why she didn't want to speak to Klaus. She had an inkling that he already knew about what had been done to her in the sanatorium. He dropped her off at the Lafayette Cemetery first before driving away, presumably to not be anywhere nearby when Klaus was let out.

Esmeray was near the entrance, and she could hear Klaus yelling about something, but she wasn't about to listen in. Planting her feet firmly in the ground, she let her hands hover in the air over the archway near the front. "Ta fjern bort," she whispered, "obice barrieren sa aben."

There was a great rush of wind as the spell broke, and Esmeray quickly moved off to the side, hiding behind one of the pillars at the entrance. Exactly one minute later, Rebekah walked right out, sighed when she realized she was free, and sped away.

The hybrid was quick to get to St. Anne's Church before Klaus and Elijah got out. She was practically sprinting, hoping Klaus wouldn't hear her shaky breaths and think to pursue. She burst through the front doors of the church and found Cami already waiting with Kieran by the altar.

"Hi," she said a bit blandly to the both of them, urging for Kieran to sit down on his normal priest chair. "Just relax your muscles, okay? Camille, stand in front of him. Talk to him about quite literally anything. This shouldn't hurt, but you're going to feel really dizzy and disoriented, Father. Focus on something positive in your conversation. Think of healing, and your faith, and fixate on the idea of being baptised, in a sense, to be washed clean of this plague in your mind."

The two O'Connells didn't ask questions. Father Kieran straightened up and looked at Cami, who was talking to him about how once he was better, he ought to travel the world for a bit, doing missions in other countries (which was apparently something he'd always wanted to do, but had never had time for given his devotion to New Orleans).

Esmeray was behind him, her hands hovering on either side of his head. "Helbrede laka mente," she whispered under her breath. "Sinnet sana incipiebat okorrumperad. Helbrede laka mente..."

Cami, in that moment, thought back to the conversation that had taken place between her and Klaus when she'd been at the Compound.

"I hear her moving about," Klaus said weakly, still feeling the effects of Papa Tunde's blade. "She isn't coming to see me."

"I think she needs to be alone," said Cami reasonably. "From what Elijah told me, the witches really tried to mess her up, mentally and physically. She might be afraid of hurting you."

"Hurting me?" muttered Klaus, looking away. "No. I am the one hurting her. I should have been more insistent about her staying in Mystic Falls. I was weak, and I let her sway me into allowing her to come. Because of me, she was kidnapped."

"Hey," said Cami, chastising him slightly. "Don't think of it as you 'allowing' her to return here. You don't control her, Klaus, she's her own person. You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened. I think she'd rather you let her do what she felt she needed to do instead of forcing her to be somewhere she felt she was a sitting duck."

"Something is wrong with her, Camille," Klaus shot back, hearing Esmeray leaving the Compound. "The bond I share with her... I can feel her emotions when they're this strong and negative. She's feeling... pain. Sadness. Jealousy. I want to see her."

"Elijah said that wasn't a good idea unless she approached you first."

"To hell with what Elijah said!" Klaus fumed, getting to his feet and sneering in her face. "I am telling you that something is wrong! My enemies attacked her because they saw how much bloody power she has in her! I cannot just lay back and be nursed when the woman I love is suffering because of me. If you'd just let me see her, I'll leave Rebekah alone."

In another reality where Esmeray did not exist, Kieran never would have been cured. Klaus would have never been so inclined to forget his rage towards Rebekah if it meant doing something that mattered more to him. Cami understood why everyone around the city spoke so highly of Esmeray.

Even without being a full hybrid, she was the only one who could have saved Rebekah and Kieran from certain death.