Page 85 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck
“She’ll be eighteen by the time she starts university,” I said, enjoying getting him going.
“Aye, and eighteen is but a babe,” he retorted. “Too young for any of that.”
“Arch, boys go to high school with her now, and I’m sure a lot of the teens do a lot of what you saw on the show, even in high school,” I said. “We just have to believe we raised her to have good judgment.”
“It’s nae her judgment that concerns me,” said Arch. “It’s the young men going to school with her. You should have let me teach her to kill with her bare hands.”
It took all I had to keep from laughing. “While I did appreciate you offering to teach her ways to kill a man before she’d mastered the art of walking, I think we’ll maybe stick with not turning her into a lethal weapon. Besides, I did let you teach her some things.”
He scowled. “Och, only enough to get clear of danger and then run. That’s nae sufficient. She needs to be taughtallof what I know. You let me show you more than I’ve shown her. She needs to be able tocrushher enemy with one swift blow,” he said, bringing a hand up and moving it around as if he was visualizing himself delivering a death blow to someone. Knowing him, he was. I’d done some research on redcaps and learned they were well-known in the Fae community for being bloodthirsty and ruthless. “The little one should be able to lay waste to her enemies. And she should be taught to use her Fae magik, nae just suppress it.”
“I don’t want that life for her,” I said softly.
Arch met my gaze. “You may nae want that life for her, but it’s the one she’s got. You’d do well to remember that, Rachael. You do nae want to be left standing over her grave, mourning her. Have you nae buried enough people in yer life?”
His words were harsh but true.
I sighed. “Okay, let’s discuss you training her in the morning. How about we get through the banquet tonight first? Sound good?”
“Aye,” he said, grinning. “That sounds guid. Thank you.”
I nodded.
He caught my hand. “You need to learn more too. As does Astria. Yer nae women with normal lives.”
He was right.
“I know,” I said, appreciating that he cared. Okay, more than cared.
He was hopeless and insanely overprotective of Demi. He’d been that way from day one. When Rhys had first given me a containment pendant for my daughter, explaining to me that a demon was sentenced to life within it, I’d been reluctant to let it anywhere around her. But Torid had been so good with Astria that I gave in, trusting that Rhys had our best interest at heart and wanted Demi safe. I knew he’d been friends with Drest and had been breaking a lot of rules by securing a pendant for Demi.
The second Arch had popped out of the pendant, I’d screamed. It wasn’t one of my finer moments. He’d glared at me and snarled at Rhys. As he turned his attention to Demi, who had been in her bassinet at the time, staring up at everyone with huge eyes, I’d tried to block him from getting to her.
Rhys had caught me around the waist and held me, shaking his head, encouraging me to let the meeting happen.
It took all of me, but I trusted the process. It was then I watched the intimidating hulk of a man, who I later learned was half-Fae, half-demon, look down at my daughter and smile. Every ounce of rage he’d had seemed to fade away as he stared at Demi. He reached into the bassinet and touched her cheek, calling her little one and making her smile. He’d then turned to face Rhys and me and nodded, his gaze firmly locked on Rhys.
And that was that. He’d selected Demi as much as she’d picked him by accepting him. The rest was history. He’d been with us every day since. And I was grateful for that, especially since we’d been on the run for a chunk of the past seventeen years.
At first, it was because my brother’s monsters kept tracking us down. I learned quickly that stitched-together monsters weren’t the only things that wanted us dead. Turned out my relationship with Drest and having a child with him had gone over with the Nightshade decision-makers worse than we’d expected. Not that we’d thought they’d be thrilled or anything.
They barely tolerated the Frankenstein family. Having one give birth to a child that was part-Nightshade, from one of their most powerful family lines, was simply unacceptable to certain factions within the clan. The first attempt they’d made on my daughter’s life had come after she had only just learned to crawl. Arch and Torid were the only reason we’d made it out of that situation alive and relatively unharmed.
It only got worse from there. It hadn’t mattered that we’d been in the Nightshade’s version of witness protection to keep us safe from Henry’s monsters and other threats. That only worked if the threats weren’t also some of the very people charged with keeping you safe.
Rhys realized as much. It’s why he helped me get a pendant. That act was why I’d never seen him again after that night.
“Arch, what did you do with her shoes and earrings?” I asked, my hand still on his shoulder.
“I’m nae telling,” he said, jutting out his chin.
“I gave on you teaching her to fight,” I said. “Give on this.”
“No,” he said. “I do nae want her to go there.”
“You’ll be going with her!” I protested.
He shrugged. “Doesnae matter.”
