Something Witchy This Way Comes: A Jolie Wilkins Novel by H. P. Mallory Page B

wondering when the guards would escort Sinjin in and, more so, when this whole ordeal would be over. My attention turned to Klaasje, who was sitting beside Varick. The older vampire was prattling on about something,but I could tell she wasn’t listening. She was pale and her normally bright, wide eyes were even wider, scared. She hated every second of this as much as I did—hated the fact that her friend was about to be banished and then God only knew what would happen to him.
    “It’s still not a decision that leaves me with the warm fuzzies,” I said, and sighed.
    Rand nodded but was spared further comment when the double doors opened and two burly werewolf guards walked inside, Sinjin between them. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, considering that Sinjin was for all intents and purposes a prisoner, but he certainly wasn’t dressed like one. Now, in his midnight-colored suit, he looked like he was heading to a black-tie event. There wasn’t a chain or a handcuff to be seen. He strolled inside casually, pausing when he reached the center of the room. The guards took their positions on either side of the doors and stood there, wearing solemn frowns.
    “The party can begin,” Sinjin said with a smile as he scanned the room, his smile broadening when his attention settled on me. I felt my stomach drop.
    “Sinjin Sinclair,” Mercedes started as she approached him. She was dressed in a long flowing purple velvet cape with a hood over her head. She looked like she was trying to impersonate a monk.
    Sinjin had been right when he’d described this as nothing more than pomp and circumstance. It seemed especially heavy on the pomp.
    “Mercedes Berg, the prophetess,” Sinjin said with that devil’s smile, a smile that said he wasn’t takingany of this seriously, that it was all just a big game to him—like, well, most things in his life.
    “You might do well to wipe that grin off your mouth, as you have been denied the privilege of protecting your Queen from this day forward,” Varick called out from his seat on the opposite side of the room.
    Sinjin glanced at him and smirked. “Ah, my dear comrade Varick, why should I not smile when I am so enjoying myself?”
    Mercedes cleared her throat. “I do not want to make this task long or arduous,” she said firmly.
    “We have that in common,” Sinjin responded, dropping the smile as he faced her again.
    “Then I will not delay,” she finished, and turned toward me. “My Queen, before you stands your former chief protector, do you approve of his removal from this office?”
    I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
    She faced Sinjin again. “As our Queen has vested within me the power to free you from your responsibilities as her chief protector, you are hereby stripped of that office.”
    Sinjin glanced at me but said nothing, merely nodded in an almost humble sort of way. Then he bowed in a practiced form and turned to face Mercedes again, expectant. Mercedes simply sat down in the seat beside me as Odran stood up and lumbered toward Sinjin.
    “As ah representative ah the Queen’s panel, I declare that Sinjin Sinclair, Master Vampire, is ta be stripped ah ’is title ah Master Vampire and banished froom the Queen’s kingdoom … forever.”
    Sinjin nodded again and said nothing apparently,just listening to Odran’s words. Once the King of the Fae lumbered back to his seat, Sinjin must have recognized the floor was his own. He cocked a brow and narrowed his gaze on me, until it seemed as though no one else in the room even existed.
    “I recognize and abide by my Queen’s will,” he began. “I have only ever wanted to protect her, to ensure her longevity and happiness.”
    Rand grumbled something. I ignored him.
    “My Queen, these are uncertain times in which we are living,” Sinjin continued, as if Rand’s reaction were of no consequence to him. “And it would serve you well to rethink my banishment.”
    “The decision is made,” Rand said furtively.