When I opened my eyes, I was in my mother's throne room, but lying on a luxury bed.
I looked around and saw her sitting in a chair beside my bed, watching me.
"Well… did I die?" I asked with a dry joke and received a smack on the head. "Ow…"
"If you had died, you'd be a vampire now, you idiot," she replied with an irritated sigh. "You know you screwed everything up, right?"
"Everything like everything?" I gestured nervously, thinking about the consequences of my actions. "Don't tell me the Gilberts survived?"
"You're lucky they didn't," my mother snarled at me. "Otherwise you'd be grounded for a very long time."
"At least everything turned out fine, right?" I quickly cheered up. At least the Nazi died. "See? It's not that bad."
"You interfered directly with destiny. First of all, how the hell do you end up with that junkie who's already slept with half that filthy town?" Mom snarled again, her eyes promising punishment.
So that was it… Both she and Grandma, Bonnie, and Caroline had never liked Jolly. Looks like my mother didn't either.
"Feminism, mom… isn't it—"
I stopped when I saw the imminent threat in her eyes. If I finished that sentence, I'd suffer the consequences.
"I know very well what feminism is," my mother said with authority and force. "That doesn't mean I don't also know the meaning of 'slut' and that my son shouldn't get involved with that kind of girl."
"But it's my life," I tried, and stopped again when I felt that threat in her eyes.
"Don't come at me with that rebellious teenage nonsense, Nik Mikaelson-Bennett," my mother declared dangerously. "You will listen and stay quiet."
"Yes…" I lowered my head, discouraged, even though everything she said would go in one ear and out the other.
"Now… thanks to the mess you made…" my mother began, irritation in her voice, "your grandmother is trying to mess with your friend's head."
"Damn… she never learns, does she? How does she even have influence?" I asked, shocked. How the hell does that witch have influence in my mother's domain?
"She gained influence through the Bennett spirits I left free and unsupervised because they're my descendants," she rubbed her temples irritably. "Seriously, these idiots don't get it."
"Bennett problem," I replied, and my mother spoke at the same time as me.
"So now what are you going to do?" I asked irritably. "I don't want my kid under the influence of the original grandma."
"What am I going to do? I'm going to sit back and watch you deal with Esther Mikaelson, also known as your paternal grandmother, and with our rebellious relatives," my mother declared amused. She's not going to leave me totally screwed alone, right? And she continued, "You changed destiny. You caused this, and you're going to fix it."
Damn… she's really going to let me deal with this alone.
"But mom… she's a Hanzen and the witch who created vampires. She's dangerous. She could kill me," I whined and threw a tantrum. She always softens… but she looked at me with a mix of affection and firmness.
"Nik, you need to learn to take responsibility for your actions. And yes, she's a Hanzen, but you're the firstborn. She's just a Hanzen. You're also a first-generation Bennett and an Original vampire. You'll be fine."
She smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. "Now wake up and try to think of how to stop her. And you are not authorized to attack the spirits before the time comes or use your status as my son to oppress them early."
"So what the hell am I supposed to do?" I asked, now really pissed off. "They hate me for what I am. You can't convince racists to stop doing something that hurts what they hate."
"You can," my mother said firmly. "Do you think the Other Side was always like this? Peaceful and ruled?"
"You have absolute control over the dimension. You're God here," I shot back.
"Yes, but even so, do you think having absolute control over a dimension leaves no room for other beings to conspire against me?" she said with an irritated sigh. "Especially beings powerful enough to fear no one?"
Well… that kind of being doesn't accept being ordered around. That's true.
"I solved it with politics and a show of force," my mother gestured broadly. "I used politics to gain their favor and loyalty, and force to make it clear who was in control and that they had to obey."
"But I won't be able to show force," I replied, thinking I had found a loophole.
"You're not dealing with super-powerful beings, just a few spirits who can barely influence reality," she dismissed my argument.
Damn it. She's right.
My mother stood up from the chair with a movement far too slow for someone who literally controls a dimension. That was the problem: when she was calm, it meant the storm had already passed… and the one left to deal with the mud was me.
She walked to the edge of the bed and snapped her fingers. The bed simply ceased to exist, and I fell, sitting, onto the cold floor of the throne room.
"Hey—!"
"Get up." Her voice allowed no negotiation. "If you're going to fix this, you'll do it awake."
I stood up grumbling, adjusting my clothes, which were magically no longer wrinkled. I hate when she does that. It even takes away the pleasure of complaining.
"Listen carefully now, Nik," she continued, walking in circles around me like a teacher about to fail a student too promising to be stupid. "Esther isn't trying to dominate anything. Not yet. She's planting ideas."
"Spirits whispering in the ear of an impressionable teenager," I muttered. "Classic Mikaelson."
"Classic Hanzen," she corrected. "They always preferred to win before the war begins. Convincing is cheaper than destroying."
"Do you have a problem with the Hanzens?" I asked, now hoping she always badmouths them.
"Other than the fact that your aunt, one of the last pure Hanzens, wants to take my son as a magical battery, and that they were always causing trouble on the Other Side and revolting against me… nothing," my mother replied indifferently. But she had given plenty of reasons.
That gave me chills. Convincing meant that Jeremy—my kid—still had a choice. And that made everything worse.
"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Because I can't kill, I can't threaten, I can't use divine nepotism… what's left? Talking?"
My mother smiled with happiness and a touch of sadism.
"Exactly. Like a good prince."
I groaned. "I'm terrible with people who hate me."
"Great," she said. "Then you'll learn. See how good the world is? Always helping you overcome your limits."
She stopped in front of me and placed two fingers on my forehead. The world trembled for half a second—that feeling when reality blinks.
"I won't interfere. After all, this is a learning experience for you," she said, now truly serious. "I'll observe. If Esther crosses a line she shouldn't… well, she'll find out what happens to those who mess with my family."
I swallowed hard. That was the most support I was going to get. I'd only get help if my annoying grandma crossed certain limits. Great.
"Now go," she concluded, snapping her fingers again. "Your friend is dreaming. And dreams are open doors for inconvenient spirits."
The floor disappeared, and I woke up.
----+++----
At the edge of my hospital bed, my Grandma Bennett was reading a book.
"Hi, Grandma," I said timidly, and what I expected happened.
"Hi my ass, you brat," she shouted, raising her hand.
A powerful slap hit my face, loud enough to turn my head to the side.
She raised her hand again—but instead of another slap, she pulled me into a hug, and I was completely surprised.
"You idiot…" she hugged me, crying. "I thought you were going to die. Why did you do something so risky?"
I felt bad as she hugged me and cried.
"I'm sorry, Grandma. I just wanted to save my friend," I said, hugging her back. "I couldn't let him die, and I'm half-vampire, so I wasn't really going to die."
"You idiot!" my grandma shouted again. "You know using that much magic wears your body out, and if you had died you'd be a vampire at 15 years old—a teenager forever."
She flicked my arm while still hugging me.
"No one deserves that," she declared irritably. "Promise me you'll never do something that risky again."
"I promise, Grandma," I replied, even knowing it was impossible. "I promise I'll do my best."
"Good." She let go of me and sat back down. "Abby came to visit you last night and left you a bag of candy."
"Yay!" I shouted, throwing my hands up. "She didn't want to stay?"
"No. She's still not ready, and she earned a name in the supernatural society," Grandma said with a sigh. "She defeated an ancient vampire… that spread throughout the supernatural world, and if she stays here, people will start looking at you and Bonnie."
"Damn," I complained—and it was true.
The show never talked about it, but the fact that Abby defeated Mikael should at least have become some legendary story whispered through the supernatural community.
"Now you'll have to explain what happened to your girlfriend," Grandma said irritably. "She saw you using magic, and I don't have contact with any vampire to erase her memory."
"I know. I'll handle it," I said with a sigh.
Bonnie appeared in the room shortly after, pushing the door a little too slowly for someone trying to look casual. She looked me up and down, arms crossed, with that classic I know you screwed up face.
"You almost died," she said, without yelling. Which was worse.
"Technically I was far from dying, I just passed out," I replied. "Important difference."
She gave me a light punch on the arm, calculated to hurt my pride more than my body, then sighed.
"Caroline is freaking out," she said. "She saw everything, Nik."
"Great," I muttered. "I always wanted to come out like this: with collective trauma."
Bonnie rolled her eyes but smiled slightly. "We need to talk to her."
---++---
The conversation happened late in the afternoon, in one of the empty hospital rooms. Caroline was sitting on an uncomfortable plastic chair, fiddling with her phone without really looking at the screen. When she saw us come in, she looked up too quickly.
"So," she said, crossing her legs. "Either I'm going crazy… or you two have something very strange to tell me."
Bonnie sat down first. I stood for a second, took a deep breath, and pulled up another chair.
"You're not crazy," Bonnie began, her voice calm and firm. The voice she uses when she decides to be strong. "What you saw… is real."
Caroline laughed briefly. A nervous laugh. "Okay, do you have psychic powers?"
I raised my hand, and a ball of light appeared in my palm.
Caroline fell silent, eyes wide.
"Magic is real," I said, trying not to sound like a conspiracy lunatic.
"How have I never seen this?" she asked, swallowing hard. "How does nobody know?"
Bonnie nodded. "Because people don't deal well with what's different, and usually burn the wrong people at the stake."
Caroline took a deep breath, running a hand through her hair. "My God… so all that… wasn't a hallucination."
"No," I said. "And you don't have to be part of anything if you don't want to. The choice is yours. Always."
She stayed silent for a few seconds. Long. Heavy.
"You could have lied," she said at last. "You could have made me look like the crazy one."
"Family doesn't do that," Bonnie replied simply.
Caroline smiled. Small, but sincere. "So… if magic exists… what else exists?"
"Well… most myths and legends are real," I said with mild distaste. "A little less mythical, but real."
She stood up and, to my surprise, pulled me into a quick hug. Then she hugged Bonnie.
"I don't know where this is going," she said. "But I'd rather know the truth than live in the dark."
When she left the room, Bonnie looked at me sideways.
"That went better than I expected."
"Yeah," I murmured. "The universe sometimes cooperates."
But somewhere beyond that room, I could feel it. Ideas were still being planted. Spirits were still whispering.
The conversation had brought Caroline closer to us.
And that, I knew, changed more things than it seemed.