Hyacinth (Book #2 in the Svatura Series)

by Abigail Owen

  Selene wasn’t quite sure how to take that but decided to go with a positive spin. “I think that was more desperation than faith,” she responded dryly.

  She straightened as Marcus turned and walked toward them. Selene went to meet him, flanked by Ellie and Griffin.

  “You’ve given us a lot to think about,” he acknowledged. “But we are—”

  WHAM!

  The blast of an explosion coming from the direction of the castle ripped through their ranks.

  In an instinctual move of self-preservation, Selene and all the other Vyusher instantly shifted into their wolf forms. As soon as their link to the pack mind kicked in, they could all hear what was happening in the castle where the rest of their pack was under attack.

  A horrible growl arose from the wolves, the fur on their withers standing to attention. Marcus and his team stumbled back from them.

  Selene ignored them and looked right at Desmond. “Go!”

  All of the wolves took off for the castle at a full sprint.

  Selene turned her stormy gaze back to Marcus and his clan. A snarl ripped from her as she bared her teeth.

  Marcus held up his hands. “We had nothing to do with whatever is happening,” he insisted.

  Reigning in her wolf, Selene shifted back to human. “We are under attack in there. If you have nothing to do with it, then help us.” Her voice was a low growl, her wolf still fighting for control.

  Marcus glanced behind her to where Griffin and his family still stood.

  “Decide,” Selene commanded.

  Marcus’s face hardened with resolve. “We’ll help you,” he said. “Only about ten of us have any kind of power that’s worth a damn in a fight. But those ten are with you.”

  Selene nodded. “Link up.” She turned toward her friends and placed her hand in Griffin’s.

  “Charlotte, the Council’s chamber please,” she directed.

  Chapter 39

  As soon as Marcus and his clan joined their hands, Charlotte wasted no time. Selene barely blinked, and suddenly they were all standing in the large meeting hall inside the castle.

  Selene shifted into her wolf form so she could hear the pack. Screaming and growling bombarded her mind from the link, and she swiftly picked out the most important information.

  “Griffin—” she thought.

  “I saw it. So did Ellie. We’re on it.”

  “Charlotte,” Griffin directed aloud, “Start getting people outta here.”

  With that, Ellie and Griffin rushed out of the room, followed by everyone else. Only Charlotte and Selene remained.

  Charlotte initially turned to Selene, a question in her eyes. Selene just shook her head. Charlotte only briefly hesitated before nodding and vanishing from the room.

  Still in wolf form, Selene lay down on the floor and closed her eyes. Listening to her pack through their link, she started picking out who was in the most trouble and intervening where she could.

  *****

  Griffin ran through the castle, following Selene’s thoughts of where the worst of the fighting was taking place. Ellie, Alex, Nate, and several of the Louisiana clan followed behind him.

  When he reached one of the common areas off the corridor, Griffin ducked as a wolf lunged at him, only to be frozen in mid-air. In fact, the entire room, overflowing with battling wolves and men, had frozen in place.

  “I’ve got these. Keep going,” Alex called.

  Griffin didn’t have to be told twice, and he quickly made his way around the frozen bodies.

  “Any mental powers in here I need to be worried about?” he asked Selene.

  “Nope. Keep going,” was her curt reply.

  Once back in the corridor off the other side of the room, Griffin stopped suddenly and searched through Selene’s thoughts for directions. He saw the door she was picturing and pulled it open, only to be confronted by a wall of solid ice.

  He used his telepathy to search for Ramsey but found his friend’s mind completely occupied with guarding the people Charlotte had teleported out of the castle. His next thought was Ellie’s dragon, but it was too large to try to unleash inside the castle corridors. Before he could come up with another option, he heard Nate behind him.

  “Whoa! I’ve totally got this one, Griff. Move outta the way.”

  Griffin turned to face Nate as he stepped back from the doorway. He didn’t see the younger boy but felt the breeze of his passing. Suddenly the frozen mass exploded, showering him with shards of ice. Griffin threw his hands up to cover his face, and when he lowered them again, he saw Nate swinging from the frame of the door, a pleased grin smeared across his boyish face.

  “Ouch, Nate. Warn me next time.”

  Nate’s smile widened.

  “Watch out!” Selene yelled in Griffin’s mind just a second before a blur of fur tackled Nate from behind.

  Griffin went to use his shield to physically push the wolf off Nate. Before he could form it, however, one of the Louisiana clan - the immense grizzly bear - pounced first. He ripped the wolf off Nate, who quickly hopped up unscathed and unfazed.

  “Go, dude. We’ll hold them off here!” Nate waved him on.

  “Ellie!” Griffin called his sister to his side. Together, they raced down the spiral staircase that’d been waiting for them behind the door.

  As they turned a corner, once again the terrible sounds of a struggle – growls and yelps of the wolves, yelling of men, explosions and blasts – reached his ears.

  “We’re getting close,” he called over his shoulder to Ellie. They pushed their way through a pair of double doors and then stopped dead in their tracks. They’d entered a massive room teaming with battling wolves and men.

  Griffin turned to Ellie. “I know you can’t go dragon. You’ll have to go—”

  The scream of a jaguar interrupted him, and he saw his sister in the form of a massive black cat bound past him and hurl herself into the fray. She sank her steel-trap jaws into the haunches of the closest wolf. Throwing her body back so that she stood up on her back haunches, Ellie yanked the huge timber wolf off its feet. The beast yowled in pain and thrashed back and forth trying to escape. Ellie flung the animal away from her and into a wooden door, causing it to splinter under the force.

  Confident his sister could handle herself, Griffin scanned the room and found three large wolves advancing on a small brown one.

  Oh, jeez, he thought to himself as realization struck. “Ellie, make sure you’re attacking the right wolves. These must be Maddox’s forces.”

  “Got it!”

  Griffin slammed his shield into place between the smaller wolf and her attackers and waited for them to make a move.

  “Griffin!”

  Ellie’s warning came just in time. Griffin turned his head slightly and saw a huge dark grey wolf leap for him, teeth bared. Holding his one shield where it was already raised, Griffin threw up another shield and rammed it into his attacker mid-air with such force he knocked the creature out cold.

  He returned his attention to the little brown wolf he was protecting. Then he rammed his invisible shield across the room and bashed the three attacking wolves into the wall behind them. Two of the wolves got up, limping slightly, and then suddenly disappeared.

  “What the –?” Griffin exclaimed, searching for them with his telepathy.

  He looked around for Ellie and found her just as she swiped her massive claws across the snout of another wolf. The animal fell back with a loud yelp of pain and then suddenly disappeared as well. Ellie, now on all fours, stood and sniffed at where it had just been lying.

  Griffin tapped into her thoughts. “They’re being pulled out once they can’t fight. Why would they…?”

  With a shake of her massive head, Ellie turned her violet-blue eyes on her brother. “They’re here as a distraction.”

  Griffin nodded grimly in agreement.

  “Selene!” he called.

  “Hold on…”

  He watched telepathically as Selene tu
rned off someone’s power. The assailant she had stopped had been fighting several levels up from where Griffin now stood. They’d been using a fearful ability to physically crush people on a group of Selene’s more helpless Vyusher.

  Griffin almost felt Selene’s small mental sigh. “Okay.”

  “The attackers are a distraction. Where are they pushing us away from?”

  Selene left her mental shields down so Griffin could watch as she searched through the pattern of attacks based on the level of fighting. She was picturing the glows of each power in use.

  “Further down from where you are. About two levels. The original dungeons.” She gave him a mental picture of where to go. Griffin took off at a sprint, Ellie fast on his heels.

  Chapter 40

  “Tell me what to do.”

  Selene opened her eyes and looked behind her to see both Lila and Charlotte standing there. Charlotte gave her an apologetic shrug before disappearing again.

  Selene returned to human, appearing to shimmer with the shift. “I’ll have to stay in wolf form to maintain the link with the pack,” she told Lila. “Stay with me. Keep anyone or anything from distracting me. And if you’re able to apply some of that calming ability to me or anyone else, do it.”

  She didn’t wait for Lila’s acknowledgement before returning to wolf form and concentrating. She did, however, immediately notice when Lila’s hand came down on her back, and a sense of calmness and empowerment washed through her. With the resulting clarity, she swiftly determined the order in which she needed to intervene in various fights happening throughout the castle.

  “I’m in the dungeons. I can’t hear anyone’s thoughts down here. Are you sure?” Griffin’s question filtered through the chaos of the sounds of combat in her mind.

  “It’s the furthest point from the fighting, and the attackers are driving us away from there. Keep looking.”

  A horrendous boom sounded just outside the large double doors to the Council chamber where she and Lila were ensconced. The only thing that kept Selene focused at that moment was Lila’s soothing influence.

  BOOM!

  The sound was getting closer.

  “Remember that scene in Lord of the Rings? The one with the cave troll?” Lila muttered under her breath. Selene would’ve laughed if she weren’t concentrating so hard.

  BOOM!

  “Why don’t they just open the doors?” Lila asked no one in particular.

  BOOM!

  Selene turned her focus on what was trying to get in. Based on the sound alone, they should’ve destroyed the doorway with that first round.

  Then she caught it. The pale glow of a power was hovering just in front of the doors, on the inside where she and Lila were located.

  “Desmond? Is that you?”

  “Can’t talk, Queenie. Hiding this entire room from whatever is out there,” his voice growled back at her. The strain on him was obvious.

  CRACK!

  The door finally splintered under the relentless onslaught. Desmond appeared instantly as his body flew across the room and whacked into the opposite wall. Unconscious, he dropped to the floor with a sickening thud.

  Selene held herself in wolf form, half her mind watching the doorway and the other half still concentrating on turning off powers where she could.

  She felt Lila’s hand tense in her fur as a figure entered the room. But instead of the colossus she was expecting, it was a grey wolf.

  “Maddox.” She let out a disgusted growl.

  “You should have joined me when I gave you the opportunity,” he growled back at her. “Now I’m afraid I’ll just have to kill you.”

  “That would be a shame,” she replied. Something was niggling in the back of her mind. Something to do with where Griffin was.

  Maddox prowled further into the room, his head low, his beady eyes trained on his quarry.

  “Uh, Selene,” Lila mumbled out of the side of her mouth, her grip tightening in Selene’s fur.

  But Selene wasn’t paying attention to her. Her mind was with Griffin… Something was off.

  Maddox stalked closer.

  The cacophony of sounds inside her head from the battles still being waged was distracting her. She needed silence to concentrate. Selene quickly shifted to human and Lila hopped up with her, placing her hand on Selene’s arm.

  Maddox also shifted to human and drew closer… within arm’s length now. Lila’s grip on her arm had tightened to near painful.

  Selene ignored him. Instead, she desperately searched for a sign of a power in use anywhere around where Griffin should be. Something was wrong. And Griffin wasn’t talking to her anymore.

  Realization smacked into her almost like a physical blow. Her gaze flew to Maddox. “Your blocker still has his power.”

  He crowded in closer, and Selene realized her mistake at the last minute - letting him get too close. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Yes, though just barely. And I really can’t have you around ruining my best people, love.”

  Pain, sharp and ragged, sliced through Selene’s abdomen. As Maddox stepped back, she looked down to see the blade of his knife sliding out of her. Lila gasped. Selene looked up and caught Maddox’s smug smile just before he disappeared from sight.

  Selene sank to her knees, her strength seeping out of her body along with the blood. Lila knelt beside her.

  “Block the pain,” Selene told her as she pressed her hand to the oozing wound.

  “What? We have to get my dad!”

  “Block … the … pain.” Selene gritted through her teeth.

  “Fine,” Lila grunted, clearly unhappy. A numb feeling washed through Selene’s body.

  The relief gave her a small amount of strength. Selene pulled her mind into herself, bolstering her power. She’d fought this blocker before. She concentrated on creating a small bubble of space in the dungeons and then moved that bubble…searching….calling for Griffin.

  “Selene,” she suddenly heard Griffin’s voice. “Where’d you go?”

  “Get out of there now… The blocker. He’s there somewhere.” Despite the pain control from Lila, Selene could feel herself growing weaker. Griffin’s voice sounded in her mind, but it was as though he were a long way away, down a tunnel maybe. She could barely make out his words.

  “Lila, you’ve got to get them out of there,” Selene insisted.

  She sank back against the wall. Then she suddenly felt a surge of power move through her and then out of her. Selene opened heavy lidded eyes and glanced at Lila.

  “Your eyes are glowing,” Selene mumbled. Her lips felt glued to her teeth.

  Chapter 41

  As soon as he’d entered the dungeons, Griffin could feel something was wrong. He reached out with his telepathy, only to be greeted by silence.

  “Stay close, Ellie,” he murmured in a low voice.

  “I feel it, too,” she said. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m not sure.” Griffin’s gaze swiveled from side to side as they moved deeper into the long hallway lined with doors. Cautiously, they glanced in each room but found each one empty.

  “Try bolstering my power,” Griffin suggested.

  He felt his sister’s small hand slip into his. And then nothing.

  “Not good. Can you hear anyone?” Ellie asked.

  “Griffin!” The sound of Selene’s voice blasted into his mind.

  Griffin winced. “Selene? Where’d you go?”

  “Get out of there now… The blocker. He’s there somewhere.”

  “Get Charlotte,” he called back, but her presence was already fading.

  Griffin tugged on Ellie’s hand. “Move!”

  Together they ran back toward the door they’d entered through. Just as they were nearing the exit, a mammoth, misshapen thing stepped into their path. They couldn’t tell if it was a man or some sort of metamorph. Ellie and Griffin skidded to a halt and started to back up carefully.

  “Any bright ideas?” Griffin whispered to Ellie.

/>   Suddenly a wave of power, almost like a jolt of electricity, pulsed through the entire castle. Griffin and Ellie were knocked to the ground. When they looked up, the giant was gone, and Griffin could hear Lila calling him.

  “Selene’s hurt. Come quick.”

  Griffin and Ellie jumped to their feet. They’d started to move toward the door again when a small sound caught his attention. Ellie must’ve heard it too, because she stopped and turned.

  “I think someone’s down here,” she whispered.

  They hurried as quickly as they could, searching each cell. Griffin’s focus stayed with Selene the entire time. Finally, they opened a door and found a woman huddled in a corner, filthy and shivering from cold.

  Griffin gently picked her up in his arms. “Charlotte, we need you,” he called.

  “Just a second. I’m getting Hugh to Selene,” she replied.

  A few seconds later, Charlotte silently appeared beside them in the cell.

  “Where to?”

  “Get us to Hugh. I think this woman needs help,” Ellie directed.

  With a nod, Charlotte placed her hands on them, and then they were standing in the middle of the Council’s chambers. Griffin could see Hugh bent over someone on the floor. The second he realized who it was, Griffin passed the woman he was holding off to Alex. Then he was kneeling beside Selene before he’d even made the conscious decision to move.

  “What happened? Is she all right?” Alex asked.

  “Maddox stabbed her,” a distraught Lila told him.

  “It’s all right.” Hugh’s calm authority kept Griffin from becoming unhinged. “Nothing I can’t handle. Just give me a few minutes.”

  The room remained shrouded in a tense silence as everyone watched Hugh work. After ten miserable minutes, Selene opened her eyes. With a little help, she sat up.

  Selene rubbed at where the knife had slid into her stomach. She grinned at Hugh. “Thanks.”

  “My pleasure.”

  Selene looked around the room. “Have they gone?”

  Hugh nodded. “Vanished.”

  She said nothing… only held out a hand to be helped to her feet. “Desmond is against the wall over there. Please help him,” she said to Hugh.