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 body flew across the room and whacked into the opposite wall. Unconscious, he dropped to the floor with a sickening thud.
Selene held herself in wolf form, half her mind watching the doorway and the other half still concentrating on turning off powers where she could.
She felt Lila’s hand tense in her fur as a figure entered the room. But instead of the colossus she was expecting, it was a grey wolf.
“Maddox.” She let out a disgusted growl.
“You should have joined me when I gave you the opportunity,” he growled back at her. “Now I’m afraid I’ll just have to kill you.”
“That would be a shame,” she replied. Something was niggling in the back of her mind. Something to do with where Griffin was.
Maddox prowled further into the room, his head low, his beady eyes trained on his quarry.
“Uh, Selene,” Lila mumbled out of the side of her mouth, her grip tightening in Selene’s fur.
But Selene wasn’t paying attention to her. Her mind was with Griffin… Something was off.
Maddox stalked closer.
The cacophony of sounds inside her head from the battles still being waged was distracting her. She needed silence to concentrate. Selene quickly shifted to human and Lila hopped up with her, placing her hand on Selene’s arm.
Maddox also shifted to human and drew closer… within arm’s length now. Lila’s grip on her arm had tightened to near painful.
Selene ignored him. Instead, she desperately searched for a sign of a power in use anywhere around where Griffin should be. Something was wrong. And Griffin wasn’t talking to her anymore.
Realization smacked into her almost like a physical blow. Her gaze flew to Maddox. “Your blocker still has his power.”
He crowded in closer, and Selene realized her mistake at the last minute - letting him get too close. He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Yes, though just barely. And I really can’t have you around ruining my best people, love.”
Pain, sharp and ragged, sliced through Selene’s abdomen. As Maddox stepped back, she looked down to see the blade of his knife sliding out of her. Lila gasped. Selene looked up and caught Maddox’s smug smile just before he disappeared from sight.
Selene sank to her knees, her strength seeping out of her body along with the blood. Lila knelt beside her.
“Block the pain,” Selene told her as she pressed her hand to the oozing wound.
“What? We have to get my dad!”
“Block … the … pain.” Selene gritted through her teeth.
“Fine,” Lila grunted, clearly unhappy. A numb feeling washed through Selene’s body.
The relief gave her a small amount of strength. Selene pulled her mind into herself, bolstering her power. She’d fought this blocker before. She concentrated on creating a small bubble of space in the dungeons and then moved that bubble…searching….calling for Griffin.
“Selene,” she suddenly heard Griffin’s voice. “Where’d you go?”
“Get out of there now… The blocker. He’s there somewhere.” Despite the pain control from Lila, Selene could feel herself growing weaker. Griffin’s voice sounded in her mind, but it was as though he were a long way away, down a tunnel maybe. She could barely make out his words.
“Lila, you’ve got to get them out of there,” Selene insisted.
She sank back against the wall. Then she suddenly felt a surge of power move through her and then out of her. Selene opened heavy lidded eyes and glanced at Lila.
“Your eyes are glowing,” Selene mumbled. Her lips felt glued to her teeth.