Insider facts Unwound
Selene had scarcely dozed the prior night. The heaviness of all that — Astrid's admonition, the wolves, and the unsettled pressure with Damien — squeezed intensely at the forefront of her thoughts. She sat at the edge of the bed, gazing into the early morning fog that twirled external her window. The town was starting to mix, however her considerations stayed caught in the wild of her feelings.
A thump at the entryway shocked her from her viewpoints.
"Selene?" It was her dad. His voice was strangely stressed, like he conveyed the heaviness of something he had been keeping down for quite a while. She was unable to recall the last time she'd heard him sound so far off, so cautious.
"Come in," she expressed, remaining to meet him.
Her dad entered, his face drawn and pale. The concern lines that had developed over the course of the years were more articulated today. He looked like he hadn't rested all things considered. He read up her briefly before at long last talking, his voice low and mindful.
"Selene, there's something I want to tell you. Something I ought to have let you know quite a while in the past."
Her heart skirted a thump. He'd never been one for privileged insights — in any event, not that she had at any point known. What might he at any point have been concealing such an extremely long time?
"What is it, Father?" she asked, attempting to keep her voice consistent notwithstanding the abrupt surge of tension.
He plunked down intensely on the edge of the bed, keeping away from her look. "It's about your mom."
Selene froze. The subject of her mom had forever been a touchy one. She had kicked the bucket when Selene was only a child, or possibly, that is everything she had forever been said. Her dad seldom talked about her, and throughout the long term, Selene had learned not to pose an excessive number of inquiries. Yet, presently, something in his voice told her that all that she assumed she knew was going to change.
"I wasn't totally fair with you," he started, his hands wringing together. "Your mom didn't kick the bucket from an ailment like I told you."
Selene felt her heart dashing, a blend of disarray and fear filling her chest. "Then what occurred?"
He at last looked into, his eyes loaded up with an aggravation that made her stomach drop. "She was killed, Selene. By the wolves."
The words hit her like a punch to the stomach. "What? How? For what reason didn't you tell me?"
"I assumed I was safeguarding you," he said, his voice breaking. "I didn't believe you should experience childhood in dread, continually investigating your shoulder, realizing that exactly the same thing could happen to you. However, presently… presently I see that keeping reality from you was a slip-up."
Selene's brain was turning, attempting to get a handle on everything. "How could the wolves kill her?"
Her dad's face obscured, and he took a full breath prior to proceeding. "Your mom… she wasn't simply any lady. She came from a strong bloodline, one that has been attached to the wolves for ages. That is the reason they chased her."
Selene's heart beat in her chest. "A bloodline? Your meaning could be a little more obvious."
"She was important for an old family," her dad made sense of, his voice weighty with lament. "A family that was reviled hundreds of years prior. The revile denoted her and her relatives as focuses for the wolves, who accept that your bloodline holds the way in to their opportunity."
Selene's stomach beat. "What's more, I'm… important for that bloodline?"
Her dad gestured, his eyes loaded up with distress. "Indeed, Selene. That is the reason Astrid came to you. That is the reason the wolves are hunting you. You're the remainder of the line."
The room appeared to shift around her. The force she had felt inside, the weird association with the wolves — everything appeared to be legit now. She wasn't simply some guiltless observer trapped in this antiquated clash. She was at its focal point. Her very presence was attached to the revile, and the wolves would remain determined to see as her.
"What am I expected to do?" she murmured, her voice scarcely perceptible.
Her dad stood and put a hand on her shoulder, his grasp firm yet consoling. "You're more grounded than you know, Selene. Your mom… she battled until the finish to safeguard you. Furthermore, presently, it depends on you to complete what she began."
Selene's head turned with the heaviness of his words. All that she had thought she had some awareness of her life, her family, had been broken in a moment. She felt as though the ground underneath her feet had been torn away, leaving her hanging over a gorge of vulnerability.
Before she could ask more, the entryway opened once more, and Damien went into the room, his face tight with concern. He took one glance at Selene's demeanor and quickly detected something was off-base.
"What occurred?" he asked, his eyes dashing among her and her dad.
Selene gulped hard, as yet attempting to deal with everything. "It's… it's about my mom. She was killed by the wolves."
Damien's jaw grasped, his eyes obscuring as he went to her dad. "You knew this time?"
Her dad gestured, his face pale and troubling. "I did indeed. Furthermore, Please accept my apologies I kept it from both of you."
Damien let out a sharp breath, running a hand through his hair in disappointment. "This makes a huge difference. The wolves won't stop until they have her."
"I know," her dad said discreetly. "Yet, Selene can't run from this. She needs to confront them."
The heaviness of his words settled over her like a weighty shroud. There was no getting away from her destiny. She would need to stand and battle, very much like her mom had. In any case, the prospect of defying the wolves, of confronting the dim powers that had been hunting her family for ages, filled her with a dread she had never known.
"Consider the possibility that I can't make it happen?" she asked, her voice scarcely a murmur.
Damien ventured forward, his look relaxing as he put a hand on her arm. "You're in good company in this, Selene. We'll confront them together. I guaranteed I would safeguard you, and I mean to keep that commitment."
The glow of his touch steadied her, establishing her at the time. She took a full breath, attempting to quiet the tempest of feelings twirling inside her.
Her dad made a sound as if to speak, his voice weighty with feeling. "There's something different you ought to be aware."
Selene prepared herself, uncertain if she would deal with additional disclosures.
"Before your mom passed on," he said gradually, "she concealed something. Something that could end up being useful to you. It's a weapon, went down through our bloodline, intended to overcome the wolves."
"A weapon?" Damien asked, his eyes limiting.
Her dad gestured. "It's secret in the old remains, somewhere down in the woodland. In any case, it's safeguarded by strong wizardry. No one but Selene can recover it."
Selene's psyche dashed. A weapon? Might it at some point truly be the way to finishing the revile? She didn't have the foggiest idea what to accept any longer, however one thing was clear — in the event that there was an opportunity to stop the wolves, she needed to take it.
"I'll go," she said, her voice more grounded than she felt. "I'll track down the weapon."
Damien gestured, his jaw set in assurance. "We'll leave at the break of day."
As her dad watched them, his eyes loaded up with a combination of pride and distress, Selene realize that whatever lay ahead, it would change her life for eternity. The way before her was dubious, however she was done strolling it single-handedly.