Page 10 of A Lesson in Deceit
When we were getting closer, you could see the rust-colored tops of the buildings and the beige mass timber that made up the majority of the academic buildings. There were four massive parking lots that aligned perfectly to each section of Mystic Riegan housing. A brick barrier surrounded sections of school, with gates leading inside. Gates that were wide open at the moment. The brick took up most of my view of the lawn, but from the few times I’d been here with my dad, I knew they paid a lot of money for landscaping and used a few green witches to help maintain it. Students got college credit if something they helped with aligned with their major.
I jumped a little when I heard my door open and saw Grayson holding his hand out. “Out you go.”
I grabbed his hand, letting him lead me onto the pavement. I squinted up at the sun beaming down on us. It was hot, but not as hot as it was going to get. The short breeze made my braids move, slightly slapping me in the face. I leaned down, letting my hair dangle as I stretched out my hair tie around them, creating a messy bun on top of my head. When I straightened, a single braid sat in front of my face.
“Missed one.” Grayson pointed out, holding onto the end and moving it from left to right. “It’s cute though. Leave it.”
I heard the trunk close, right as River placed my weekender bag on top of my luggage. He had put his sunglasses on, particularly the expensive ones I’d bought him for Christmas. He swatted my hand away when I tried to take one of my bags, rolling one of them to Grayson.
A massive amount of heat drifted past my face and I screeched, seeing River’s large hands grab my arms and pull me back. I looked over seeing a ball of flames fly through a few more groups of people, eventually disintegrating. I reached up and touched my cheek, wondering if it had singed my skin.
“Fucking watch it, Jensen!” River yelled, looking past me.
A guy an inch or so taller than me jogged over, waving his hands. “Fuck! I’m sorry. It wasn’t meant to go that far out.” He had blonde hair that was buzzed on both sides and left long at the top, the ends flopping over his eyebrow.
River stepped in front of me, shoving Jensen back with one of his hands. “Yeah, that’s what you said the last time when you forgot to wear your fucking dampener and almost set your dorm on fire!” His voice was getting even louder. He pointed over to me. “You’re lucky you didn’t burn her, because I would fucking kill…”
Jensen rolled his eyes, backing away from us. “That was one time and I was a freshman, so sue me. I said I was sorry, for fucks sake.” He nodded towards me.
River and Grayson both looked at me as if confirming that the apology was enough. I also noticed the eyes that were on us and I had never been more embarrassed. I tucked my stray braid behind my ear. “Yeah, it’s fine. Scary, but fine.”
A black shadow came out, wrapping around Jensen’s chest and turning him around. Another shadow pushed against his back, shoving him in the other direction. “The lady forgives you so off you go, fucking idiot.”
Jensen looked back at us as he walked, rolling his shoulders as if Grayson had left him with a small chill. Jensen suddenly stopped, lifting his arm up at a very slow pace as if he was trying to stop it and then his fist connected with his jaw. He stumbled sideways, holding his face. He was seething when he turned around to look at us, mainly River. My boyfriend didn’t use the parts of his powers that included influencing someone’s actions and thoughts frequently; he primarily used it when he was younger. Nowadays, when he thought that it was necessary…no one was safe. River simply smiled at him and waved. “Throw a fireball at my girlfriend again and I’ll make you think you want to suck your dick, got it?”
A few people snickered around us, while others just looked on in varying confusion.
I placed my hands on my face, groaning.
“Something wrong?” River asked, locking the car and throwing the keys at his best friend.
I waved my hands around me, noticing a few students with lingering glares and a few muffled laughs. My goal wasn’t to try to impress anyone at this school, but I didn’t love the idea of already making a pariah out of myself before I’d started any of my investigating. “Um, let’s see…you couldn’t have handled that with a little more subtlety?”
River ran a tattooed finger over his bottom lip. “Not really, no.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
He shrugged, pulling the handle of my bag up, rolling it. “The guy almost struck you with a fireball, excuse me for being concerned. I didn’t beat his ass or mentally debilitate him, so be grateful, gorgeous.”
He was walking in front of me, while I followed behind him, so he didn’t see the way my body automatically shivered with the thought of him hurting someone for me. I’d never actually seen him fight, but I knew he could. I always just saw him as the sweet guy who forced me to walk on the side closer to the buildings when we strolled down a sidewalk, so he could be the one near the street. I hadn’t seen many guys do that before, but he claimed it was a common gentleman practice. Gentleman went out the window when he then proceeded to lean me against his motorcycle and attempt to finger me, but honestly, I wasn’t complaining. And I likely never would.
We stopped at the gates, as did many others, causing me to raise an eyebrow. River reached into his back pocket, pulling out two rings and handing one to Grayson. I looked around seeing students take out bracelets, earrings and even necklaces. River placed the ring on his finger, contorting his hand into a fist before relaxing.
“Dampeners?” I asked curiously. I knew about them, but I had never truly witnessed them in action. Growing up, kids always already had them on when in school, so I didn’t know how magic wielders felt putting them on. What it felt like to have your power become nearly dormant.
“It’s like a vacuum inside of yourself. All the power just goes poof.” Grayson snapped his finger. “Well, okay, you can still feel it, which honestly is kind of worse.”
There were plenty of students who didn’t have dampeners, letting me know they were human. I knew this wasn’t the entire student population, but it seemed as if the ratio of humansto magic wielders were equal enough. That thought had me considering my dad’s place in how well the two types of students mixed. He wasn’t the reason they got admitted or even decided to integrate at all, but he was sometimes the reason they stayed at the school. He had a way of making you feel like he truly understood you, even though he had likely just met you a few moments ago. My heart constricted and I had to catch my breath before I started sobbing in front of my future classmates.
I felt a tug at my elbow, seeing Grayson pull me along gently. There was a small wave that washed over you when you went through the gates, like you knew you were entering a place with so much power while also trying to maintain normalcy. The lush green lawn came into view and no brochure or word of mouth could have done this campus justice. There had been changes since I was last here. They had built a giant breezeway between two of the buildings, glass taking over each side. Newly planted white alder trees decorated the open space, and freshly cut hedges outlined the brick wall. A large fountain sat in the middle with benches surrounding it. The walkways were sculpted out with red clay, creating the rickety sound of wheels against it as students brought their stuff in.
There was a large sign directing towards different areas of the campus. Mystic Riegan was one of the biggest campuses in California, even including the human only schools. When a sign said left, you didn’t know how far left you were actually going. The directory indicated that up ahead would lead us to the academic and administrative buildings. I tilted my chin up to try to look as far out as I could. I knew we were on the east side of the university and my father’s building was north. I would have to carve out time to make my way over there, or hopefully my class schedule placed me in its vicinity at some point during the day.
I hadn’t realized I’d stopped walking until I heard my name being called. I looked over to see River and Grayson waving their hands, motioning for me to hurry up. My phone buzzed in my shorts pockets. I pulled it out, seeing Marianne’s name across the screen. I sent her a quick text that I would call her back and hurried over to the guys.
We hadto shove past a few people to get to the elevators and then down the hall to my room, but after a quick tap of my university ID that doubled as a keycard to my dorm room, we finally were at our destination. The room was what I’d expected for a university dorm. Mid-sized, two twin beds on opposite sides, two simple work desks, a decent bathroom and one closet.
Grayson rolled one of my suitcases to the middle of the room and whistled. “Damn, your room is smaller than mine.”
