The last time she’d done so, it had broken something deep inside her. This time, whatever had remained intact shattered the moment she shut the door behind her.
CHAPTERTWO
Scott cursed himself for not going after Selene. It had been two days since she’d left his office, and he’d only received a handful of text messages from her.
“The blonde girl is my sister.”
He’d called her, but she’d ignored him. So, he’d replied back.
“Answer, damn it.”
“Can’t,” came her response the next morning. “We’re having a fun family reunion. Saving the universe and all that. Gotta go.”
When had they grown apart? From the moment she’d shown up at the door to the trailer, the two of them had been inseparable.
His adopted father had been a kindhearted man, had opened his doors to kids who couldn’t be placed into a foster care home. Basically, all the rejects.
And after a few weeks with Selene, he’d known just why she’d been titled as such. She was different. Really different.
The first time he noticed was when she picked up a boiling pan and set it on the countertop without so much as a red mark on her. The second time was when a teacher grabbed Selene’s wrist to discipline her for mouthing off, even if it was just because Selene had corrected the woman’s math. The teacher’s eyes had turned a milky white. Then she’d dropped her hold on Selene and had backed into a corner, screaming so loudly that the principal had rushed into the class.
From then on, no one touched Selene. No one except him. They held hands, they played together, they helped one another.
When he went to wake his foster father one morning and found him lying on the floor, Scott knew they were screwed. So, he’d done what he thought had been best for him and Selene. He’d locked the door and stuffed towels under it.
He knew what happened to kids like them. He’d lived with other foster families until he’d been six. He couldn’t remember much, but he remembered how terrible it was.
He didn’t know the reason he’d been left alone in the world, but he’d been shipped from foster home to foster home until finally ending up on Mark Logan’s doorstep.
If he and Selene were found living there alone, they’d get separated and shipped off again. Something deep down told him that he had to stay with Selene.
They’d tried to keep their foster father’s death a secret. It had worked for a little over a month. They’d gotten themselves to the school bus on time, packed their lunches, did laundry and dishes, and even cleaned the trailer better than when the old man was alive.
Then the social worker started banging on the door. They’d hidden and remained quiet the first few times. But then the power and water had been shut off. They had been too young to realize that bills still had to be paid.
In the end, they had run out of food and out of time together. They had been shuffled into a large building that Selene told him she’d been at many times before. It smelled worse than the trailer had when they’d left.
Thankfully, they were still together, and he’d figured the place wasn’t as bad as Selene had made it out to be. They had food. Water. School. Friends.
For several months, he’d enjoyed it. Until one day, he had been told to collect his things. He was going to be placed at a home.
He went and packed up his backpack and then went and found Selene, excited that they were going to be together. But she hadn’t packed. She hadn’t been told she was going.
Something deep inside him clicked. He started screaming. Started fighting until the family agreed to take Selene too.
It wasn’t long after their third placement that Selene woke him one night claiming there was a large snake man in her bedroom. She’d crawled in bed with him, and he’d held her shivering body until they’d both fallen fast asleep.
The next day, she’d told him about the man called Typhon, who claimed to be her father.
“He told me that I’m the goddess of darkness. I don’t want to be a goddess.” She’d pouted.
After that day, other things changed about Selene. For one, he caught her levitating over her bed one day. She was just sitting there reading and hadn’t even known she was doing it.
Then, one night, the power had gone out in the apartment they were living in. The foster parents had rushed in with a flashlight and taken them to the living room to wait out the storm together. But when they went in to get Selene, it was as if the light from the flashlight wouldn’t penetrate through the darkness surrounding her.
The next morning, the foster parents returned them to the home.
Shortly after his fifteenth birthday, they finally found the home they would remain in until they both graduated from high school. The Lindseys were an older couple and pretty much let them do whatever they wanted.