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.