What are you supposed to say when your ancestor — who's very much dead and older than dirt — appears out of thin air in your kitchen one morning?
"What the bloody fuck?" I squeaked.
"Hello," Tessa replied, wiggling her fingers at me with a teasing smile.
"What are you doing here?" I demanded, half forgetting I was talking to the god‑tier witch who invented immortality.
"Can't a girl just visit her descendants?" she asked casually, clearly enjoying my distress.
"No," I said dryly. "Not in the morning, and not without knocking."
Qetsiyah narrowed her eyes, then chuckled. "I see why you were reborn into my line. Bennett witches must have a backbone."
At the mention of reincarnation, I froze. She knew. I wanted to be surprised — but honestly? If Emily figured it out, of course Qetsiyah could.
"Why are you here?" I asked slowly.
"So suspicious…" she said, amused. "Not bad. Shows you have some smarts."
I stared at her, expression blank, waiting.
"I need a hand with something," she said. "And aren't descendants supposed to be filial or something?"
"This isn't ancient China. Try saying please. Or offer something I'd actually want."
"You talk like a mercenary," Tessa said, more entertained than offended. "You'll go far with that attitude. Well then — what do you want?"
"Depends. What do you need?"
"You know what I want," she said, giving me a look that said she knew every secret I had.
"Silas stuck on the Other Side so you can torture him forever?"
"Obviously." She smiled sweetly — which did not match the words coming out of her mouth. "Getting all the doppelgängers brutally murdered or maimed would be a bonus. But that's not why I'm here."
"What do you need then?"
"The Other Side is my playground. I rule it. I control it. No one is supposed to have enough power to leave it." She paused. "But someone has been trying."
"Esther Mikaelson," I said immediately.
"A whole damn lot of people, actually," Tessa corrected. "But yes — some are giving me headaches. Emily told me the Original family will soon return, yes?"
"Let me guess — you want me to stop Esther from crawling out of her grave?"
"Indeed. The world doesn't need the Original Witch running around."
"What's with the hate fest?" I asked. In canon, they never even met.
"That wench stole my immortality spell from one of my descendant's grimoires and butchered it. She didn't even kill the doppelgänger whose blood she used. And she's spent the last thousand years hoarding power that isn't hers while whining about 'balance' and her 'abominations.'"
"Yeah, Esther's a bitch. What else is new?"
"Exactly." Tessa grinned. "So — are you in or out?"
"What do I get?"
"That little ritual of yours? You were dumb enough to do it without preparation. You have no idea what the consequences are. I'll teach you how to control it — unless you want to end up fried for witchcraft."
"You do know witches were hanged, not burned, right?" I said, though I was pleased with the deal. Learning from a god‑witch? Yes please. Let's just hope she's not worse than Emily. Who am I kidding — she's definitely worse.
"But sure. Sounds like a plan."
She rolled her eyes, smirked, and waved her hand. "Well then, I have another brat to talk to. Talk later, Frosty."
And with that, she vanished.
I looked around to make sure she was really gone, then collapsed onto the couch.
Damn. I thought dealing with Emily was bad. I'd spent the last few minutes pretending to be annoyed or unimpressed, but that woman was terrifying. Her power was suffocating — like a panther ready to strike. And she knew about my reincarnation, my biggest secret.
One conversation and I was a nervous wreck.
But also… excited. I was going to learn from her. Let's just hope I didn't die in the process.
Meanwhile, on the Other Side
Being stuck in ghostland since 1914 wasn't entertaining. Kol Mikaelson knew he was daggered — he remembered receiving a dagger in the heart for Christmas. Niklaus probably thought that was an appropriate gift. Wanker.
He'd been daggered before, but he didn't remember ever being in this accursed place, which meant that when he woke up, he wouldn't remember this either. So even if he stalked his siblings — the ones not in coffins — any information he gathered was useless.
He could watch covens from the Other Side, but everything was muted, bland. He was bored out of his mind.
Right now he sat on a bench in the French Quarter, watching people pass. He spent his days haunting Niklaus — mocking his brother's evil plans, even if Nik couldn't hear him — or wandering his favorite city. Marcel was ruining it. New Orleans without magic was like Christmas without bloodshed.
"This city, once full of magic, now feels empty," a female voice said.
Kol almost jumped. In nearly a century here, he hadn't met a single person.
"Who are you?" he growled. The woman reminded him of his mother — not in looks, but in the ferocity of her power.
"Do you know where you are, Kol Mikaelson?" she asked, amused.
"I'm daggered. I'm on the Other Side. I've been here before. I'll forget this when I wake up. So what do you want?"
"I need to show you something," she said. "Don't worry — you won't forget her."
"How about a name?" he asked warily.
"My name is Qetsiyah."
He almost lost his breath. "Just legends."
"Come," she said, offering her hand.
He took it — pissing her off seemed unwise.
In an instant, they were somewhere else — a bathroom full of candles. A ritual was about to begin.
He recognized the setup immediately. Someone was about to attempt an elemental ritual.
The last time he saw someone try this, the entire coven died in seconds.
He watched a blonde vampire feed her blood to a brunette witch. Interesting. A witch willingly taking vampire blood — that was new.
The witch began chanting.
Kol's eyes widened. She wasn't binding one element — she was binding two. Was she insane? No witch had ever survived something like this.
He watched her sink into the frozen bathtub.
He sighed. Pity. Such a young witch, about to lose her powers and join the undead.
Then the blonde pulled her out — and the witch breathed.
Her eyes glowed icy blue.
Kol stared. "How?"
No witch had ever become part of nature. Witches channeled nature — they didn't become it.
Unless…
"I guess you noticed?" Qetsiyah asked, sounding almost proud.
"A human couldn't survive that," he whispered. "She's not human anymore."
"Indeed," Qetsiyah said. "This is the first time a new species has been created by magic since your family."
"But the ritual wasn't even advanced," he muttered, studying the runes.
"If it were any other witch, they'd be dead," she said. "My little descendant is one of a kind."
"Descendant?"
"Her name is Bonnie Bennett."
She waved her hand, and suddenly they were in a school hallway. Bonnie leaned against a locker, talking to her blonde vampire friend.
"Why show me this?" Kol asked.
"I have a job for you," Qetsiyah said. "Do it, and you get one death‑free pass from the Other Side."
"You mean I'll be undaggered?"
"Yeah, no. I'm dead too. I can't pull daggers out of hearts. But if you ever actually die, I'll resurrect you."
"I'm immortal."
"Are you sure?" she asked, eyes gleaming with knowledge he didn't have.
He hated cryptic witches.
"Fine. I'll keep it for a rainy day."
"Already agreeing without knowing the job?" she teased. "Even better. Your mother is trying to escape to kill your family. I don't like people escaping my prison."
"So you want me to kill her ghost?"
"No, idiot. You wait until she resurrects herself and then kill her. Frosty is handling the rest."
"Frosty?" he asked, realizing she meant Bonnie. "What's my job?"
"Make sure Bonnie Bennett doesn't die."
Kol narrowed his eyes. "Explain."
"You killed Silas's groupies once to stop hell on earth, didn't you?" she said. "If you don't want hell on earth, she can't ever die."
"She'll die eventually."
"Maybe. But if she dies now? The Other Side collapses. Every soul here gets released. Chaos. Hell on earth."
Kol swallowed. She wasn't lying.
"Fine. I'll protect her," he said. "But I'm daggered. How?"
"Your mother will resurrect herself soon. If she wants to kill your family, you'll all be awakened. Meanwhile, I'll teach Bonnie. After that — she's your responsibility."
"Wait," he said as she began to fade. "Why me?"
"I like you," she said with a shrug. "We hate the same people. You're strong enough to protect her. And you respect witches. Oh — and I'll make sure you remember this when you wake up."
She vanished.
Kol blinked.
This was definitely the weirdest encounter he'd had in a thousand years.
"I didn't know at the time, but thanks to my annoying god‑like ancestor Tessa, I got a ghost stalker who put Edward Cullen and Angel to shame. Nothing could prepare me for when Elijah took the dagger out of his heart." — Diary of Bonnie Bennett, page 59