CHAPTER 15: CELESTE'S MOVE
Three months since resurrection, and Kol had started to believe he might actually master this borrowed existence.
St. John's Eve celebrations transformed the French Quarter into something between carnival and religious revival—tourists and locals mixing with supernatural beings who'd emerged from their careful hiding to mark the summer solstice. Music poured from every doorway, magical wards shimmered at territory boundaries, and the air tasted of power and possibility.
Kol navigated the crowds with Davina at his side, feeling almost comfortable in his role as supernatural diplomat. A hundred spells in his grimoire. Evolved teleportation. Political alliances with vampires, witches, and werewolves. A relationship that made him want to survive tomorrow instead of just escape today.
"Pride before the fall," whispered a voice that might have been Marcus Chen's corporate caution or Kol Mikaelson's hard-won cynicism. "When you start feeling secure, that's when the universe reminds you nothing's guaranteed."
He should have listened to that voice.
Sabine Laurent approached through the crowd, warm smile and friendly demeanor masking whatever schemes moved beneath her surface. Kol's void sense prickled faintly—warning, but not urgent enough to trigger immediate alarm.
"Kol, Davina!" Sabine raised a cup in toast. "To new alliances and old traditions. May we all survive another year in this beautiful, terrible city."
"Poetic," Kol said, accepting the offered drink. Traditional hurricane cocktail, alcohol content high enough to give even vampires a pleasant buzz. "To survival."
He raised the cup to his lips.
The void sense screamed.
Too late. The possession spell woven into the drink activated the moment liquid touched his tongue—ancient magic, cleverly hidden, designed to separate consciousness from body and allow outside spirits entry.
Celeste Dubois' consciousness slammed into Kol like a battering ram.
She expected easy conquest. A recently resurrected Original, disoriented and unstable, vulnerable to possession by a witch who'd spent centuries perfecting spirit magic. She'd seen the grimoire, wanted its secrets, planned to use Kol's body and power for her own schemes against Klaus.
Instead, she met the void itself.
Inside Kol's mind, where consciousness should have been easily displaced, Celeste encountered darkness. Not emptiness—presence. The infinite space between dimensions where Marcus Chen's soul had drifted, where void energy had seeped into every corner of his being, where two consciousnesses had merged into something that shouldn't exist.
"What—" Celeste's spirit recoiled, trying to retreat. "What are you?!"
The void didn't answer in words. It simply was, and everything that touched it began to dissolve.
Celeste's magic, centuries of accumulated power and knowledge, brushed against Kol's void-infused consciousness. The contact triggered something instinctive, predatory, hungry.
The void began to feed.
"No!" Celeste screamed, but her spirit was already fragmenting, magical energy flowing out of her and into the darkness that had replaced Kol's vulnerable mind. "NO! Stop! STOP!"
Marcus—or Kol, or whoever he'd become—felt it all. The ecstasy of power flooding his system, new spells and knowledge cramming themselves into his awareness. The revulsion of consuming another consciousness, devouring their very essence. Horror and hunger mixing until he couldn't tell which was stronger.
Externally, his body convulsed.
Davina's hands found his arms, steadying him, magic flaring to help. "Kol? Kol, what's happening?"
His eyes had gone pure black—void energy leaking through, consuming everything it touched. The hurricane cocktail shattered in his clenched fist, glass and liquid forgotten.
Inside, the void hunger continued its feast.
Celeste fought desperately, trying to separate her spirit from the consumption, but the void had tasted her magic and wanted more. Four centuries of spell knowledge, survival tactics, political schemes—all of it flowing from her consciousness into his in a torrent that made his synapses burn.
Finally, with a psychic scream that echoed across spiritual planes, Celeste tore herself free.
She fled back into Sabine Laurent's body, her spirit battered and drastically weakened, a shadow of the powerful witch who'd attempted possession.
Kol collapsed.
Davina caught him before he hit the ground, cradling his head while magic poured from her hands in diagnostic waves. "Someone get Vincent! Sophie! Anyone who can help!"
Kol's consciousness swam through stolen knowledge, trying to process what he'd just absorbed. Spells appeared in his grimoire without being witnessed—Celeste's entire magical library, downloaded directly into his soul through void consumption. Twenty-five new spells, maybe more, each one carrying fragments of her memories and experiences.
He could see her past. Feel her grief over Elijah's betrayal. Taste her hatred for Klaus. Experience her desperate need to survive at any cost.
And beneath it all, the void whispered in satisfaction, pleased with its meal.
"What am I becoming?" The thought was pure horror. "That wasn't magic. That was predation. I consumed part of another being."
Sophie Deveraux pushed through the crowd, face pale. She knelt beside Sabine's collapsed form, hands glowing with diagnostic magic. "Her magical signature—it's nearly destroyed. Shredded. Like something ate it."
Vincent Griffith arrived seconds later, power crackling around him as he assessed the situation. His eyes found Kol, still held in Davina's arms, and something cold entered his expression.
"What did you do to her?" Vincent demanded.
Kol forced himself upright, head spinning, magic reserves paradoxically fuller despite the violent encounter. "She tried to possess me. The void—" He gestured helplessly. "It defended itself."
"Defended?" Vincent's tone held disbelief and growing anger. "You destroyed her. Sabine's barely alive, her magic is fractured beyond anything I've seen, and you're claiming self-defense?"
"He's telling the truth," Davina said fiercely, magic flaring protectively. "I felt the possession spell activate. She attacked first."
"That's not Sabine," Kol added quietly. "It's Celeste. The witch who died centuries ago. She's been possessing Sabine's body, hiding in plain sight."
Sophie's hands stilled on Sabine's forehead. "That's impossible. Celeste is dead."
"Dead spirits can possess living bodies if they're powerful enough." Elijah's voice cut through the crowd as he arrived, taking in the scene with sharp efficiency. "Kol's right. I recognize her spiritual signature."
Vincent looked between them, confusion and anger warring on his face. He knelt beside Sabine—beside Celeste's stolen body—and extended his own magic carefully. Whatever he found there made him flinch.
"It's true," he said finally, voice hollow. "This isn't Sabine. Hasn't been for... God, months? Years? How long has she been possessed?"
"Long enough to plan against the Mikaelsons," Kol said. "Against everyone, probably. Celeste doesn't do anything without multiple schemes running simultaneously."
Marcel appeared with a security detail, assessing the situation with practiced authority. "Everyone back. Give them space." He fixed Kol with a hard look. "You and I need to talk. Soon."
"Understood."
Sophie and Vincent carried Sabine's body away, heading toward whatever magical healing they could attempt. The crowd dispersed slowly, supernatural beings filing the incident away as another piece of Quarter drama.
Davina helped Kol stand, her hands steady despite visible fear. "Can you walk?"
"I think so." Everything felt strange—his magic reserves were fuller than they should be, borrowed power from Celeste settling into his system like stolen inheritance. "I need to check the grimoire. See what I absorbed."
They made their way back to the attic, Elijah trailing behind them with thoughtful silence.
The grimoire manifested immediately when Kol called it, pages already turning to display new acquisitions:
25 SPELLS ABSORBED VIA VOID CONSUMPTION
WARNING: MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE FORCIBLY EXTRACTED FROM UNWILLING SOURCE
CONSEQUENCE: VOID HUNGER MECHANISM ACTIVATED
Beneath the technical details, the grimoire had written in what Kol had learned to interpret as its "concerned" script: You ate another witch's magic. That's new. And terrifying. We need to discuss what this means.
Kol sank onto his bed, head in hands. The spells were there—complex, powerful, Celeste's centuries of survival knowledge now accessible to him. But the method of acquisition made his stomach turn.
"I consumed her," he said quietly. "Not metaphorically. The void literally fed on her magic like a parasite."
Davina settled beside him, one hand on his back. "She tried to possess you. You defended yourself."
"By eating part of her soul."
"By surviving." Davina's tone was firm. "Kol, look at me."
He raised his head, meeting her eyes.
"You didn't choose that defense," she said. "The void reacted instinctively to protect you. That's not evil. That's survival."
"It felt good," Kol admitted, shame coloring his voice. "The power flooding in, new knowledge becoming mine. For a few seconds, I enjoyed it."
Elijah, standing by the window, spoke for the first time since they'd returned. "The grimoire says this was the first activation of void hunger. Implying it could happen again."
"Probably will," Kol said bitterly. "Every new power seems to come with unintended consequences."
The grimoire flipped pages, displaying a detailed analysis of the void hunger mechanism:
VOID HUNGER: DEFENSIVE PREDATION
Activates when hostile magic enters host consciousness
Consumes attacking magic and converts to usable power
Side effect: Absorbs caster's magical knowledge and memories
Limitation: Cannot be controlled consciously (instinctive defense only)
Warning: Repeated use may strengthen predatory instincts
"It's a defense mechanism," Davina read aloud. "Like an immune system for possession attempts."
"An immune system that eats people," Kol corrected.
"People who try to possess you," she countered. "There's a difference."
Elijah moved from the window, expression troubled but not condemning. "This changes the political landscape. Word will spread that you can consume hostile magic. Some will fear you more. Others will see you as defense against possession-based attacks."
"The ancestors," Kol realized. "They use possession constantly. If I can counter that—"
"You become their priority threat." Elijah nodded. "But also potential protector for witches who fear ancestral control."
Kol looked at the grimoire's display, at the twenty-five new spells he'd acquired through violent consumption. Power he hadn't earned, knowledge stolen from an enemy who'd definitely earned it through her own centuries of work.
But Davina was right. Celeste had attacked first. He'd defended himself using tools he didn't fully understand. The void had protected him instinctively.
"The method doesn't define you," he remembered Marcel saying weeks ago. "Your choices do. Your intentions. The person you choose to be."
He chose to be someone who protected the people he loved. Even if the methods were monstrous.
"Okay," Kol said finally. "We document this. Add it to the grimoire's index as a known power with unknown limitations. And we prepare for the ancestors' retaliation, because they're going to escalate after this."
Davina squeezed his hand. "Together."
"Together," Kol agreed.
Outside, New Orleans continued its solstice celebration, unaware that one of its newest power players had just discovered he could consume magic itself.
And in Lafayette Cemetery, the ancestors felt Celeste's weakened state and began gathering their strength for war.
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