Elijah was sitting at a table just beyond the boundary line, one that was set for tea.

Apparently he was here to negotiate.

I took a breath and opened the door. "What's this?"

"Why don't you join me? It's been too long since we've done something like this. Do you still prefer your usual?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, considering the circumstances."

"Sit." It wasn't a request.

"The whole point of this stalemate, Elijah, is that I get to make my own choices."

He poured some of the milk into his cup. "That's why I've set this up so close to your supposed home. So that you would feel in control. I'm certain Miss Bennett will do everything in her power to protect you from me. Though she's welcome to join us."

How the fuck did he know she was with me? "Fine." I shut the door behind me and made my way to my chair. "Only because I'm curious as to why you're here. Bonnie will stay in the house, I don't trust you not to hurt her."

"Sugar?" Elijah pushed it forward.

"I know you're not here for a tea party."

"You would be correct in that assumption."

"So why are you?"

"Come now, you know how this works. If it were Niklaus, negotiations would be over." He stirred his tea. "And you would be back in your rightful place."

"My place?" I scoffed. "You can't try to erase that I was born a Salvatore and turn right around and use them against me."

His lips pursed. "This is your last chance."

"I've made myself clear."

"That is unfortunate. I wish that you had chosen differently." Elijah leaned back in his seat. "As we speak, young Tyler Lockwood leads Niklaus to Elena."

My stomach dropped. "Why would Tyler do that?"

"It seems he is sired to Niklaus, eternally grateful to him for releasing him from his torment every full moon."

"No." Fuck. "Elijah-"

His hand raised. "We have given you every opportunity to stop this, but you insisted."

Shit. Shit. "Don't do this."

"It is already done. Now, with your leverage gone, I would appreciate it, if you lifted that pesky little boundary."

"Even if you drag me back, It'll never be the same. I won't forgive you for hurting my brothers." And lying about them.

"Then you misunderstand me. I've come to agree to your terms." He was being deceptively pleasant about the whole thing.

"What? But without my leverage..."

Elijah picked at an imaginary crumb off the table cloth. "Niklaus has agreed that since he has his doppelgänger, he will let this go, if..."

"I'm afraid to ask." And I already knew the answer.

"You return to the fold."

I chewed the inside of my lip. "You said you'd agree to my terms, does that mean you'll stop using my brothers?"

"And give you more space to choose."

"Why the change?" Not that I wouldn't take that deal in a heartbeat.

"As I've said before, you are the one of the very few things in this world I hold most dear. I'm entirely disinterested in losing you, which you've made painfully clear will happen." He shifted forward. "I could do without the fatherly guilt next time."

I crossed my arms. "You wanted to play dirty."

Elijah's expression softened into something fondly amused. "If you would ask Miss Bennett to lower her boundary, I can release Damon from his compulsion."

"I'm still pissed at you for that, by the way. Compelling him so that he's not able to stomach blood? That was cruel."

"He was meant to be a-"

"Test, yeah, I got that." I messed with the saucer. "It was the little he got out before he was practically paralyzed. When's Stefan going to be let go?"

"Within the hour."

This felt too good to be true. I said as much.

Elijah tutted. "You've learned paranoia from Niklaus."

"Or maybe I've seen what happens to people who have tried to leverage anything against this family."

He frowned, then realization dawned on him. "Our would be usurpers."

"Kind of hard to forget."

There it was, that split second of anger before it got tucked away. It wasn't at me. It was at them. That was the first day I'd ever even seen him lose his temper. "That's not what's going to happen here."

"Isn't it? Can you honestly say that there isn't a dagger waiting for me?" Nik had certainly used it on others for less. "That this isn't some trick to make me think I've earned forgiveness?"

I just kept fucking up in their eyes.

And I still found it a touch odd that I'd only been daggered a few months for summoning Mikael.

"There is very little you can do that would be deemed unforgivable."

"Is that how Kol will feel when he wakes and finds out about the witches?"

"I will protect you from his rage just as I have from Niklaus'."

What was he-

The daggering before Nik's sacrifice. "You made a deal." Elijah nodded. "So what I'll come home, and we'll act like nothing ever happened?"

"That is the purpose of this, yes. Unless you'd prefer we make something of it?"

"God, no." I twisted my ring around my finger. "It's just, it's unlike the family to let something this drastic go."

"Morgan. You've spent quite enough time stalling." His eyes flicked toward the house. "It's time."

Damn it.

Though I wasn't really surprised that he'd caught on. "Fine."