Hyacinth - By Abigail Owen Page 0,9

who and what you are. Who in the Vyusher do you think has the coolest power?”

Selene couldn’t conceal her shock. She hadn’t expected Griffin to want to even say their name, let alone talk about them.

“You’re surprised?” Griffin asked.

Selene’s eyebrows shot up. Normally people couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“Um… well, we don’t have anything as cool as a dragon,” she said, referring to the unique power Ellie had used to kill Gideon last year. “But we do have someone who controls the earth. He can cause earthquakes and rip giant chasms in the ground. It’s pretty terrifying, actually.”

“Griffin,” Ellie’s voice echoed through the fields as though they were in a hollow room.

Griffin looked around, thinking he’d see his sister standing there.

Selene’s hand on his arm pulled his attention back to her. “She’s calling for you. I guess you should wake up now.”

His mouth fell into a slight frown. He didn’t want to leave this place… or her. “Okay.”

The grey mist started to intrude on their golden field. As the images started to blur and disappear, he heard a soft voice whisper, “Thanks for letting me in, Griffin.”

Jerking awake, he sat up and found himself back in his own room with Ellie calling from the other side of his bedroom door. As the feel of the dream receded and reality came crashing back, so did Griffin’s earlier bitterness. He flopped back on the bed with a huff and flung his arm over his eyes.

“What the hell was I thinking!?”

Chapter 6

Griffin stood beside a tree and gritted his teeth. Across the campus quad, Selene was headed toward a bench, clearly planning on taking advantage of the lovely weather. It’d been over a month since she’d visited him in the dream. He hadn’t let her in again, even though she’d tried twice more. Other than that, she’d stayed true to her word and hadn’t contacted any of them.

Griffin hadn’t left it at that. His hostility toward Selene refused to go away. She’d managed to block his mind reading, so he had to use other methods to keep tabs on her. He’d hacked into the school computer system and pulled her class schedule. He’d then made sure to align his classes so that he could stay close by and keep an eye on her without being too obvious.

After the first day of school, he’d shifted into the falcon form he sometimes borrowed from Ellie. The twins had a link that allowed them to access each other’s powers. One of Ellie’s was the ability to morph into several different animals. The only one he’d ever been able to master was the falcon.

He’d followed Selene to see where she lived and found she’d rented a small apartment in Estes Park. That alone worried him. Why hadn’t she just rented a place in Fort Collins, closer to the school? But no, she’d decided to remain close to his family. Too close.

A small part of him felt guilty for stalking her, invading her privacy like this. But a bigger part felt that Selene was not to be trusted, despite what his overly-optimistic twin insisted.

Griffin had perched himself in a tree outside her apartment. Selene had quite thoughtfully left the blinds open, so he had a perfect view of the apparition of the man who’d appeared in her living room. Life-sized and ghost-like in a weirdly transparent way… but definitely there. And Selene had talked to him.

He couldn’t hear her telepathically. Ellie had told him that Selene had the ability to actually block others’ powers that were being used directly against her—not just turn them off. He could hear other people’s thoughts in the area, so he knew she was blocking him specifically. She was using her power against him, and that was just another cause for concern.

Despite the advantage of his falcon’s hearing, with the door closed to her balcony, he hadn’t been able to listen to the conversation. But what was evident, at least to Griffin, was that Selene wasn’t as alone as she’d led Ellie to believe. She continued to hide things from them. Deceit remained at the heart of who she was. Griffin was sure of it.

*****

Selene settled herself on the bench and pulled her history book and a highlighter out of her backpack. She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the sensation of the warm sun on her face and the light breeze ruffling her hair. She’d lived much further north most of her life, and beautiful weather like this