Witchful Thinking (28 page)

“Said like a true womanizer,” Klaasje added with a laugh but it was somehow a sad laugh, as if she thought it was a shame.

Sinjin smiled slightly, like he was amused by her comment. His eyes met mine and his smile widened.

“Jolie,” Rand started again. “Bella is a severe threat, no matter what anyone else says. She’s a danger to your existence.”

“Randall, the Queen is protected both night and day,” Sinjin announced in a tone that implied Rand was an idiot.

Rand’s eyes burned with anger as he glared at the vampire. “Where Jolie is concerned, I don’t trust anyone. Not Bella and certainly not you.”

I was getting extremely irritated with all the testosterone in the room. “Rand, I don’t have an alternative. We
can’t keep Bella locked up forever, and I don’t want to kill her.”

“She needs to die,” Trent said with finality before glancing up at me. “If you don’t want to order it, then maybe someone else should.”

“No,” I rebutted as I angrily stood up. I pushed my chair out and walked to the window, which overlooked the craggy shore below. I was the Queen and on this point, I would not waver. Bella would not be executed. Not on my watch. I turned to face everyone in the room again. “I will not have Bella’s death on my conscience, especially since we’d be killing her in cold blood.”

“Perhaps we should hear what the witch has to say for herself,” Mathilda suggested in her soft cadence.

“Would you like me to call for Bella, my Queen?” Mercedes asked, glancing up at me. I turned toward the window again, wishing the puffins that flew in and out of the rocks had an answer for me.

Finally I faced the room and nodded. “I’d like to offer her the opportunity to become a citizen of our kingdom.”

Mercedes stood up and started for the door. “Very well.”

Jolie
. It was Rand.
Please don’t trust Bella
.

I refused to look at him. Instead I watched Mercedes open the door and disappear into the hall.
What choice do I have? Do you think we should just kill her?

Of course not. But at the same time, I don’t believe you should embrace her like she’s your long-lost friend
.

I glanced at him and frowned.
That’s exaggerating
.

But you get the gist?

Until someone else can come up with a better solution, I think this is the only way forward. Besides, she will take the truth serum and the oath just like all her soldiers did
.

Truth serums and oaths aside, I don’t trust her. Jolie,
sometimes you have a very optimistic and, dare I say it, naïve perspective regarding the world
.

I narrowed my eyes.
Is that all you have to say?

Will you please just trust me on this? Don’t give Bella the benefit of the doubt, Jolie. At the very least she’ll disappoint you. At the very most—

Rand didn’t have the chance to finish his statement because Mercedes suddenly appeared at the door again. She stepped inside and to the right, as the two weres who had been guarding Bella walked into the room, with her between them. Sinjin was immediately beside me and in another second Klaasje flanked my other side. They were bodyguards bar none.

Bella was beautiful—she always had been—but her beauty was created of hard lines and a general angularity. There was nothing soft and feminine about her. Her oval face finished in a square jaw, and her full lips were frowning at the moment. Her hair was a deep, dark brown but also had a reddish tinge to it. Adding to this her olive complexion, she could definitely be described as “exotic.”

As to her figure, she was tall and curvaceous, built according to the hourglass, the quintessential ideal of feminine beauty. But there was a blight on Bella’s beauty—there always had been. It was tainted by the perpetual scowl on her face, tainted by the ugliness of her personality.

Bella didn’t say anything for a second or two and, instead, just wore an anxious, unhappy expression. Her gaze traveled around the room, as if she wanted to take stock of all who were present.

“Hi, Bella,” I greeted her.

She turned her ire-filled eyes to me and looked me up and down in an age-old bitchy way.

“Why did you order me here?” she demanded finally,
crossing her arms against her chest as if it were her last defense. “My list of soldiers is not complete.”

“I suggest ye speak with respect to yer Queen,” Odran spat out in disgust.

She glanced at Odran indifferently before gazing back at me. She remained mute and raised her brows as if to say she wasn’t impressed.

“I am inviting you to become a member of our society,” I said as I took a few steps away from the table. When Sinjin started to close in on me, I looked at him and shook my head. I didn’t want a shadow … or two. “I don’t imagine you want to be locked up forever?”

“No, I don’t.”

I nodded, trying my best to seem unthreatening. I wasn’t sure I was succeeding. “I’m trying to give you the chance to live a good life.”

“Go on,” she said. Some of her anger seemed to have dissipated, although she didn’t drop her arms from across her chest.

“I appreciate your help in reanimating your fallen,” I continued.

Bella looked at Sinjin. “It wasn’t like I had much of a choice.”

Sinjin glanced at me and shrugged.

“At any rate, I appreciate it and I’d like to return the favor,” I finished.

“If you’d like to return the favor, then let me live my life outside the monarchy. Let me be a renegade like Rand always was,” she spat out. Her eyes found Rand. “And where do you stand in all of this now? Are you still a renegade?”

Rand frowned and his face was stoic, placid. “Jolie’s vision of monarchy is drastically different from yours.”

“You never believed in any form of monarchy,” she retorted. “You must be screwing her.”

“You do not disrespect the Queen!” Mercedes ordered,
shocking the hell out of me and probably everyone else in the room. “You are extremely fortunate she has decided to spare you.”

Mercedes’ rainbow aura was in full effect and the blue and purplish sections seemed to glow the brightest, revealing her anger. Bella appeared to shrink a bit in front of the furious prophetess. I’m sure she was intimidated. Hell, I was intimidated, and Mercedes was defending me. Thank God she was on my side …

“You don’t have the option to be a renegade,” I said simply to Bella. “You either become a member of my kingdom or you stay imprisoned. The choice is yours.”

Bella was quiet as her attention shifted back to Sinjin. “And they have included
you
in this so-called monarchy?”

Sinjin shrugged, maintaining his expression of ennui. “I support my Queen wholeheartedly.”

“Your Queen.” Bella snickered. “There was a time when you said the exact same words to me.”

Sinjin returned the snicker. “Except with you I never meant them.”

Bella gnashed her teeth as if the lioness within her was about to make itself known. “How quickly you switch sides.”

“I never switched sides.” Sinjin’s eyes narrowed. “I was never on yours.”

“I don’t think we really need to get into this now,” I said, sensing that Bella’s temper was about to erupt like Old Faithful. But Bella ignored me.

“So, what, are you bedding her like you did me? Winning her over with your charisma and your lies?”

Sinjin never took his eyes off Bella. I could see the imprints of sharp teeth in his lower lip.

“I am dedicated solely to the Queen and her protection is my only duty,” he answered, and his accent somehow seemed deeper, stronger.

“Answer the question,” Bella seethed. “Are you screwing her like you screwed me?”

“No, he isn’t,” I said for Sinjin when he made no motion to answer. I suddenly felt anger spiraling up my throat, constricting it until I could barely catch my breath. “Not that it’s any of your damn business.”

Bella faced me, her cheeks flushed, her eyes so angry, it looked as if she might burst. “And do you actually believe he’s trustworthy?” She laughed acidly and faced Sinjin again. “I trusted him and look what he did to me.”

“This has—” I started.

“The one truth about Sinjin Sinclair is that he’s only out for himself. He doesn’t give a shit about anyone,” Bella interrupted.

Before I could blink Sinjin leapt forward, and in a split second Bella was in his arms, her neck braced between his fangs. All he had to do was bite down to sever her carotid artery.

“Sinjin!” I screamed. “Let her go.”

“I should sink my fangs into you and kill you,” he seethed, glaring down at her.

She said nothing but gulped down her fear. Instantly Odran and Rand were beside Sinjin. Rand was first to grasp his arm; Odran took the other.

“Release her,” Rand said in a tight voice.

“It is yer Queen’s command,” Odran reiterated.

Sinjin retracted his fangs. In another second he pushed Bella away and took a step back, shaking himself loose from Rand and Odran.

“You will never again compare yourself to Jolie,” Sinjin warned, staring at Bella as his chest heaved, which was odd considering Sinjin didn’t breathe, couldn’t breathe. He must have just been super pissed off. “You are nothing but a blight. If you ever so much as look at your Queen with anything but respect, I will finish you.”

Bella’s eyes narrowed. “So you could kill me just as easily as you bedded me?”

Sinjin returned to the table and took a seat, brushing himself off as if nothing had happened, and he hadn’t just humiliated Bella in front of all of us.

“I believe the answer is quite clear,” he finished.

And then Bella did something that surprised me. She laughed. Granted, it was sour and dripping with sarcasm, but it was a laugh all the same.

“You are such a fool,” she said. I gulped as I glanced at Sinjin, hoping he wouldn’t attack her again. “I actually feel nothing but pity for you.”

“I can’t imagine why,” he replied in a droll voice, as if he was doing her a favor by continuing to listen to her.

Bella nodded like she was going to give him an earful. “Because you’re in love with a woman who’s in love with another man.”

Dear Ms. Diary, phew … I really don’t know what to say about that whole situation with Bella last night, er, today—I can’t even seem to keep track of time. I just checked the clock and it’s four a.m. so I guess that means our meeting with Bella ended early this morning (just a few hours ago as a matter of fact)
.

I’m actually pretty upset with Sinjin because I feel like he spurred Bella on intentionally—like he wanted to hurt her. I tried to go to sleep once the meeting ended but I’ve been up all night thinking about it. I wonder if the fact that Sinjin had to feign loyalty to Bella in the past—and in doing so had sex with her—really offended some deep-down part of him in that labyrinth of mystery and subterfuge he calls his heart. (And I won’t even get into the ways their sexcapades offended and still do offend me. Let’s just say it’s a visual I desperately try to avoid.)

As to whether or not Sinjin really was shamed by his relations with Bella—it’s all just speculation. It could be nothing more than me pinning Sinjin with remorse and regret where none truly exist. And really, what man wouldn’t want to have sex with a woman as beautiful as Bella? Even if she is the spawn of the devil? I just can’t really understand why Sinjin acted with such passionate vehemence toward her. Was it to protect me? To prove
something? Because he honestly hates her? As usual, I’m never really sure what Sinjin is up to or what his true intentions are. What I can say is that Sinjin acted without thinking and now I’m sure Bella isn’t going to want to have anything to do with us. And based on his show of … anger toward her, I also wonder if he’s the best candidate to procure her list of deceased soldiers. Hmm, maybe I should pass that duty to Rand instead
.

Rand … Nope, won’t even spare a thought for him. Not going there
.

Moving right along … one of the other things that I can’t seem to eradicate from my mind was when Bella said Sinjin was in love with me. I mean, I know she said that to lash out at him, but I don’t know what to make of it, all the same. After Bella said it, there was total silence in the room and it seemed like everyone was suddenly admiring my floors. I glanced at Sinjin and he was staring Bella down, looking like he’d tear her apart if he had the chance. And, honestly, if we hadn’t been in the room, I think Bella would have been a goner
.

And Rand. After Bella announced that Sinjin was in love with me and I was in love with another man, Rand’s attention had been riveted on the view outside the window, like he didn’t even want to be in the room. And as for me? I still don’t know what to think about the whole situation. But I do have this gut feeling in the core of my being that says Sinjin really isn’t in love with me. He’s in lust with me, yes, but I have the feeling that if I ever gave in to him and actually had sex with him and played the part of the enamored girlfriend, he’d want nothing more to do with me. I just can’t see Sinjin as the relationship sort of guy—there’s something about him that screams instability and unreliability. Nope, he’s the guy every woman loves to pine after in the hope she can tame him, domesticate the stallion into an ideal husband. Ha, good luck!