The Beautiful and the Faultless | Cami O'Connell

Chapter 26

She hoped they wouldn't freak out.

But knowing Jackson and Rebekah, she might end up in an hour-long lecture about why this was such a terrible idea.

Elijah contacted her first, revealing they had the weapon that could kill an Original. Apparently, the little wooden knight that Hope carried with her all the time was made of white oak. Freya was working on hiding it beneath dozens of spells after consulting Finn from the pendant, and Klaus had already made one identical to it for Hope. Unfortunately, she seemed to know the difference and did not really enjoy her fake knight.

Ingrid was glad to know they had that at least had that under control. So, after expressing how happy she was that they figured that out, she went to the Kenner apartment, taking advantage of the fact that Jackson was home alone while Hayley and Klaus (miraculously, together) took Hope shopping. The Strix Sisters had decided to just relieve Ingrid of her blood pact, allowing her to go speak to Jackson and Rebekah alone. She figured they were kind of nervous about going with her to speak to her family.

"Hi there," she said, waving her hand the instant she walked in, making sure a Silencing Spell would keep anyone from overhearing their conversation.

Jackson was slightly suspicious. "Ingrid," he said, noticing she wasn't wearing her necklace. "Everything alright?"

"I need your help with something," she said, setting down her bag, which made quite a loud noise as she set it on the table because of all the jars of spell ingredients inside of it. "I'm gonna do a spell... a big one. One that will be really, really beneficial. To complete it, I need an unsired heart, which would be... Hayley's. But I don't want to hurt her or let her in on my plan, so I was hoping you'd be willing to donate some blood so I can make a duplicate of yours?"

Jackson raised a brow. "You know, I think it might sound less creepy if you just ask for my Social Security Number and all my bank information."

"It's for The Strix," she said. "Don't freak out, but I took a job with them just to defeat them. They're not going to see this coming. I swear, the spell won't hurt you, I just need you to keep it a secret."

He crossed his arms. "Ingrid, since when the hell are you working for The Strix?"

"Only since a few days ago. And only for a few days more then, I'll be done and Tristan will be gone and... hopefully with Alexis back, we can find out more about the prophecy. Then Finn will be here and then Aiden will be here and Josh will be happy—"

He held up his hand. "I'm still not understanding... you took this job just to take them down? Couldn't you have..." he waved his hands, and made a cracking noise. "Or like, told Freya to do it?"

"It's not that simple," she said. "I needed my magic first, and they..."

Jackson sighed. "They gave you your magic back. 'Kay, no wonder you're..." he motioned to the door and how she'd cast a spell the instant she walked in. "And you're sure this is... for a good reason? The hell will an unsired heart do?"

"It'll allow me to unlink Rebekah from her sirelings, creating a Nexus Vorti to defeat The Strix and bring back the three people I mentioned."

His eyes widened. "You're gonna what? Ingrid, no offense, you sound freakin' crazy."

"I prefer 'driven to be victorious and meet my goals.'"

He shook his head. "Look, I'm hardly a part of this family and I always gotta watch my back, 'cause I feel like Klaus will just decide to chop my head off one day. I can't imagine they're okay with this, even if you are their cousin. What did Rebekah say?"