Page 85 of Silverproof Damsel

“She was horrendous.” At my agreement, the others nodded in agreement. “They’ll not correct you. No one here felt any love loss when she ceased to exist.”

Nyx snorted her relief, then produced her phone from beneath the table. “Is anyone else not getting a signal?” My forehead creased as she held her phone up, showing off the symbol for no signal. “I’m trying to reach Acyn to figure out what is happening, but it’s been like this since your brothers left.”

Peeking towards Winchester, I found her face pinched in suspicion. “That’s strange. We have a satellite dish to ensure we don’t have internet issues so far out of the city center,”

she muttered.

Daisy, Savage, and Beretta all checked theirs before Winchester excused herself to reset the router. The others glanced around, causing worry to drift throughout the room. Standing up, Savage walked to the sideboard, pouring two fingers of whisky into a goblet.

“Is it me, or is anyone else finding it strange that Rhys Van Helsing called away his skilled, battle-hardened knights right as a large group of knights entered town?” Tapping her fingers on her goblet, she frowned as Daisy cleared her throat.

“Technically, Luis removed them,” Daisy corrected. “The timing is strange, though. I’ll agree with that. Also, every Van Helsing bailed as well.”

My palms settled on my swollen abdomen. “Rhys wouldn’t have called them off unless it was an emergency.”

Nyx nodded emphatically in agreement. “Acyn wouldn’t either. He was outside earlier. When the others bailed, he followed them.”

Winchester stepped into the room, her eyes scanning the exits as she slowly released a breath. “Something is wrong. The wires to the servers in the control room are cut. Someone disabled the alarm system.”

Beretta snorted, then stated what everyone was thinking. “That would mean someone’s inside the chateau with us. Are you telling us the enemy is inside our home?” All eyes turned toward where she wiped her gravy-covered hands with her napkin. “Well—fucking hell.”

“Remington, I need you to come with me. The rest, you should retire to your rooms for the night. We need to act as if we’re unaware they’ve infiltrated the house.”

Savage groaned but muttered softly. “You had the witch return to strengthen the wards. You had a second one here to check that she’d reinforced them, along with adding a secondary layer. How the fuck did they bypass the layers so easily?”

“They brought their witch along with them,” I pointed out softly. “Call forth your silver, now,” I demanded as the faint sound of feet inching closer touched my ears. “Now!” I shouted as the men nearing us gave up attempting to get the jump.

The hum of silver tearing through the air sang around the house. Magic fused, exploding inside the house to shield against the fast moving missiles. A dark, sinister shadow hovered over the chateau as battle cries erupted.

Nyx climbed beneath the table, yanking each omega down as she crawled the length of it. My sisters took positions at each of the four exits of the dining hall, each one looking to the other for direction.

Fear sliced through me as my mind whirled with what was happening. My hand lifted, palm sweaty as I rubbed the back of my neck, uncertain about how to protect both myself and my family from the current predicament.

Closing my eyes, I listened to the heartbeats outside of the chamber. Each one beat rapidly, ensuring we couldn’t unleash silver blindly and hurt an innocent within the house. The witch they employed was at ease wielding magic. Their heart wasn’t erratic like most other witches during the unleashing of a spell.

“They’re outside every exit,” Winchester stated calmly. “The witch is blocking the silver from entering the corridors they’re occupying. They outnumber us ten to one. If you want my guess, they called the knights away after they’d infiltrated the house. They’re going to try to take Remington from us by force.”

“Over my dead body,” Savage growled.

“They don’t care if the rest of us live or die,” Daisy growled. “They proved that when they murdered Colt.”

My stomach tightened as nausea threatened to spew from my lips. Closing my eyes, I pushed up from the table and turned to look at Winchester. Her color paled as she saw the resolve in my eyes.

“It will buy us time for you to figure out how to save me,” I stated, shaking my head. “Nyx, silence your phone and hand it to me. Now. Tell Rhys I have it. The tracker is on.”

It was something we’d been taught at E.V.I.E. to ensure we were all trackable. Savage tossed me her leather jacket, allowing me to shove the phone into the inside pocket.

“What good will that do?” Winchester asked, her eyes swimming with unshed tears.

Straightening my spine, I slowly released the breath I’d been holding. Inside, I was a flurry of uncertainty and fear. Fear of this going wrong rather quickly. This plan only worked if Rhys came, then worked alongside my siblings to save me.

“Trust me. He’ll know what to do. Winchester, work with him and his siblings. Now step away from the door. No heroics.”

Chapter Forty

ThelookonWinchester’sface would haunt me until the end of time. Whatever time I had left, anyway. The moment I stepped into the hallway, I found myself staring down the end of a barrel. Lifting my hands, I felt hands grabbing me from behind, shoving me away from the room filled with defenseless women.

The thing about being a Silversmith was that if something prevented us from deploying silver, we were magically neutered. The man who grabbed me from behind laughed cruelly in my ear.

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