Codename: Aconite Chapter Sixty
Codename: Aconite Chapter Sixty
As I pack up my gym bag, a smile fills my face as I watch Athena walk out to the patio and hug her mother. Rhea embraces her daughter, holding her and swaying her with all the love and tenderness she needs right now. I said it once to Dimitris and the same is true for Athena; I don’t mind being the villain. I don’t mind being the person they hate and direct their anger towards if it means they get to have tender moments like this with each other.
Sometimes I feel like the women in my family are sin eaters. We take on your sins and willingly bear that burden with ease so that the souls of others are spared. It takes a special person to carry such an enormous weight, and it seems my bloodline was blessed with such a gift – or cursed, depending on how you look at it.
I sling my bag over my shoulder and walk over to Silas as he converses with Uncle Dimitris. It’s been several weeks since I sent Sathariel on a one-way trip to hell and since then, Silas and I have slipped into this oddly comforting domestic routine. Or at least as domestic as two assassins can get. He keeps me company while I work on my poisons and even helps me tend to my plants, and I ogle him during firing practice and help him polish his guns, and I mean that both literally and metaphorically.
I thought any form of domestic life would feel foreign to me, but with Silas it’s effortless. We’re both completely healed from our injuries and Silas has made a fantastic recovery from me poisoning him yet again. Silas is the only man to ever survive me, and if that doesn’t scream ‘meant to be’ then I don’t know what does.
Now that things have settled, Silas has had a chance to be properly introduced to my family and make a far better impression on them than he did the first time. Took a couple interactions, but now they love him like the son they never had. He and my father now bond over their guns and cars, and while Mum took a bit longer to come around, she didn’t have much of a choice when Silas met my grandparents and won my nonna over by telling her what a fan he was of her work. Should have seen him when she regaled him with tails of her kills during her youth. He was like a child listening to Christmas stories read by Santa himself. It was pretty adorable.
Since things have been going well, and Silas now feels like part of the family, he felt it was only fair I meet his parents, which is exactly where we’re headed now that my training session with Athena is over. I’m both nervous and extremely excited. Now it’s my turn to fangirl over his father.
As I walk up to Silas, he wraps his arm around me and kisses my forehead, making me melt into his arms like warm butter.
“You ready to go?” he asks.
I nod. “I just want to have a quick word with Dimitris then I’ll meet you in the car.”
“Not a problem.” He extends his hand to Dimitris, “We can talk more about this when we get back from our trip.”
Dimitris gives him a sincere smile and shakes his hand, “I look forward to it. Have a safe flight.”
Silas strokes my side and walks out, leaving me alone with Dimitris. I follow Dimitris’ eye-line as he looks across the room, out to the patio, to the sight of his daughter smiling and laughing with her mother.
“Must you push her so hard?”
“Yes. If she is to move past this ordeal, she needs to realise she’s stronger than she thinks. She has to take back control, and no one can do that for her but her. If she needs kid gloves, she’s got you and Rhea, but if she needs brass knuckles, she’s got me.”
He sighs, nodding in understanding as he watches Athena with a warm smile on his face. “It’s nice to see her behaving like her old self again.”
“Theeé,” I sigh, “She will never be her old self. Her old self is dead and gone and you can’t keep comparing her to who she used to be or hoping that girl will return. It’s not good for her or you. You need to embrace the young woman she’s becoming and help her navigate her way through all of this shit as she figures herself out.” I reach out and rub his arm for reassurance.
He takes in a deep breath and looks at me with accepting eyes. “You’re right, as usual. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done to help Athena. I was scared we’d lose her forever, but you’re helping her to live again and I’m forever in your debt.” He overlaps my hand, squeezing it affectionately.
I smile up at him. “And I’ll be cashing in one day, I promise you that.”
“Tell me, what will you do if you have a daughter one day?” he asks curiously.
“I would be even harder on her than I am on Athena. I would give her the tools she needs to survive in this world just like my mother did for me.”
“And if she decides to follow in your footsteps like you did and your mother before you?”
“Then I would train her ten times harder. I would push her so hard she would hate me for it. I’d shower her with love every minute of the day, but I would train her to be the most lethal thing on this planet. I would teach her everything she needs not just to survive but thrive in my world so that no one would dare fuck with her, and if they even dare to, that it be a suicide mission. She’ll make her own mistakes and learn from them, but I can at least stop her from making the same ones I did.”
He nods, smiling in understanding as he places a tender kiss on my forehead. “Training aside, I think you’d make a terrific mother.”
“You do?” I say with surprise.
“The wave you have been with Athena since she was brought home is enough to tell me that any child would be lucky to call you mother,” he says sincerely.
Tears prick my eyes and I gulp down the lump forming in my throat. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“I have my moments,” he shrugs with a bemused smile. “Now, you should get going. I hope everything goes well in Moldova.”
“Me too,” I say brightly. “I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
I kiss his cheek, race out to the car and jump into the passenger seat, beaming at Silas as he slides on his sunglasses.
“Let’s go meet your parents,” I cheer, tossing my bag into the backseat.
He smiles at me then faces forward as he peels out of the driveway and heads for the airport.