The summons came without warning.
Not through the threads, not as a pull or pressure, but through absence. A sudden, unnatural stillness rippled through Mystic Falls just before midnight, as if the town itself had been muted. The threads fell quiet all at once, their constant hum vanishing so abruptly it left a hollow ache behind my eyes.
That silence was deliberate.
Someone had forced it.
I straightened slowly, pulse steady despite the tension coiling beneath my skin. The threads were still there. I could feel them if I focused. But they were restrained, pressed down by a will that did not belong to me.
Klaus.
The Mikaelson mansion loomed ahead, every window lit this time, the house no longer pretending to sleep. I crossed the threshold with measured steps, aware that this was no longer a discussion born of curiosity.
This was intervention.
Inside, the air was taut, stretched thin by anticipation. Elijah stood near the fireplace, posture rigid. Rebekah lingered by the staircase, arms folded tightly. Kol paced in a tight circle, agitation rolling off him unchecked.
Klaus waited at the center of it all.
"You're bleeding power into the town," he said without preamble.
"I'm holding it together," I replied.
"For now," he agreed. "But not efficiently."
The threads stirred faintly beneath the floor, testing the restraint placed upon them. Klaus noticed, lips curving slightly.
"You see," he continued, "this is the problem with solitary balance. It collapses the moment the bearer falters."
"I didn't ask for help."
"No," Elijah said quietly. "But the town is no longer just yours to stabilize."
I met his gaze. "And you intend to take over?"
Rebekah scoffed softly. "He intends to survive."
Klaus stepped closer, close enough now that the pressure of his presence pressed firmly against my awareness. Not hostile. Assertive.
"You are not failing," he said. "But you are approaching a point where failure becomes inevitable."
I didn't deny it.
"That awareness," he continued, "is why we're having this conversation instead of ending it."
Kol snorted. "Speak for yourself."
Klaus ignored him. "Mystic Falls needs structure," he said. "Rules. Enforcement. Shared responsibility."
"You're describing dominion," I replied.
"I'm describing stability," he countered.
The threads twitched sharply, reacting to the word. Klaus felt it immediately, eyes narrowing with interest.
"You can't hold everything," Elijah said. "But you can anchor it."
The idea settled heavily.
"You want me to bind myself to the town," I said.
"Yes," Klaus replied simply. "And to us."
Silence fell.
That was the cost.
Not surrender. Not obedience. But connection.
"I won't become a weapon," I said.
Klaus smiled faintly. "No. You'd be wasted as one."
I exhaled slowly. "Then the terms matter."
"They always do," Elijah agreed.
For the first time since arriving in Mystic Falls, balance was no longer something I enforced alone.
It was something I would have to negotiate.