The Beautiful and the Faultless | Cami O'Connell

Chapter 26

She pursed her lips. "I'll see when I tell her in... an hour."

"You haven't even told her? Or asked her if she's okay with this?"

"It's Rebekah! She'll say yes!"

"The last thing I wanna do is judge you, you know that, but you're putting yourself in a really bad position here, you know that? Elijah was telling us not to trust The Strix. If they find out you went to work for them... whatever your intentions, they're gonna think you're a traitor."

She blinked. "But I'm not, if I did it to benefit the family. Finn, Aiden, Alexis... what part of that doesn't make sense?"

Jackson bit his tongue, not wanting to say that he felt she was being too impulsive, too inconsiderate about what they would actually think. To him, it was as if she was making herself believe they'd be okay with it to save herself of any guilt that might stop her from going through with this.

She snapped her fingers. "Blood, please. Time is wasting."

"And if I say no?"

"Then I'm going to be stuck helping The Strix longer trying to find a workaround."

He was more surprised she wouldn't just take it without his consent. "Alright," he said. "I'll keep your secret. But if I find out you were lying, I'm going straight to Freya."

"Why does everyone threaten me with going to Freya?" said Ingrid, making a face. "She may be my cousin slash sister but I am not scared of her."

"Not even scared of seeing her looking at you, all disappointed? Freya won't hurt you, I know that, but she won't be happy. And I don't think you'll like the sight of her looking ashamed of you."

Ingrid's face fell, but she said nothing as Jackson came forward, offering her his hand. She sighed, offering him a knife and a bowl to bleed into while she set up for her spell, working quickly so that she could be out of there in case Hayley came back early.

It only took fifteen minutes, which Jackson apparently found impressive. While he sat on the couch drinking water after she'd healed his hand, he observed as his blood levitated from the bowl, the crimson fluid swirling through the air to form a heart before his eyes. One identical to his, identical to Hayley's.

"That wasn't too hard," she said, plopping the heart into a plastic bag and putting her things away. "Please... I swear, I'm not letting anyone in the family get hurt. The Strix witches are preparing a Chambre de Chasse to keep them out of harm's way, where they'll be able to keep each other company. Nobody will be getting into any unsafe fights. I have this handled."

"I hope you do," said Jackson. "'Cause you realize that if even one little thing goes wrong in your spell..."

"I'll pay the price," said Ingrid. "Not anyone else."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that."

Apparently, Rebekah was thinking along the same lines as Jackson.

Ingrid had asked to meet her at St. Anne's Church, in the gym. Rebekah had suspected nothing, but her face had immediately fallen when Ingrid explained the situation.

"Are you insane?" she said sharply. "You wish for me to submit to a spell of that magnitude? And before you even answer that— what drove you mad enough to join The Strix Coven in the first place?!"

"Just think about it, Rebekah," Ingrid pleaded. "I needed the magic, I needed the power, and we're killing several birds with one stone! Tristan plus dozens of other Strix vampires, dead. Marcel will be unlinked from Klaus, he'll be safe! Finn will be back, Aiden will be back, Alexis... Elijah could take control of The Strix and make them help us... Tristan was going to get this spell done anyway and my guess is that he wanted the white oak for this particular reason. Testing its success. He would have unlinked all of you. But I just figured you aren't in the same kind of danger Klaus and Elijah are. None of your sirelings have ever tried to hurt you! Theirs, however, are vindictive and cruel and would rush after them if the unlinking happened on them."