by Abigail Owen
Selene looked at Ellie and nodded. She closed her eyes and concentrated on picturing her memories as clearly as possible. Even without consciously applying her ability to see powers when they were in use, Selene could tell that Ellie was gathering her own power within her. The glow of Ellie’s gift in action would likely be almost blinding to Selene if she looked at her right now. She kept her eyes shut and waited for Ellie’s first question. She didn’t have to wait long.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Ellie said. “Your parents?”
Selene smiled as she immediately pictured her parents’ faces. Her father had been a mountain of a man, with dark hair and a constant twinkle in his eyes. She remembered his booming voice and the way he used to throw her high up into the air, making her giggle.
Her mother was almost a mirror image of Selene—blonde and petite with soft, silvery eyes. She’d been sweet and affectionate. They had been the ruling family of their pack, attracting people with powers to them as naturally as waves find the shore. People came of their own free will, even without being sought or asked. They’d wanted to be a part of this special clan.
She recalled watching her parents rule from the same chamber where she’d met with the Council to request permission to leave. Her parents had been good and kind and strong. They treated others with respect and had been revered above all other leaders in return.
“There’s a sadness there,” Lila’s voice interrupted Selene’s thoughts. “What happened to your parents?”
Rather than answering, Selene moved her thoughts to her twin. Gideon had been older by about twenty minutes. Until Selene turned ten, Gideon had basically ignored her. She hardly had any memories of him in those years, just flashes of nothing more specific than a vague feeling of uneasiness around him. But soon after her tenth birthday, Selene had learned how to turn off another’s power. Gideon had somehow realized it before she did.
The pain of Selene’s next memory almost overwhelmed her. There was a collective gasp as her emotions slammed into everyone in the circle.
Lila glanced over at Ramsey’s tall, well-muscled form. She’d taken to heart Selene’s warning about rough emotions and had deliberately positioned herself next to the volatile firestarter to help with his control. Her green eyes darkened with concern as she caught him staring directly at Selene.
Catching her gaze, he gave her a crooked smile and whispered, “Don’t worry, Lily. I got it.”
Lila rolled her eyes but smiled at his pet name for her, then closed her eyes again, focusing on keeping him calm, regardless of what he’d said.
With concentrated effort, Selene pushed the ache associated with her next memories to the back of her mind and focused on the facts. Gideon had used his power for manipulation and had hidden his true strength, not only from their parents but from the entire pack. It was a power that he’d inherited from their father. The King could only plant suggestions in people’s minds. He couldn’t… and wouldn’t have thought to… force them to do something against their will.
But Gideon was something else altogether. He was not only able to force people’s cooperation, he was able to make them think it was their idea. He would sweep aside their convictions, their moral fiber, their very spirit, in order to get what he wanted.
Only Selene had retained awareness of his influence. While Gideon was able to force her to do his bidding, he wasn’t able to fool her into believing it was her idea. Others around her had followed Gideon blindly, unaware of the evil they were made to do. And Selene had been unable to stop any of it or talk to anyone about it. So many times she’d wished that Gideon could brainwash her too, just for the peace it could temporarily provide.
“You loved your parents very much. I can feel that,” Lila murmured. “What happened to them?”
Selene grimaced and then focused her thoughts on what’d happened to them. What she’d done to them. Selene’d relived this memory so many times she’d lost count - trying to figure out if there were a way it could have gone differently. So many times that she almost disappeared inside the memory is it came on.
She lost herself in that ghastly, fateful moment…
Chapter 13
“Gideon, what are you doing?” a ten-year-old Selene pleaded. He dragged her down the cold stone hallway, his rough grip bruising her delicate wrist.
“You’re going to do something for me.”
She breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled her into her parents’ chamber.
“Gideon?” Their mother opened her eyes and groggily sat up in the bed. “Do you need something?”
“Stop talking!” he snapped. It was hard to believe that voice came from a ten-year-old boy.
Shivers ran down Selene’s spine, but her parents seemed unconcerned.
“Sit on the couch,” Gideon instructed. And they did. With robotic movements and blank faces, they pulled back the covers and walked to the couch where they sat side-by-side.
Gideon turned to Selene. “Remove their powers.”
“What?” How does he know I can stop people’s abilities? She hadn’t even shared that with her mother yet.
“I know what you can do, Selene,” Gideon continued in an eerily soft voice. “And you will use that gift until you’ve turned off their powers. Forever.”
Pressure invaded her mind… pressure to submit… to do exactly as he’d said. It was almost as though a small voice in the back of her own mind was saying, You’ll feel so much better if you do. You want to.
Selene pushed back. “I can’t!” she wailed. She wrapped her gangly arms around her midsection as she struggled against the weight of his will.
Gideon focused his black, pitiless gaze on her with a new intensity. “You will!”
Selene doubled over from the weight of the pressure bearing down on her. “No,” she gritted through her teeth. She reached out her small hand to her parents who continued to sit on the couch with docile expressions. Oblivious to what was happening. “Daddy?”
“Do it, Selene. Do it, or I’ll kill them.”
She crumpled into a ball on the floor, her mind in agony. Tears slipped down her cheeks. She had no choice. She reached out with her fledgling gift and found the glow of power inside both of her parents. She had to use every ounce of her concentration, but eventually the glow inside them started to dim. Finally, after another slam of pressure from Gideon, she managed to douse their powers entirely, leaving a void where light could no longer enter.
Selene gasped for air, her mind whirling with what she’d done. And what she needed to do now. Survive.
“Good girl,” Gideon patted her on the head. “Now, go sit next to them.”
Selene mimicked the same robotic compliance of her parents and wondered if she’d share their awful fate.
Gideon cleared his throat and smirked, “You will abdicate your rule to me. Call the High Council together tomorrow morning and tell them.”
Then he sent Selene back to her bed.
The King and Queen apparently complied the next day, for Gideon took lead of the Vyusher. He was only ten years old, but he’d managed to seize complete control—and compliance—with Selene’s help.
They started with the High Council, one at a time, because that’s all Selene could manage. Gideon had her hold their power at bay, and then he manipulated them. He worked from the strongest to the weakest until all of the Council was under his control. He then proceeded with the rest of the pack until every single member was a submissive servant.
Selene never saw her parents again and had always assumed that Gideon had them killed. Her brother never did do the dirty work himself. That night with her parents was the beginning of a nightmare that never ended. At first she’d been too afraid, too young, too weak. And too alone. But as she’d grown both in age and in power, she’d at least managed to hide her other developing gifts from her brother. That had been her first form of defiance.
Once he had the pack under his control, Gideon put into action the next phase of his
plan. He started by ridding the tribe of anyone who couldn’t morph into wolf form. Then he methodically added more wolves, creating the pack, earning them the name of Vyusher. The pack, under Gideon’s full control now without any forced manipulation from Selene, was put into action against groups of other people with powers, the Svatura. Gideon had used Sheila, a young wolf with ability to find people with powers. Sheila had better luck finding groups larger than about twenty, and Gideon had started organizing the pack to attack groups that size.
Selene’s involuntary role in the attacks was to turn off the most threatening ability in the group. Fortunately, Gideon hadn’t made her fight or kill, and for that she was grateful. He wanted her protected, as she was one of his greatest weapons.
As Selene’s ability to control people’s powers expanded, Gideon increased the size of the groups they attacked. Scenes started flashing before Selene’s eyes: scenes of the carnage, the terror, the devastation she’d been forced to not only witness, but in which she had to unwillingly participate. There was nothing she could do to stop Gideon and no one she could turn to for help.
Selene heard someone sob, bringing her out of her memories for a second. She felt the wet of the tears on her cheeks and the pressure of the grips of both Aubrey siblings squeezing her hands. But it was Griffin’s grip on her that gave her the strength to keep going.
Selene gathered her thoughts and concentrated on what had been her first ray of hope. In a short period of time, she’d developed several abilities in succession. Selene already had the ability to hide her emotions and thoughts from her brother and everyone around her. In fact, Gideon wasn’t aware that Selene had never been susceptible to his brainwashing. She’d been savvy enough, even at ten, to know that pretending to be under his influence was key to her survival.
And then Selene had made a discovery. Her ability to hide her emotions and thoughts wasn’t just a strong will. It was the start of a different gift—the ability to hide things. She kept Gideon from knowing she’d developed new powers. She even learned how to hide people who possessed abilities from Gideon’s tracker, Sheila.
At first, she could only apply it to one person at a time. She started secretly practicing on new Vyusher in the pack as they developed new gifts. Eventually she had taken the risk of trying it during an attack, hiding a child whose powers were obviously fairly new and saving its life. It was a small personal victory, but it was something… her way of defying her brother and fighting against the horror that her pack had become.
Shortly after developing this skill, Selene had come into her two other powers, which she also kept secret. The first was the ability to appear to people in dreams. She wasn’t able to manipulate them or force them to dream something specific. But she could speak to them and walk with them.
The other gift she inherited was the ability to strengthen other people’s powers. Selene had lived in terror that her brother would figure it out and find some way to use it against others. If Gideon had the ability to enhance their pack’s most dangerous powers, he would be unstoppable.
Her most impactful moment of rebellion against her brother and their life had started the night she’d first seen Griffin and Ellie. Selene had been watching over a battle raging in a gypsy encampment. Vyusher wolves moved through the Svatura, attacking where needed, ripping them to shreds. Selene’s job was to turn off specific powers on Gideon’s command. She’d made him believe that she could only affect powers she actually saw in action. The first Svatura she’d disabled was a magnificent golden dragon. She’d focused on him and he’d instantly shifted back to human. He hadn’t lasted long after that with the Vyusher wolves surrounding him.
Ellie’s gripped Selene’s hand tightly. “Grandfather,” she whispered, a hitch in her voice.
Regret and loathing for her role in his death slammed into Selene. She glanced at the twins. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I don’t have to keep going with the rest of that—”
“No. I want to see it,” Ellie insisted.
“Okay.” Selene closed her eyes and began picturing the rest of that night.
Toward the end of the attack, after most everyone was dead, a boy and a girl a little younger than Selene ran smack into her brother. Gideon, in the form of a huge black wolf, circled them menacingly. The two kept their backs to each other as more wolves surrounded them. Suddenly, Gideon lunged for the girl. She’d held up her hands in defense, and the instant she touched him, she morphed into a small black wolf herself. Gideon stumbled back in bewilderment. But he recovered quickly and tried to use the linked pack mind, which Selene could hear.
“Join us,” he growled at the girl.
The small female wolf shook her head as though she was confused. Or fighting something. Suddenly, the connection Selene felt to the wolf-girl ceased, like a switch had been flipped. The boy jumped forward and touched the girl’s arm. She morphed back to human form and looked at him. And then, just as suddenly, both the boy and the girl turned into falcons, one jet black and one golden, and they flew away.
Chapter 14
Selene hadn’t realize she was shaking until she felt Griffin’s hand tighten on hers, giving a little tug. She opened her eyes and found his gaze trained on her. For once, hostility had been replaced by a gentler, kinder emotion.
“If you need a break, we can stop for a little bit,” he whispered.
Selene searched his eyes for a moment, waiting for the antagonism to return. But he just watched her calmly.
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “No, I’d rather just get this over with,” she replied in a soft voice. “There’s not much more.”
Closing her eyes again, she heard Griffin mutter, “I don’t think I can take much more.”
Selene concentrated on telling the rest of her story and ran through the next scenes quickly. This part she’d already shared with Ellie. She showed them Gideon’s ensuing obsession with bringing Ellie into the pack and how she’d hidden them from Sheila’s searching. She briefly covered how she’d tried to reach them through Griffin’s dreams and eventually was able to through Ellie’s. Then she showed them the final battle when they’d freed her forever from her brother’s terrible reign.
Finally, she showed them the past year…the memories slowly returning to her people… their despair over what they’d been a part of… and their determination to rebuild and start over.
Selene paused. When she opened her eyes, she was amazed to see tears on most of the faces around her. She’d done her best to shield them from her emotions, but it hadn’t been enough apparently.
“Before I go on,” Selene broke the heavy silence, “Do you have any questions so far?”
“My heaven,” Lucy was the first to speak. “Ellie had told us, but I didn’t understand until now. You poor child.”
“I didn’t know all of that,” Ellie commented, her voice trembling. “How did you find the strength, all those years, to keep fighting him? And all on your own?”
“I focused on helping as many people as I could, like you and Griffin. And I held on to the hope that someone would eventually defeat him.”
“How did you make it through all that without becoming twisted yourself?” Ramsey asked. Having balanced on the razor-edge of bitterness and rage himself, he was impressed. As a firestarter, he was in constant danger from volatile emotions. Most firestarters didn’t live very long. It had taken a degree of strength to keep the power within him under control while Selene had shared her story with them, and he’d really only managed to do so with Lila’s help.
Selene gave him a funny little smile. “How do you know I didn’t?”
They were all surprised by this, and Nate gave a sharp laugh.
“I’m not trying to be flippant,” Selene explained. “I’m not even sure that something didn’t warp inside me. I got really good at completely turning off my emotions. Like a robot. It’s a thought that scares the hell outta me.”
Sliding a glance at Griffin, who was regarding her
steadily but had yet to say anything, Selene gathered her courage. Her shoulders rose and fell with her deep breath. “In fact, I can’t say for certain that the wolf attack last night wasn’t me,” she admitted.
Griffin tensed, and Selene felt something inside her chest clench.
“What do you mean?” Hugh asked, concern clouding his kind brown eyes.
Selene grimaced. “I left the Vyusher not just to go to college—that was just a welcome excuse. I left because I’d been having these dreams. Nightmares really…”
“About wolf attacks?” Dexter guessed.
“Yes. In my dreams it’s always a white wolf.”
“But you control dreams, right?” Nate asked, his deep brown eyes openly curious.
“Not necessarily. I can visit people, but they’re still in control, mostly. And they have to let me in. Also, I’ve never had my own dreams before. What if…” Selene couldn’t finish the thought.
“What if you’re responsible for the murders?” Ellie completed.
Selene bit her lip and nodded. “I can show you last night’s dream.”
She closed her eyes again and replayed the night’s events… of waking up in a terrified panic, yet with no blood on her or any evidence whatsoever that she’d been anywhere but her bed. And then later of learning about the wolf attack from Ellie.
Selene opened her eyes. “I know I have no right to ask, but I don’t know what to do. Can you help me?” she pleaded.
Griffin abruptly stood and let go of her hand, his expression unreadable. Then he turned on his heel and left the room.
“Let him go,” Ellie told Alex as he made a move to follow. “He just needs time to think through everything.” She turned to Selene with a wry smile. “You’ve given him a lot to deal with.”
“I have an idea,” Charlotte piped up, drawing everyone’s attention. “What if Selene stayed here, and we each took turns keeping an eye on her at all times? Then if there’s another wolf attack, we’ll know whether it’s her or not.”
