President's Daughter's Bodyguard-Chapter 121: The Spark You Don’t Ignore

Chapter 121: The Spark You Don’t Ignore

Argash was still on the floor, clutching his bleeding thigh and muttering curses at her like rabid poison leaking from a dying beast.

"Grab her!" he hissed with a voice that broke from pain.

Three more Helena women rushed in, and Danielle spun away, slicing at the air just enough to keep them cautious.

She dropped low, rolled behind one of them, and kicked her knees from behind. The woman fell hard...

Another grabbed at Danielle’s hair. Danielle twisted with a snarl, drove her elbow into the woman’s ribs, and shoved her back. This bunny almost made it to Theo... almost reached him.

But one woman managed to grab her from behind. Another caught her wrist, and a third pinned her legs.

The silver blade slipped from her grip.

"Let me go!" Danielle shouted, thrashing wildly. "Get your filthy hands off me!"

They held her down with surprising strength, forcing her to kneel near where Argash lay panting. His face was pale, sweat poured down his neck, and anger like flames burned in his eyes like he had been possessed by something uglier than himself.

He forced himself to stand on one shaking leg, using the pillar for balance.

"You will suffer for that wound," he said through clenched teeth. "You were born to serve my Lord. You were born to be sacrificed. You were born for obedience."

Danielle spat at the ground near him. "You were born to rot."

Argash leaned in, started breathing heavily. "Lift her chin," he commanded.

The women obeyed. One grabbed Danielle’s jaw tightly, forcing her face upward. Argash pointed at her throat with a trembling hand.

"Hold her still. I will finish what was promised."

The knife was still in his leg. He reached for it and pulled, screaming through teeth clenched so hard a vein bulged in his neck. Blood poured freely. His face twisted into something very ugly and inhuman.

He raised the blood-coated dagger over her head.

And Danielle stopped fighting.

Her chest rose and fell slowly, eventually even her eyes softened.

Lowering her voice to a calm, strangely controlled tone that made the women holding her glance at one another, Dani started smiling.

"You are all blind," Danielle said loudly.

Argash stopped midswing.

The Helena women hesitated.

"Blind?" Argash repeated in a trembling with rage voice.

Danielle’s chin was still held painfully tight, but her stare no longer belonged to a victim. She looked at the women rather than him.

"How long will you endure him?" Danielle asked.

The words vibrated through the chamber like sparks.

The women shifted their shoulders and eyes uneasily.

"How long will you kneel for a man who praises your obedience but never your worth?" she continued. "How long will you give your bodies and your blood for someone who would not bleed a single drop for you unless it served him?"

One of the Helena women tightened her grip on Danielle’s arm but her eyes had no doubt.

Argash hissed, "Silence her."

Danielle ignored him completely.

"Look at him," she said to the women. "He is bleeding. He is shaking, and he is terrified that you might finally hear the truth."

The women looked at Argash unconsciously.

Danielle leaned forward as much as the grip allowed.

"He does not love you! He does not honor you. He does not care who you were before he stole your name. To him, you are not daughters. You are not women. You are products."

Argash shouted, "Enough." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Danielle’s voice rose louder.

"For how long?" she demanded. "For how long will you let him cut your sisters open? For how long will you bow to someone who only takes? For how long will you watch your lives disappear into a fire that never warms you?"

A murmuring rippled through the women.

Argash stepped forward, and hate was trembling through his limbs.

"They belong to the Lord," he finally stated, trying to stabilise his voice. "Not to themselves."

"That is exactly the problem."

The room seemed to change.

One Helena woman loosened her grip just a little. Another’s breath started shaking. The oldest among them blinked, as if waking up from a long sleep.

Danielle kept pushing.

"You call him your guide?! Yet he hides in the shadows. You call him wise, yet he can’t speak a single word without trembling with fear of his own failures. You call him holy, but he can’t even protect himself from a woman who nearly died three times and still stands."

Argash lunged toward her with the dagger raised.

"Hold her still!" he barked.

But the women didn’t tighten their grip.

Danielle lifted her chin on her own and glared straight into Argash’s eyes.

"You break the weak...But I am not weak. And neither are they."

Her voice echoed across the stone walls. The fire behind them crackled louder, as if responding to Danielle’s statements.

One Helena whispered, "She is right."

Argash spun toward her. "Silence!"

Another said shakily, "Why must we bleed? Why must we die? Why does he live while we are sacrificed?"

Argash roared, "You question your purpose?"

Danielle spoke again before he could recover.

"He calls you holy, but he treats you like animals. He claims you are chosen, but he keeps you trapped. This is not devotion. This is slavery dressed in sacred words."

The oldest Helena woman stepped away from Danielle, and Dani noticed her shaking hands.

"This is not what the first scripture said," she whispered.

Argash paled.

Danielle’s heartbeat galloped.

He was losing them...

Argash flailed for control. "You are listening to a vessel. A girl born for death. A girl who exists to end your suffering through sacrifice."

Danielle’s lips curved into a cold, furious smile.

"No...I exist to end you."

The Helena women collectively inhaled.

Argash’s mask cracked. The rage inside him erupted like a storm.

"You dare challenge my authority?"

Danielle’s voice dropped to a low, terrifying hush.

"I dare set them free."

Argash lifted the dagger again, but this time, the women didn’t hold her down.

One whispered, "Enough."

Another stepped between Danielle and the blade.

Argash snarled like a cornered animal.

"Move!" he screamed.

But more women stepped forward...More...More...Dozens.

A circle of trembling, awakening defiance.

Danielle breathed in deeply, "There," she muttered. "That is your answer. They are done kneeling."

Argash lunged toward her, but Helena women moved too!

They grabbed him and dragged him down.

They held him to the ground as he yelled and thrashed, his dagger clattered from his grip.

For the first time since Danielle had met them...

The Helena women were no longer his.

And Danielle rose to her feet slowly, turning toward Theo.

Her fight wasn’t over, she was no longer alone...