chapter thirty-six

asked Bonnie, taking her hands away from Marian's.

Marian shook her head. "No," she said.

Bonnie frowned. "Maybe try something?" She looked around the room. "Light all the candles at once," she told her friend. Marian had never been able to light more than two candles at a time.

Marian took a deep breath, taking her hands away from Bonnie's and clenching them into fists before holding her left hand out towards the candles. "Incendia," she said clearly. Nothing happened.

"Why isn't it working?" Rebekah asked. Klaus stood silently beside her, anxiously staring at his niece.

"I don't understand," Bonnie muttered. "I felt the power inside of it." She frowned, letting her hand close around the necklace again. "It feels stronger."

Marian stared wide-eyed at the candles beside her uncle and aunt, her head shaking. "No," she muttered. This couldn't happen to her.

"What's wrong?" asked Rebekah.

Marian gulped. "Incendia," she whispered. Her hands began to shake. "Incendia. Incendia. Incendia!"

"Annie, stop!" Bonnie cried, lurching forward and gripping Marian's shoulders firmly. She gasped as her hands touched her, her skin cold and not as lively as it used to be.

"What's wrong?" asked her aunt.

"It was a trap," Klaus said quietly. "The necklace wasn't the key to giving her magic back. It was the key to getting rid of it for good."

"Annie," Bonnie said slowly. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry."

"No idea about what!" Rebekah said abruptly, though in the back of her mind, she knew what exactly had happened.

"My magic, it's gone," Marian whimpered.

"What do you mean 'it's gone'?"

"Marian's dreams started after our mother and Finn woke up," Klaus explained sadly. "That can't be a coincidence."

"They've wanted to get rid of my magic, and now they've succeeded," Marian whispered. Bonnie shuffled closer to her and hugged her tightly as she began to cry.

Klaus took the necklace from her hands and inspected it. "Esther must've cursed it in case Finn failed," he deduced. "She must've known that we'd keep it."

"But that's impossible. Marian showed signs of magic when she was young—"

"We'd buried the necklace," Klaus interrupted, his eyes widening with realisation. "She tried to find it the night Henrik was killed."

"Oh my God," Rebekah gasped.

"I should've listened," Marian cried, not listening to her aunt and uncle. Bonnie rubbed her back gently. "He told me not to do anything. He told me to wait, but I couldn't. And now I've lost it all."

"You can't have known," Klaus told her. "None of us could've."

"But he would've. He always knows."

The two siblings looked at each other, both wondering if it would be best for Marian to join Kol abroad.

"I'll find a way to reverse this. I promise Annie," Bonnie told her gently.

The girl shook her head. "It's not your fault," Marian reassured. "It's Esther's. It's Finn's."

"He'll pay for what he's done to you," Klaus growled angrily.

"I'm gonna kill him," Marian said suddenly, standing up from her bed. Her hand latched onto the necklace, pulling it gently out of her friend's hands. Bonnie shuddered, she'd never heard Marian sound so dark before.

"No, you're not," Rebekah argued, stepping in front of her niece to try and block her.

"And when I'm done, I'm going to kill his wretch of a mother," the girl continued, pushing past her aunt.

"Marian, calm down—" Rebakah tried.

Marian ignored her, giving Klaus one look before walking out of her room and towards the stairs. She fastened the necklace around her neck.

"What do we do?" Rebekah asked him.

"She can't take on Finn," Bonnie said. "She's going to get herself killed."

Klaus smirked. "You forget, sister," he began, ignoring Bonnie. "The Summer of 1542. She's very capable of handling herself."

The three quickly exited Marian's bedroom and followed her through the house until the girl finally stopped in front of an opening. Peering inside, she saw a certain raven-haired man who made her blood boil.

"Hello, Marian," Damon said with a sarcastic grin.

"Today is not the day to upset me, sweetheart," she scowled. She glanced down to his hand which had no ring on it, and over to the curtain on the far wall beside him. She smirked and stepped towards it, watching as Damon became alarmed. "What are you doing here, Damon?" she asked, her voice scarily calm.

"You Mikaelsons sure do love threatening their bed-mates," said the vampire.

"You slept with Rebekah?" Marian asked, perplexed. It was only last week that he told her that he would love her forever. "My aunt Rebekah? You're disgusting."

She reached for the curtain and opened it halfway, letting the setting sun into the room. Damon cried out, his skin burning. "When are you going to learn that you can't use women?" She thought back to what Bonnie had told her about what he'd done to Caroline when he'd first arrived in Mystic Falls.

Then, without a second glance at him, she walked back towards the hallway she'd come from. "Wait!" Damon yelled, the pain excruciating. "Please!"

She stopped and faced him, and for a moment, Damon believed that she'd go back and close the curtain. She stepped forward, her hand slipping a knife off the table without his notice, and smiled. He thought that maybe she'd even help him escape.

"You deserve every bad thing that's coming to you," she told him sweetly, stabbing his abdomen.

Damon stared wide-eyed as she left him alone, crying out in pain as his skin burned in the Sun. He watched, too, as Bonnie passed by the doorway, only glancing at him once.

This is what she'd meant, he thought, remembering what she'd told him on the last night they'd spent together. You have your humanity switch and I have my psychopathic bitch switch.

Marian had made it to the entrance of the Mikaelson mansion when the front doors opened, and a surprised Ambrose walked into the girl. He frowned, noticing the angry look on her face. "Woah," he breathed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm hungry, take me to the Grill?" she asked innocently. It wasn't a complete lie; the most she'd eaten in the last day were the strawberries she'd had in the church at midnight. He pursed his lips, not expecting that response from her, and definitely not expecting it to sound as sweet as it did.

"Uh"—he looked up at Klaus who nodded behind her—"sure," he agreed slowly.

"Great," she smiled. "Bonnie, are you coming?"

Bonnie wasn't sure if agreeing was wise or not, but she nodded anyway and stepped forward, not wanting to be left alone in a house where two Originals were torturing the vampire who killed her mother.

"Okay," Ambrose drawled. "Let's go."

Klaus gave him a look that told him to make sure Marian didn't do anything stupid—again—and held Rebekah back, knowing that their presence would only irk the girl more. He knew that she wouldn't kill Finn, but she would most definitely try her hardest to hurt him.

The three made their way to his car, Marian getting into the passenger's seat and Bonnie sitting in the back.

"You gonna tell me what happened or...?" Ambrose asked as he started the car and began to drive off.

When Marian didn't answer, Bonnie spoke up. "The necklace absorbed the last of her magic. She's got none left."

"What!" he exclaimed. When did all of this happen? "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she grumbled, looking out the window. "I'm itching to kill something."

Bonnie gulped in the back. She'd never seen this dark side of her best friend, and she hoped that she would calm down soon. She didn't need her best friend dying while their friendship was still in pieces.

Ambrose took his right hand off the steering-wheel and placed it on top of Marian's which rested on her thigh. She paused and looked at him. It made her want to cry again.

She'd lost everything in the last two years: Carrie, Jeremy, Bonnie, Damon, her magic, her sanity... And she'd just discovered that her true mother and older brother had been taken from her too.

She was truly broken.

She'd made Mikael pay for what he'd done to Carrie, and now she was going to make Finn pay for what he'd done to her.

...

Ambrose had dropped an anxious Bonnie at home on their way to the Grill. She knew that she wouldn't be able to talk Marian out of it, both of them were as stubborn as could be, and she knew that if the roles were reversed, she'd probably be doing the same thing—she had done the same thing by trying to kill Klaus three times.

Now, the hybrid and youngest Mikaelson sat together at a table picking at the food they'd ordered. Ambrose had wordlessly paid for it. Marian poked her fork into her pasta as they sat in silence.

"So your magic's gone," Ambrose spoke up, watching her carefully. He was worried that he'd say something that would upset her further—something that he definitely didn't need happening right now. He tried to keep his voice calm yet quiet, attempting to keep any hint of sympathy hidden. If there was one thing he knew about Marian, it was that she absolutely hated when people tried to sympathise with her when she was upset.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I walked right into it, too."

Ambrose shook his head. "It's not your fault—"

"It kind of is, though," she interrupted. "I pressured everyone to help me. I mean," she scoffed humorlessly, "I literally made you help me drown myself in a lake instead of waiting for my dad to get back. I always drag you around everywhere," she realised. "God, I never even ask you if you want to do anything. How do you not hate me—?"

Had any of her uncles—with the exception of Finn—or her aunt or her father been there, they would've just wrapped her in a warm hug and told her that she was going to be okay. After a thousand years, the girl somehow still found a way to critique her every move and find fault in everything she did. But none of them were there, and Ambrose just offered her a small smile and reached forward, placing his hand on top of the hand that daintily held her fork.

The dim light of the Grill made her skin shine as she looked up at him and closed her mouth. Ambrose had never realised just how long her eyelashes were; he'd once heard that people who cry a lot had longer eyelashes. He hadn't seen the girl cry many times before, but he could tell that she'd done so a lot, especially in this life.

"Believe it or not, I like your company," he told her sincerely, trying not to pay attention to the way her heart started beating faster. "But Klaus also ordered me to keep you safe, so it's not really like I have a choice," he joked. Marian gave him a one-sided smile.

"Well, now you'll have to be on high alert," she told him. "I'm a world-class idiot prone to dangerous situations, and I have no way to protect myself." Her gaze fell to her plate. "I'm weak."

"Hey," Ambrose said, placing his index finger under her chin and lifting up her head so she'd look at him again. "You may have lost your magic, but I still think you're the same beautiful, strong, independent woman you were when I first met you."

Marian blushed. He thinks I'm beautiful? she thought. "You don't mean that," she denied.

"I do," he told her, staring straight into her eyes. "I mean, sure, sometimes you're a real pain"—she kicked him gently under the table—"but really, I think you're incredible, and you losing your magic won't ever change that. And besides, I'm sure I could help you learn to protect yourself."

Marian smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. Then, quickly looking down, she cleared her throat. Ambrose retracted the hand that had held her head up. "I'm gonna pay you back, you know," she said. "For the food, for the help, for everything."

"You really don't have to do that."

She shook her head. "Please, you put up with me all the time, the least I could do is get you some therapy."

The pair laughed. Marian watched as Ambrose's shoulders shook and he let his head fall downwards, shaking it from side to side as his face wore a large grin.

"Well, isn't this a lovely sight?" Their heads shot up, Marian gulping when she met her uncle's gaze. "I see you've finally found your mother's necklace. Tell me, did you find the gift trapped inside?"

It took everything in Marian not to lash out and strangle him. Ambrose's hand, which still hadn't left hers, tightened. "What are you doing here?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

"I don't want any trouble," he told her, though his taunting smirk told her otherwise; a smirk that ran in the family. "I'm just here to have dinner with my beloved."

Marian looked to his side and saw a familiar red-headed woman walking towards them. "Hello, brat," the woman greeted with an unkind smile.

"Wench," Marian said with the same tight-lipped smile. She'd never liked Sage.

"Have a nice night, Marian," said Finn. "And be sure to keep your dog on a leash." Ambrose's hand squeezed hers once again as he watched her tense at her uncle's words, her expression looking murderous. He was used to being called names, one as harmless as 'dog' didn't hurt him.

The two watched as Finn and his old girlfriend walked away from them, finding a table closer to the entrance of the Grill. "You're not really going to kill him, are you?" Ambrose whispered, an eyebrow raised as he took a bite of the margarita pizza while it was still hot. "I mean, he's your uncle."

"No," Marian mumbled, throwing her fork down on her plate having suddenly lost her appetite. She was frustrated, her mind in a constant battle over whether she should weep about the loss of her magic, or make Finn and Esther Mikaelson pay for the pain they'd caused her. "I can't. There's no White Oak to kill him with." He debated whether he should tell her what Rebekah had discovered about Damon and the others last night. "But I'm not going to just sit here and let him live happily ever after with everything he's done."

"You're not worried that he's going to hear you?" Ambrose asked her.

"Please, he's too infatuated by his stupid old girlfriend," she dismissed. "That man over there," Marian pointed to where they sat, "deserves to die. He wants to die. I'd be doing him a favour."

Ambrose let it go after that, and they continued to eat their dinner—Marian had even shared some of her pasta with him, which was something he'd find out later that she rarely did. They continued talking, but chose less intense topics like what Marian was going to with school since she'd missed so much of it recently.

It upset her that there was a chance she wouldn't be able to graduate. After all, she'd never completed high school before. The last time she'd been old enough to go to school, which was in the late eighties, she'd been forced to drop out after unexpectedly falling pregnant. She'd died one year later with her five-month baby in a car accident.

She'd barely paid any mind to the fact that the man who had tried to kill her that morning and his one reason for living until she looked over to where they'd been seated, a dark expression taking over her features.

"They're gone," she said, frowning. Her paranoia told her that this was all part of another of his plans to kill her.

Ambrose tilted his head to the side, closing his eyes so that he could concentrate and sort through the loud noises around him.

"They're still here," he muttered, looking over at the front door.

Marian immediately stood and made her way to the entrance of the Grill, Ambrose scrambling out of his chair to follow closely behind her. She gasped as she pushed open the door, surprised to see Sage tackling Stefan Salvatore to the ground.

"Marian, let's go," Ambrose said firmly, putting a hand on her shoulder. He didn't want to cause any trouble, and certainly didn't want Marian getting in the middle of someone else's fight.

She shrugged his hand off her and went to walk back into the Grill but froze, however, when she saw a light-coloured stake rolling away from him. A stake made from White Oak: the only weapon that could truly kill her father and aunt and uncles. It was impossible—the tree had been burned to the ground a thousand years ago.

"Finn! The stake!" Sage cried. The Original rushed to grab it, his fingers only just graced the wood when someone downstairs shot him. Turning angrily to see Matt and Elena standing in the doorway to the basement, he sped down the stairs toward them, allowing Marian to silently creep forward and take the stake in her own hands.

They shook as she stared wide-eyed at it. This was the one thing that could truly end her life and destroy the Mikaelsons. This was what she needed to hurt Finn. To kill him. Again, her thoughts overwhelmed her. This man had caused her so much grief, but did he really deserve to die?

"Marian," Ambrose said firmly, stepping forward and putting a hand out for her to take. He knew what she was thinking, and when she looked at him, a dazed look in her eyes, he knew that it would be hard for her to walk away from this. "Please.".

Finn looked up, his eyes narrowing when he saw his niece standing at the top of the stairs. Sage, who held Stefan down on the ground, watched carefully as Finn bolted up the stairs and toward Marian, stopping right in front of her.

Before she could blink, he'd brought his hand out and slapped it across her cheek with such force that she stumbled and fell to the ground, the stake falling with her.

"Come to join your pathetic mother on the other side?" he taunted, picking up the stake and smirking. He didn't believe that she could actually use it against him. After all, the Marian he knew would never do anything to hurt another person, no matter what they'd done. She'd even forgiven Niklaus, for Christ's sake.

Scrunching her face up in anger, Marian scrambled to her feet, and, when she had her balance, kicked out her right leg forcefully, breaking Finn's shin and making him crumble to the ground. She crouched down beside him and starched the stake from him, holding it with one hand above his chest. "You wouldn't," he challenged.

She smiled. "Goodbye, Uncle," she whispered, bringing her left arm up to grip the stake with two hands and thrusting it forward and into his heart. "Don't worry, I'm sure Mummy-dearest will be joining you soon."

"No!" Sage cried, rushing to his side. Downstairs, Elena and Matt had disappeared back into the basement of the Grill, and to her left, Stefan walked away. "Finn, no," the vampire sobbed, backing up onto the wall as Finn's body caught fire.

Marian, who could hardly believe what she'd done, took one step backwards before she turned and ran back to Ambrose. She too was crying, though while Sage's were full of grief, Marian's were full of distress. She was horrified.

"I can't believe I just did that," she whispered, her eyes wide. She hadn't realised what she'd been doing. "Oh my God." Ambrose enveloped her in a tight hug, her hands against his chest. "I killed him."

"It's okay," he whispered to her. "You're okay."