Hyacinth (3 page)

Above all these
mixed-up feelings was the ever-present anticipation of seeing Griffin again. After
so many years with Gideon dictating every single thing about her existence, the
thought of being able to make her own choices was overwhelming to Selene. The
only thing keeping her from outright panic was the hope of what she could accomplish
if she kept moving forward on this path she’d set for herself.

Before Selene
did anything else, though, first she had to talk to Ellie. Let her know that
she’d be attending the same college and living so close by. Selene debated
telling Ellie about the dreams for the thousandth time but rejected the thought
just as quickly. She intended to stay away from Ellie and her new family. She
didn’t want to put them in danger that way. Those dreams were her problem.

She wondered how
Ellie and Griffin would feel about her proximity. Actually, she could hazard a
guess at how Griffin would react. Her last impression of him had been one of
frustrated anger - with her. So, no. She didn’t think he’d be thrilled, but if
Ellie could see her side, then maybe it wouldn’t be a problem. Maybe she could
stay. She’d taken a risk applying to Colorado State University and didn’t want
to have to leave.

Selene’s hands
tightened on the steering wheel as she continued her unending internal debate.
She’d battled her conscience when she’d asked one of her pack to locate Ellie
for her. She’d asked for Ellie only, to help appease the guilt she felt. She
didn’t want to invade the family’s privacy. But she also thought they should
know that she was so close. If they put up too much of a fight, she’d just go
somewhere else. It would mean delaying college a little longer, but she’d do
whatever she had to do.

Selene drove to
the address in the Carriage Hills neighborhood. The two-story house was modest
but offered gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains. She drove her car up
the gravel driveway, parked, and stood for a moment. Heart in her throat,
Selene took a second to gather her courage.

All right, girl…
get a grip. You can do this.

Selene started
to move toward the house but then paused, slightly puzzled. She shaded her eyes
with her hands and scrutinized the layout of the home more closely. Where was
the front door? There was something next to the garage, but it looked more like
an entrance to a side room. There was also a set of double doors up on the second
story porch, next to some stairs that wound down around the side. The driveway
also looked as if it continued on and around to the back of the house, so
Selene assumed there’d be an entrance there as well.

Finally, she
decided to try the double doors on the second floor. She made her way up the
stairs, took a deep breath, and then knocked.

She didn’t have
long to wait. The door was opened by a young, petite woman with striking eyes.

“Hi, Ellie,”
Selene said quietly. She was surprised at how nervous she was about Ellie’s
reaction to seeing her again.

After a brief,
stunned silence, Ellie broke into a huge smile. “Oh my gosh! Lucy said she felt
someone coming. I was hoping it would be you!”

“Oh… I…” Ellie’s
reaction was not what Selene had anticipated, and she glanced over her shoulder
in case Ellie was talking to someone else. But she was the only person in sight,
so Ellie must be talking about her. “I… thank you,” she said, bewildered.

Ellie’s smile
widened. “I have so many questions for you. And I’m not known for patience.” She
wrinkled her nose. “But I knew that you probably needed some time to figure
stuff out. Besides, Alex and Griffin would probably kill me for trying to find
you because you’re Vyusher. My only consolation was that Adelaide saw some kind
of relationship between you and our family – not that she’ll say what – and I
figured you’d probably come to us one day. When you were ready.”

Selene blinked
at this unexpected outburst. “I see.”

“Will you come
in?” Ellie opened the door wider and stepped to the side.

“Thanks,” Selene
replied.

The inside of
the house was as quaint as the outside. The double doors led directly into the
main living area of the house. Large windows let in the light, making the rooms
look bright and airy.

Ellie led Selene
to a couch. “Please, make yourself comfortable. May I get you a glass of
water?”

“Sure… thank
you.” Selene gracefully sat down and crossed one dainty ankle over the other.
She placed her purse on the table beside her and carefully folded her hands in
her lap while she waited for Ellie to return.

“Alex is at work,
and Griffin and the others aren’t here at the moment,” Ellie called from the
kitchen. She returned with the water and handed Selene a glass, then sat on the
other end of the couch. “So we have some time to get some things straight
between us.”

Selene nodded. She
noticed that Ellie was studying her intently and tried not to smile. She knew
that people found her hard to read. Years of practice around her brother, she
guessed. She knew that she sometimes came off as unemotional, when, in fact,
the opposite was true.

“I came as a
courtesy to let you know that I would be attending school at CSU starting this
fall,” Selene said.

Ellie only nodded,
her expression unsurprised. “I appreciate the gesture, but I do think we
deserve some answers.”

Selene didn’t so
much as bat an eyelash; she’d anticipated a request along these lines. “You
have every right to an explanation. I’ll try to answer your questions as much
as I am able.”

Selene
swallowed.
Here we go
. Ellie and her family were not going to like what
she had to tell them. And as soon as they got the explanation they were looking
for, they’d turn their backs on her. She’d hoped, perhaps in vain, that she
might find friendship with this family.

Ellie sat back
for a second, clearly organizing her questions in her head. “You and Gideon
were related, right?”

“Yes, he was my
twin brother.”

Ellie tipped her
head. “Did both your parents have multiple powers?”

“Two powers
each,” Selene confirmed.

Ellie frowned.
“Were twins common among the Vyusher?”

“Well, not
really. But then, my mother once told me that twins occur when there are more
than three or four powers to pass on. Something to do with one person not being
able to handle more.”

“That explains a
lot,” Ellie muttered under her breath. “We get that with the
Svatura
too, I guess. So your parents had more than one each?”

“I inherited
three and Gideon only one.” Selene noticed that she was clenching her hands in
her lap and tried to relax. She took another deep breath. “My father was able
to influence people to do what he wanted. It was a subtle skill and didn’t
always work. He couldn’t force people to do something against their will or to
go against who they truly were. He was a gentle man… a
good
man.” Emotion
choked her voice.

“But Gideon
inherited something a little stronger?” Ellie guessed.

Selene nodded.
“Yes. Gideon’s power was the ability to make anyone in the pack do whatever he
wanted without their knowledge or consent. It appeared to work best on wolves –
something about the linked pack mind. I assume it’s why he spent decades recruiting
wolves into the family, as he tried to do with you. He destroyed anyone else
with powers, anyone he couldn’t control.”

“I’ve touched
you,” Ellie said, “so I know that your biggest strength is the ability to turn
off anyone’s power if they’re using it near you. Is that how Gideon defeated my
clan all those years ago?”

“It’s one of the
ways,” Selene confirmed regretfully. “Of course, he was forcing his will on
all
the Vyusher, and so he had access to many different powers during an attack. We
were born in 1832, so I was relatively young when we fought your family…. I was
still developing the skill, so it wasn’t as effective as it is now.”

“Wait a minute…”
Ellie wrinkled her brow in confusion. “You said four powers. Is morphing into a
wolf one of them?”

“No, actually
everyone in the pack does that. I’m so used it, I forget to count it. I guess
with that there are five powers between the two of us.” Selene took a sip of
water.

“Okay…” Ellie
tapped her teeth with her fingernail. “You can visit people in their dreams as
well, right? I didn’t have enough time to explore what you do with it. Was it
you who came to me in that dream and helped me find the Jenners and Pierces?”

Selene leaned
back and re-crossed her feet. “It
was
me. Not even Gideon discovered
that I had that power. You are very good at what you do.”

“Why did you
send me that dream?”

“To protect you
and to fight my brother,” Selene replied. At Ellie’s confused frown, she explained,
“I’d been hiding you from Gideon for decades. He’d been looking for you since the
night he attacked your family and you’d morphed into a wolf before his eyes. I
knew you had no chance against him as long as it was just you and Griffin. So I
tried to give you reinforcements the only way I could.”

“Wait a second,
back up.” Ellie held up a hand. “You
protected
us?”

Selene gave a
small smile. “My third ability, I can… hide… for lack of a better word,
Svatura
from our tracker. I can’t physically hide them; it’s more that I shield the
existence of a powerful being.”

“Were you hiding
us from Gideon?” Ellie asked.

Selene shook her
head. “Sheila— she’s one of our more talented wolves and can find anyone with
powers on the planet. It’s not the person that she locates— it’s the power
itself. However, she does better honing in on them if they’re in large groups.
And I did better hiding them in small groups. That combination created just
enough of a loophole in Gideon’s system, and I took advantage of it when I
could.”

“We figured out
that someone was keeping Gideon from finding us. But we thought maybe Griffin was
doing it. Something with his shield maybe,” Ellie said. She absently reached
for the candy in a bowl on the coffee table and popped one into her mouth.

“Did you never
wonder why you never discovered that aspect of his power?” Selene asked.

Ellie shrugged. “I’m
still developing my own ability. I just assumed it was a gap or that he was
unconsciously blocking me from seeing it. Wait. So why wasn’t I able to see
that gift when I touched you?” Ellie asked. Usually if she touched people, she had
instant access to their abilities to their full extent.

Selene grimaced.
“For that reason, actually. After decades of hiding my other two abilities from
Gideon and Sheila, it’s a very well developed skill. And a bit of a habit.”

Ellie accepted
this information with barely a blink. “And how were you protecting us,
exactly?”

“Initially, I
kept you and your brother away from Gideon. But then I discovered he was about
to target the Jenners and Pierces and that they would need your help to defeat
him.” Selene broke off and took another sip of her water. Was it getting hot in
here?

Ellie narrowed
her violet eyes. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

Selene sighed
and set down her glass. “Together, your families were my best hope of ending
Gideon’s control over my clan. I have so much to apologize to you for, I don’t
even know where to begin,” she admitted sadly. “I put you in danger after
hiding you all those years. But it was my only option. Or at least, the only
way I could see.”

Ellie sat in
silence for a while, thinking. “Were you a part of what happened to my original
family?” she finally asked.

Selene closed
her eyes as her heart plummeted. This was the one question she’d dreaded the
most.

“Yes,” she confessed.
“I wasn’t as skilled with my powers back then. I could only stop one person’s
powers at a time, not many people’s powers as I can now. Gideon would determine
whom I should stop, and then force me to do it. He never fought himself. Just
coordinated and controlled all of the rest of us. I never… we… none of us ever
had a choice.”

She didn’t tell
Ellie that she was the only one of the pack under Gideon’s control who’d
actually been aware of his manipulations. Everyone else accepted Gideon’s
thoughts and directives as being of their own volition. But not Selene. She
knew she was being forced. And the pain of living with that awareness, of
knowing the evil they were doing and her part in it, however unwillingly… that was
something Selene wouldn’t make anyone else live with. Not if she could help it.

She looked directly
into Ellie’s eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“She’s telling
the truth,” Lila’s voice sounded from the back of the room.

Selene glanced
over to see a tall girl with honey blonde hair standing by the kitchen.

“Sorry about
eavesdropping,” Lila added.

“You’re not
really sorry, are you?” Ellie asked, a small smile playing at her lips. She
patted the space between her and Selene on the couch.