Page 23 of Silverproof Damsel

Easy.

They couldn’t.

Their wards couldn’t, either.

It meant that eventually, I’d be forced to go with Rhys. He knew what we were up against, but more so, he knew how to keep them out.

By being here, I was placing my family in danger. One they weren’t prepared to face. I couldn’t place my family in danger. I just wouldn’t do that to them. They deserved a chance to rise and become a recognized house again. I was the thing standing between them and that happening.

Rhys refused their request to become a house. He’d refused every application because of our history. If I bartered with him, would he allow them to become a house again? Could I even barter with him?

If my temper would sit the fuck down, then I could think beyond my pain. I’d have to swallow my pride to ask him first. That meant I needed him to return to me in a dreamscape. I’d be lucky if I hadn’t fucked that up by showing him that I held enough power to push him from my mind with flames.

What was a girl to do? The choice was easier to think about than to set forward toward. I could either swallow my damn pride and admit Rhys’ right or place all those I love in peril.

A few problems stood in the way of doing that, though. One, I didn’t know who within the Van Helsing line wanted me dead or my child taken and enslaved. Until I did, I’d be placing myself in danger within their house. Two, Winchester would lose her mind if I told her I didn’t think she could keep me safe here.

Neither one sounded easy, but I’d have to choose one or the other soon. I couldn’t do either of them until the sun came up. That meant I had hours to kill tonight because sleep wasn’t a possibility anymore. Not with Rhys waiting for me in my dreams.

Chapter Nine

Steambillowedupfromthe tub I soaked in. Five amethysts the size of human skulls sat on each point of the bathtub and one at the foot of it. Chamomile, sage, and lavender floated on the watery surface, easing the stress of discovering Rhys outside the chateau. Clusters of the dark, rainbow filled smoky quartz sparkled from the windowsill and counter. Twelve lemongrass scented candles perfumed the air thickly.

In my chamber, dragon sage warded off the dark, toxic energy. Silently, I rested my eyes as everything Rhys stated continually repeated inside my head. It ruined the entire cleansing theme I had gone for, but it was hard to ignore the truth of his words.

It wasn’t me they wanted. I was merely the vessel carrying the prize they sought. A child they meant to enslave and then wield as a weapon against all immortals.

Akingmaker.

Not a babe who’d wronged no one or never asked to be born. No, to the cold, cruel bastards hunting us, Bullet was merely something to remove immortals from their perspective thrones and give their power to the order.

Honestly, I hadn’t even considered that Iwasn’tthe target. Several attacks felt wrong. If they had been more heartless, they’d have easily murdered me. Instead, they hesitated. It had inadvertently gotten them killed. It should’ve made me stop and think, but I’d been oblivious to their end goal.

It had taken Rhys’ words for me to finally connect to puzzle pieces. Rhys had been able to deduce what their goal had been without seeing the entire picture. It should’ve irritated me, and honestly, it did. I couldn’t be mad, though. Not when he was working to protect our child, too.

Had I missed the exceptional qualities in my child? No. I wasn’t as stupid as everyone assumed. Bullet was the first child ever born to the Silversmith and Van Helsing bloodlines. A child with the strength and prowess of a warrior, who also held the capability and magic to wield lethal silver against immortals.

That was the purpose behind Roslyn seeking out Rhys initially. For a Silversmith to murder an immortal, she’d require the aid of a Van Helsing full-blooded knight. Rhys, along with the others, had united, intending to murder the Silversmiths. They hadn’t managed to kill a Silversmith who’d reached immortality. Only innocent lives had been lost to the fires they’d set ablaze.

It was how the balance of power had been created. To take down another house, two houses needed to work together. A feat that had never been accomplished until Rhys unknowingly led his mother to my grandfather who killed her along with the other things he did to Verity.

Now Bullet? He wouldn’t need anyone to slaughter the heads of the immortal houses. There’d be no balance or check for a child born of the most powerful bloodlines.

Had I been oblivious to what Bullet was? No, I’d simply stuck my head in the sand and did my best to ignore the truth.

A unicorn. One worth killing to own.

But so, the fuck, was I!

If they thought I’d be easy to kill, they’d grossly failed to consider how malicious a mother would become to protect her young. Rhys had also forgotten to add that to the equation. Then maybe he wouldn’t have come to the sad conclusion that I was a liability or a weakness.

Rhys’ words of enslavement had driven the point home. He made it abundantly clear that I was foolish for ignoring his warning. Maybe I was, but my sense of safety around him was gone. I should feel different around him.

My sense of safety here also ended because of him. I couldn’t escape from town. I couldn’t hide here with my family. My options appeared more dismal with every passing moment.

I could either trust in Rhys’ ability and need to protect Bullet, or chance our child being used to kill him, along with everyone I loved. Why did he have to destroy everything we’d created together? I’d trusted him before he’d turned on me. If I were honest, I still trusted him to protect me. I just couldn’t trust him with my heart.

There was also the fact that he’d changed since then, too. He’d chosen to allow his demon-half out of the cage he kept it restrained in. Rhys had long ago forced that part of him to live only within the dreamscape.

---