Hyacinth - By Abigail Owen Page 0,17
an hour to get ready and get over to Hugh and Lucy’s.” Then she exited the kitchen.
Griffin sighed. “You’d better go after her, Alex. The mood I’m in, I’d probably say something I’d regret. Much as I love her, my sister can drive me nuts sometimes.”
“I’ll go see what I can find out, man.” Alex gave Griffin’s shoulder a pat on his way out the door.
*****
An hour later, everyone was gathered at Lucy and Hugh’s house. “Okay, Ellie,” Hugh prompted. “You’ve got all of us here, so I think it’s time for you to explain.”
Ellie stood up and addressed her extended family. “Everyone’s seen the newspaper article?” She motioned to Ramsey who was studying the pages. He, Nate, Charlotte, and Dexter had come over from the house next door when Ellie’d called.
Several yeses were mumbled as everyone nodded.
“How many of you think that Selene is the most likely suspect?” Ellie continued.
Alex covered his laugh with a cough. His adorable fiancée never pulled her punches. It was one of the many things about her that he loved so much.
Ellie, Lucy, Adelaide, and Lila kept their hands down, but all the others raised theirs.
“Okay.” Ellie nodded again. “Would you be willing to give her the same chance that you gave Griffin and me?”
“You mean the night of the first wolf attack?” Dexter asked.
When they’d first met, the Jenners and Pierces hadn’t known that Ellie was anything more than a normal human until the night a small band of Vyusher wolves had tried to attack their house and Ellie had intervened, saving their lives. That was the night they’d discovered the truth… Ellie and Griffin were Svatura, like them.
Ellie studied each face in the room, and everyone appeared willing to hear her out. Except Griffin, of course. No real surprise there.
Hugh stepped forward. “If even a fraction of what Lucy tells me about that young woman is true, it’s worth giving her a shot.”
“We’ll do better than give her a hearing,” Ellie said, smiling.
“What are you up to?” Alex asked.
“I say we use the same strategy that allowed me to show all of you the Svatura history.”
Everyone was silent for a second, and then Griffin rose to his feet. “Ellie, we don’t know all her powers. What if she manipulates this?”
Ellie gave her brother a sad look. “You really need to learn to trust people, Griffin, or you will end up leading a very lonely life.” She let out a disappointed sigh and continued. “I know all her skills, because she’s already let me touch her. None of the powers she possesses would allow her to manipulate this situation, even in the future. And especially not against the collection of powers we have in this room. She won’t be able to get past a combination of Lila’s ability to see the truth or sense emotions, Lucy’s ability to see her intent, my ability to control her powers when I’m touching her, Griffin’s ability to read minds, or Adelaide’s ability to see relationships. Between all of us, there’s no way for her to deceive us in any way. And if we’re all touching, I can show you rather than just tell you, which clearly isn’t working.”
“But she can block our powers,” Griffin murmured.
“How do you know?” Dexter asked.
Griffin threw him a cautious glance. Dexter was a quiet force to be reckoned with—the epitome of the strong, silent type, with a stocky build and serious, dark eyes. “Because she blocks my mind reading,” Griffin answered.
“She won’t block any of our powers,” Ellie added quickly.
It was Ellie’s turn to come under Dexter’s scrutinizing gaze. “Same question to you then, Ellie.”
“Because she’s agreed to that. And she’ll be here in a few minutes to put herself through the hell of reliving her life, just so that we can all trust her.”
Chapter 11
Last night Selene had finally forced herself to sleep after waking from that nightmare and then had been woken again at some ungodly hour by the ringing of the telephone. It had been Ellie, alerting her of the night’s events.
Selene didn’t get the newspaper, so she’d flipped open her laptop and went to a site that had local news. There it was, in black and white… two campers had been killed by a wolf. A white wolf. A third camper had survived.
And then Selene realized why Ellie had called. “It’s wasn’t me, Ellie! At least, I don’t think. I mean. Well… it might be. I’ve been having these nightmares.”
“Well, we’ll have to deal with that. I