Hyacinth (22 page)

And suddenly it
struck her…if ever there was a time to make sure the love of her life was aware
of her feelings, it was now. The timing couldn’t be more horrible. Or awkward
for that matter. But sometimes you just didn’t get to pick your moments … the
moments just sort of happened.

“I love you,”
she thought
back, attempting to put every ounce of her feeling behind the words.

Silence again.
The only sounds Selene could hear were the thumping of her heart.

“You love me?”
The incredulity
in his voice came through loud and clear.

“For a very long
time, now. I remember the first time I saw you. You grabbed for Ellie and she
turned back to human. And then together you turned into falcons and flew away
from my brother. About a year later, I approached you in a dream. You held my
hand. Do you remember?”

“I remember,”
his low voice
rumbled through her mind.
“You visited me often in my sleep.”

“How could I
stay away? Those visits were the only moments of light, of happiness, in my world.
I will always be grateful to you for that. You saved my life by giving me
hope.”

“And you thought
now would be the best time to tell me this?”

Selene allowed
him to hear her mental chuckle.
“It seemed like the perfect moment. Don’t
say it back though, okay? I’ll only think you’re saying it because I might be sitting
here awaiting my own death.”

“Don’t even
think that! If I believed that, you sure as hell wouldn’t be in there without
me right now.”

Oren appeared
before her in a shimmering projection, preventing her reply. “Thomas says
they’ve entered the castle. It should only be a few minutes,” he said.

“Thank you,
Oren.”

“You hear that? Wish
me luck,”
she thought at Griffin.

“Don’t forget to
leave your mind open so that Ellie and I can listen,”
he reminded
her.

“Right.”
She certainly
wasn’t going to forget that part of her own plan.

Selene
straightened her back and placed her hands over the arms of the throne. She
didn’t bother looking around for Desmond, as he was currently invisible. He’d
insisted on being in there with her as protection.

The waiting and
listening for any sign of the intruders on the other side of the door was
torture. It gave her time to imagine all sorts of horrible things. Just as her
tension reached screaming level, the massive doors opened and three men entered
the chamber. Selene sat perfectly still, only her eyes moving as she watched
them come to stand before her.

“Hello,
gentlemen,” she greeted them once they came to a halt. “Welcome to my home.”

They glanced at
each other, and a tall man with dark eyes stepped forward. “My name is Marcus,”
he said, a strange accent coloring his words. “I lead this clan. We’re from
Louisiana. These are my lieutenants, James and Stephen.” He paused and gave her
a hard look. “I believe you already know why we’re here.”

“Vengeance is
such an ugly word,” Selene replied. She watched closely for their reactions.
“I’m Selene. I am the
new
ruler of the Vyusher. Our old ruler, my brother
Gideon, controlled us against our will. But he is now dead, thanks to another
family of
Svatura
. I am here to negotiate peace with you. As a part of
that goal, will you allow us to show you the truth behind my words?”

“So that you can
control our minds?” Stephen spat. “One of your clansmen already tried that with
us. No! We will not subject ourselves to that!”

“The people who
will do the showing are not Vyusher, but the
Svatura
who defeated my
brother. They, too, had many claims against us, and yet they side with us now.
Surely, that means something to you.”

“Do you really
think we will listen to you?” Marcus asked. He crossed his arms over his broad
chest, unimpressed.

“Truthfully? No,
I didn’t expect you to listen. In my experience, actions speak louder than
words,” Selene replied. She saw a small flash of something in Marcus’s
expression. Though quickly masked, she thought maybe she’d seen a tiny bit of respect
there.

“So you insist
on this then? On fighting us?” Selene asked.

As she listened
to the men, Griffin’s voice sounded in her mind.
“All of their clan is now
inside. They are moving deeper into the castle.”

“We are owed our
vengeance!” Stephen yelled. His hands clenched and unclenched into fists of
rage.

Marcus said
nothing but nodded his agreement with Stephen. James remained quiet, his eyes
never leaving Selene. If he was using a power on her, she couldn’t tell.

“Are we in
position?”
Selene asked Griffin. Upon receiving his affirmative response, she decided it
was time to wrap up this conversation with the Louisiana faction. She’d tried to
negotiate with them, at least.

“Very well. I
can’t say that I blame you. I will tell you now that I can’t allow you to harm
my people. However, we will only defend ourselves. You won’t see a single move
from us that is offensive. And we’ll do everything we can to avoid hurting any
of you. If any in your clan sustain injury, it will be through no fault of
ours.”

The three men
looked at each other as though they weren’t quite sure what to make of her.
Then Marcus’s expression hardened. In a move so fast that Selene barely saw it
coming, steel bands wrapped around her, holding her arms and legs firmly in
place.

“Tell the others
we have captured their Queen,” Stephen instructed James, who closed his eyes in
concentration.

Selene glanced
to the corner where she knew Desmond had positioned himself and gave a slight
shake of her head.

James looked up.
“They say they’ve found no one inside the castle.”

Marcus’s eyes
narrowed. He shifted his glare to Selene. “There’s no way they left you here on
your own. Where are they hiding?”

Selene tipped
her head to the side. “I told you. I will not allow you to harm my people.”

A terrible boom
shook the castle so violently it caused the large chandelier above their heads
to rattle.

“We’re all
fine,”
Griffin’s voice assured her.
“But they just blew a pretty big hole in a
wall. With a single thought. Pretty impressive. How long are you planning on
keeping this up?”

“A little longer.
So far, these are all powers we can defend against,”
she answered
him.

“Please tell me
your people didn’t just blow up part of my home,” she said aloud to the three
men. “That would really upset me.”

Marcus glanced
at James. “What is she thinking?”

James shook his
head. “I can’t get a read on her. She’s blank.”

Stephen slashed
his hand through the air. “This is some sort of trap. What are you playing at?”

The steel bands
around her started squeezing more tightly.

“This is not a
trap,” Selene replied. “We will not harm you if we can avoid it. But as I said,
I won’t allow you to harm
my
people either.” She grunted as the bands
cut into her arms.

She glanced at
Marcus, who had yet to reveal his ability. She’d been hoping to at least find
out the three leaders’ powers before making her move. She winced again as the
steel dug deeper. She glanced at Desmond’s corner and then sighed. “I was
hoping you might see reason. But clearly I am hoping in vain.”

“I don’t know if
you’ve noticed, sweetheart, but we have you bound in steel,” Stephen jibed.

Selene ignored
him.
“Griffin, Ellie… on my signal…”
She felt Desmond’s hand on her arm
and fixed her gaze on Marcus. “If you change your mind about my offer, just
think my name. I will find you.”

He frowned.

Another
explosion rocked the castle, and Selene smiled.

“Now.”

Selene barely
blinked, when suddenly she was sitting in a large field, still bound. In front
of her stood the three leaders of the attacking clan, and surrounding them were
the other fifty members of their tribe. Desmond was still grasping her arm,
though now he was visible. And behind her were about twenty of her Vyusher brethren
and their
Svatura
allies.

The castle now
was about two hundred yards away. Hopefully, Charlotte had moved the rest of
the Vyusher back inside the safety of its walls by now.

I’ll have to
remember to thank Xavier,
Selene thought. The Council leader had agreed to
lend his ability. She had to give it to him, as much of a pain as he was in the
Council, he did love the Vyusher and would fight to protect them. He’d been
moving their castle to new locations for centuries. Handy skill that. Though
she suspected Desmond had had a strong influence over Xavier’s agreement to
help.

“What the—? She
tricked us!” Stephen yelled.

Selene turned
her own power on Stephen, weakening him enough so that the steel bands loosened
and slid off of her.

“Remember what I
said,” she said to Marcus.

Selene rose to
her feet, resisting the urge to rub the spots that were raw from her
constraints. She signaled Charlotte, who appeared instantly beside her. Another
blink later and Selene was standing in the midst of her friends and family,
facing the other tribe.

“All right,
Ellie,” she said as she clasped hands with Ellie and Oren. “We’re all yours.”

The Louisiana
clan stood fifty strong just across the field. The start of the attack came in
the form of balls of lava. They were launched over the field like cannonballs,
headed directly at the castle walls. But before they reached the Vyusher, the
flames were suddenly doused.

Selene glanced
at Ellie.

“Ramsey,” Ellie
explained in one word.

Selene smiled.
Ramsey was watching from inside the castle walls. They’d decided his power could
be perceived as too offensive to have him in active battle. He hadn’t liked it
but was happy he could still use his power when needed.

The Louisiana
tribe didn’t wait. A terrible sound arose from behind them. Birds flew out of
the surrounding woods. Suddenly trees and rocks were hurtling through the air,
launched by a telekinetic. The projectiles weren’t even halfway across the
field when Ellie thought,
“Jason, you’re up.”

Jason, a young
Vyusher whom Selene had known since he was a cub, crushed them into dust with a
flick of his thoughts. Selene paused, impressed with the young man’s power and
control.

She was just
returning her attention back to the fight when her body was wracked by a
horrible itching. It felt as though thousands of bugs were crawling beneath her
skin, leaving a burning, tingling sensation in their wake. It took every ounce
of her self-control to keep from doubling over at the sensation. At the same
time, she was vaguely aware of a large mass of something large and gooey-looking
heading their way.

The mass, which
almost looked like a huge bubble of pink chewing gum, was almost upon them when
it appeared to slam into something. Selene could barely focus, but it appeared
as though the blob had hit an invisible unseen wall. It smeared out and upward,
smoothing along whatever unseen force it’d encountered.

Griffin’s shield
, Selene thought
with relief as she saw the mass halted in its tracks. But her satisfaction was
short lived. The urge to dig under her skin was becoming unbearable. She could
see others around her scratching madly, drawing blood even. Somewhere in the
recesses of her consciousness, she heard a sound like yelling, but the
sensations consuming her body had her full attention.

Selene was just
about the reach out with her power to turn it off at the source when she heard
Ellie’s voice in her head.

“Resume your
formations. Aid is here.”

A cooling
sensation washed through her, calming her twitching nerves and leaving only
blessed relief in its wake. A collective groan whipped through their ranks.

“What happened?”
she thought to
Ellie. At the same time, she searched for the mysterious blob, but it was gone.

“Hugh and Lila.
I had to send Charlotte for them first. Someone over there has nerve control.”

As the
Svatura
and Vyusher collectively calmed, steadied themselves and regrouped, they turned
their attention back to their attackers, only to realize that they were in a
full-on sprint straight at them. The sight of fifty screaming warriors with
murder in their eyes bearing down on her family reminded Selene of all the
horrible battles she’d been part of over the years.

“Desmond,”
Selene instructed Ellie.