Page 109 of A Lesson in Obedience
“Well things change.”
“And your brother wasn’t in his classes today. Do you know anything about that?” he asked, gruffly.
“He wasn’t feeling good, so better safe than sorry.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I did want to talk to you about him. I thought it might be better if we did it away from the school, just you and me.”
“You’re finally ready to have a civil conversation?” My dad rolled up the sleeves of his button down.
I grinded my molars together. “You call threatening both of us and everyone else, civil? Is that what all those other times we’ve spoken were to you?”
He raised one of his eyebrows. “Even you know I could be far meaner, but I am choosing not to be. Chancellor Fowler is not a badman, Asher. He wants his family to be stronger than ever, and so do I. I don’t understand your aversion to that.”
I nearly choked on how flippant he was being about everything, but I couldn’t say I was surprised. “You and I will never agree that he is a good man in any way, but I talked to him. River, that is.”
He hummed, turning to walk towards the back of the house. “Did you now?”
I followed behind him, stepping outside when he opened the back door. “As much as I don’t appreciate your heinous version of discipline when it comes to him, his safety does matter. Not that I think you really care much about that, but I did tell him that letting Riley do what Chancellor Fowler asks was for the best.” The words rolled off my tongue with ease, but they tasted bitter and awful. “I need to look at this logically and Riley will be fine, but River has you as a parent, so he doesn’t have the same protection as she does.”
“As a parent, you want the best for your children and even as adults, they tend to forget where they came from, so they need to be forced down a peg by any means necessary. He wants to learn lessons the hard way, you both clearly do, but it seems like you are finally being the older brother I knew you could be.” He spoke like everything he said was fact and maybe I’d inherited that need for control from him, but at least I knew when it was enough. I never wanted to truly hurt anyone for the sake of myself.
“He doesn’t like it, but as long as Chancellor Fowler sees she’s doing what she needs to do then they’ll be fine. Their relationship can be maintained, right?”
He ran his finger over his bottom lip, eyeing me. “I believe so. The shadow wielder too, if that’s what Riley wants. And you want no part of a relationship with her?”
“Excuse me?” I asked, furrowing my brow.
“Let’s not play dumb. It’s not becoming of someone with your education. Besides, someone who fights so hard for a person they claim is just their student is fooling themselves.”
I bit my bottom lip so hard I thought I tasted blood. “No, I don’twant to complicate things more. Eventually if all goes well, River will graduate, move out and take her with him. Riley can try to have some kind of relationship with him or whatever that looks like and she won’t be my issue.”
My dad nodded, looking up at the sky, watching as the sun kept slowly hiding behind the trees. “I could persuade Chancellor Fowler to take out his efforts on the shadow wielder instead.”
I waved my hands in front of me. “I wasn’t saying to go after Grayson in light of River not being an option.”
He looked at me as if I had three heads. “My boy, your brother and his friend still need to learn a lesson, and he hasn’t quite decided which one will get the brunt of it, but I suppose you’ve made the choice easier.” He grabbed my arm and squeezed. “I am so very happy you’ve come to see my side of things. You’ll learn to love the feeling of power once this is over and that girl does right by her father.”
He got his keys from his pocket and walked past me towards the door. “Stay awhile. Your mother is in the master bedroom; she’d love to see you.”
I caught the door before it closed, falling into step with him. “Where are you going?”
“If you must know, I’m meeting with Chancellor Fowler.”
“You’re going back to the school?”
“I never said that.” He stopped, turning around and scoffing at me. “Would you like to come with me? I’m sure he would love to know how cooperative you’re being, but of course, that means that you would be in league with us and that means unbridled loyalty.”
That made me uneasy. “Are you going to his house?” That was likely the place Grayson had shadowed Riley to.
“It is quite nice. His family clearly did well for themselves. Are you coming or not?”
My first instinct was to say no, but then again, I would ratherIget physically close than anyone else. “Sure, that sounds?—”
My dad held his hand up, silencing me. His eyes lookedfar away, the same way River’s did when he was using his powers. His lips curled up into a snarl before he gave me his attention. “Do you take me for a fool, Asher?”
“No…”
“Truly, do you? Your brother may be under the weather, but he seems to have no issue fumbling around in Riley’s mind and possibly Chancellor Fowler’s?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
