Page 73 of Silverproof Damsel

My hair floated around my head, glowing with strands of silver threaded throughout the locks. Veins of wispy strands of silver flowed from my fingertips, revealing the connection to the silver within Nyota.

A soothing humming started from outside the room, flooding it with magic that added power to my waning strength. I felt the arms of the coven fueling me with their magic and adding grit to mine. Arms slipped around me, eliciting a soft cry from my parted chapped lips.

“I’ve got you, Love. Let us help you.” Rhys’ raspy timbre sent a ripple of stamina and silent strength rushing through my veins.

“You can do this, Sunshine,” Cole added firmly, a hint of respect entering his tone.

My eyes closed as my power grew as the witches pushed their magic into me, forcing it straight to the very center of my soul. The entire room grew violent as my magic ripped the strands out, piece by piece until only a few tiny shards remained.

Nyota’s screams of pain were deafening. They pierced my ears like ice picks, repeatedly being forced into my brain through my ear canals. My knees bent as sweat coated my flesh, plastering my shirt over my abdomen and lower back.

Talia stood on the other side of us. She watched as I fought to remove all traces of the poisonous silver from Nyota’s system. Rhys shivered against my back, more than likely, feeling every ounce of pain I felt. He’d touched me before I could warn himfrom doing so. Not that I could’ve formed coherent words at the moment.

Pain shot through my middle until I shrieked along with Nyota, both flooded with agony. Rhys’ hold on me tightened as Nyota tossed and turned, sitting upright as her body buckled repeatedly, seeking escape from the pain. Slamming back on the bed, she began twitching and seizing as I dug deep into her circulatory system, seeking the tiny silver slivers hiding within her body.

“Stop her now or I will, Rhys. She’s killing her!” Arryn’s dark, somber timbre announced.

“Touch her and you’ll feel every ounce of pain she and your sister do at the moment,” Talia hissed, her tone loaded with warning. “She’s not killing her. Remington’s removing the silver from Nyota. She’s doing it at a great cost to herself.”

“Find a way to get Remington out of that room. Alive,” Rhys ordered, a tremble in his tone. “Talia, I can’t lose her.”

“Pray to your gods she’s strong enough to succeed, then. All of you,” she warned in an ominous tone.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Cole demanded in a low growl.

Tsking sounded before Talia responded. “It means get on your knees, boy. What do you think it means?” she scoffed as feminine laughter resonated throughout the corridor.

I forced my mind to push out the voices and people in the hallway from my thoughts. Concealing magic was costing me too much energy. Releasing the hold that I held on to it with, caused the room to flood with blinding light before it evaporated, bathing the room in darkness.

The putrid scent of phosphorus assaulted my senses as the gasses released into the air. A soft breeze started, carried by the magic of witches outside of the chamber. The hair on my armsprickled at the sheer magnitude of power they circumvented together.

In the darkness of the room, silver light erupted as my magic revealed the thin, wispy strands of the precious metal I removed from Nyota’s twisting, pain racked form. Her screams pierced my hearing, stabbing deeply into my eardrums as the fiery hot silver was forced from her form.

The thin, twirling vines slowly pulled from her flesh at several places at once. Each one twisting into the air as it left her flesh, dancing between her flesh and my fingers. One by one, I tied the strands of thread into knots, as if creating a thick rope with the delicate metal.

“That’s something you don’t see every day,” Talia commented. Her statement made my stomach twist painfully. “She’s very powerful, Rhys. More powerful than even her mother was.” The awe in her voice sent a ripple of tension forming in the air.

“I know she is, Talia. I’ve always known. She’s not her mother.”

“You’ve finally noticed that?” she chided, softly laughing as he swore beneath his breath. “If I were you, boy, I’d lend her your strength. You are her protector. Correct?”

Rhys made a strangled sound of exasperation before responding. “You know I am. I’d give her it all if it meant she’d survive this foolishness.”

More soft chuckling sounded before she instructed him. “She doesn’t need it all, Van Helsing. Remington only needs a little of your resolve and strength to survive this. If you want her to survive, I’d do it now. She’s faltering.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I felt my entire body burning with the effort it took to continue removing the silver. Sharp pains stabbed in my middle, causing tears to prick my eyes. Talia was right. I was going to fail in retrieving the silver from Nyota’s internal organs. Tears andsweat both ran down my face, neck, and chest. The camisole and shorts I wore clung to my flesh like a second skin.

“How?” the single word sounded strangled, as if he felt the danger I’d placed myself in viscerally deep. “Tell me how to do it. I can’t lose her.”

“Reach for her through the connection you share,” Talia instructed in a calming, soothing, motherly tone. “Once you’ve found it, figure out which one is connected to her soul. The moment you’ve found it, send your power through it to her.”

I’d figured it would take more time for him to discover which thread connecting us was my soul. It didn’t. Within seconds, power rushed through me, forcing my hair to whoosh into the air as my entire body filled with warmth.

I felt more powerful than I’d ever felt before. The pain lessened as I jerked on the silver still threaded throughout Nyota’s system, demanding it retract and return to the source. Me. All at once, it shot at me, wrapping around my hands violently.

A new pain started as the silver burned its way through my flesh, attacking me. A scream bubbled up in my chest before exploding through the room. My knees buckled before slamming against the floor. For the first time in my life, I felt the heat of my silver, as it assaulted me as if I were a foe.

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