Hyacinth - By Abigail Owen Page 0,64
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 turned 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