Hyacinth - By Abigail Owen Page 0,20

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