Page 44 of A Lesson in Obedience
“Ah, why so frustrated Mr. Ypulong?” His voice sent my spine ramrod straight. He didn’t make a move for me, so I spun around coming face to face with Chancellor Fowler.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I looked around trying to find the source of his intrusion.
He looked around along with me as if amused by my skepticism. “Honestly, I could have just walked in here and used my master key to get into your room, but I thought we should be evenly matched, so I got here the same way you did.”
I felt the wisps of my shadows playing along my neck as if to soothe me, but nothing was going to help right now. “I thought we were done. That’s what you told me when you had me take her back.”
Chancellor Fowler placed his hands in his pockets, sauntering over to my bed and sitting down. “We are. Grayson, I’m not here to get you to do my bidding. I promised you that you were off the hook, and I keep my promises.”
I scoffed, grabbing my backpack and trying to pretend like he wasn’t even there. “Then why are you here? You’ve caused enough problems.”
He crossed his legs and leaned forward so that his elbow could be propped up by his knee. He placed his fingers under his chin, sizing me up. “I kept my promise when it came to that adorable family of yours. They really are quite sweet, much better than the family I grew up in, and I admire you for holding them so close. You don’thave to try to prove yourself for their love even when you weren’t the perfect little shifter they thought you’d be.”
My eyebrows furrowed. “How do you know that?”
He clucked his tongue, smiling at me. “You wound me with how little you think I know.”
“Whatever, okay. Stalk me all you want, I don’t care?—”
He uncrossed his legs, getting up and sliding his hands down the front of his cream-colored button-down shirt. “How is my daughter?”
I pulled my backpack over my shoulders. “Oh, you don’t know the answer to that? I’m surprised.”
“Your attitude delights me. I can see why she liked that witty nature of yours. Obviously,likedbeing the operative word here, of course. Past tense as in before you eventually betrayed her.” He blinked, looking at me with curiosity.
I opened my mouth to push back, but he tutted me and moved his hands around so that my backpack was removed from my shoulders. He motioned his hand towards my desk chair and slid it over to me, letting it hit the back of my knees and forced me to sit down. I whipped my head around and grinded my teeth.
“The technicalities don’t really matter, do they? You can explain yourself and run around in a circle of rationalization, finding a way to justify when none of that really matters. What’s done is done and all we can do now is deal with the consequences.” He leaned his face down, getting to my level.
I met his gaze with a harsh glare. “You think you are above consequences though. You somehow think that despite everything that you’ve done, Riley will ever want to be in the same room with you, sit down and have a father daughter heart to heart? You are delusional if you think she’ll ever want to look at you again without throwing you across a room.”
He laughed, the sunlight coming through my window shined a light on each of his curls. Up close, the resemblances he shared with Riley were so much more apparent. “Ah, that is something we share,I guess. Riley’s disdain. How are you dealing with the idea that my daughter can’t fathom looking at you without knowing the hand you had in everything?”
I pressed my lips together but said nothing.
“If she is as stubborn as her mother, well then, you and I have much work to do. You have your good looks and your charm, Grayson, but that doesn’t mean much when she can’t even trust you, hmm. I, on the other hand, am her father. I have her best interest and whether she likes it or not, she will be exactly where she belongs. Maybe as soon as that imposter of a father was dead, Hecate was able to refuel me with the energy to search for her again.”
I got up and kicked the chair back. “I’m not even a witch and I know Hecate would never bestow anything to you for something so cruel. You stole pieces of magic, pieces of other witches’ essence for the sake of being fucking greedy. You deserved to be miserable if this was always your intent. Anyrealfather would want a happy and willing daughter, not someone they have to control.”
He crooked his finger and I was thrown over to him. He had me by my shirt, not too tight, but tight enough so that my muscles tensed up. “I have left my daughter alone for two full days. I told her as much and now she will come back to my territory and play by my rules. She will want this because at the end of the fucking day, I understand her. She will think she has it under control and you may even be able to worm your way back into her good graces, but when all is said and done, she is mine. If my own mother taught me anything, it’s that you can’t run away from who you are, we all eventually end up exactly where we are meant to be. The more you run, the worse off you will be and that person you’re running from will eat you alive.”
“You don’t know her at all if you think she will ever willingly come to you. You can’t scare her into submission.” I shook my head, feeling my shadows start to wind around my arms.
He let me go, shoving me back. “Why not? It worked with you.” He smirked at me, rolling his shoulders. “I wouldnever intentionally cause her physical harm, but Riley’s emotions will be her downfall. I think you are all forgetting that she isn’t a simple witch, she can’t just read a few books on magic meditation and understand how things work.”
“And you think getting Asher to mentally scare her straight is part of the solution?” I asked, keeping my voice leveled. “I’m sure you have a secondary plan in place because he won’t do it.”
He scanned my face, the corners of his eyes crinkling every now and then. “I mean I don’t think getting you to restrain her again with your shadows will work this time, so a new strategy is in place. I have many ways this could go and it will be fun to watch it all unravel. As you know I do have other shadow wielders so if all else fails, I will do whatever is necessary. My power isn’t just from what I’ve siphoned but it is also from the control I have over others simply because I know the right people, have the right connections and I’ve spent a good part of my life learning how to lure people into thinking that helping me is what is good for them. Riley, Asher, even her little telepathic boyfriend are no different.”
“I’ll kill you if you hurt any of them.” My shadows swirled around my wrists, pushing off my hands and racing towards him, but they were stopped, bending and contorting into any direction that wasn’t aimed at him. That force he was using went further down, all the way down to where my shadows grew and settled. I felt it in my chest and I couldn’t breathe. My shadows were being yanked and thrown around; I wanted to pull them back, but he wasn’t letting me.
“You’ll kill me, Grayson? Really? You could have done it a long time ago, but you didn’t. If you were wanting to do it because you felt the overwhelming need to murder me then so be it, but you are doing it for her, for them, and it is slightly pathetic. You think it will get you back in with them, but all you’ll be is a murderer. Your parents will see you that way, the school certainly will because I have made a few people aware that I came to your dorm to see you. You will never get to live out that happily ever after with my daughterbecause yet again, you fell into my trap.” He let go of my shadows and I choked out a breath. My shadows weren’t so constricted and I rubbed my hands down both my arms, shaking them out.
Chancellor Fowler cleared his throat. “Finish out your senior year, Grayson. Make your parents proud. You did work hard to keep them alive this year and I commend you on your commitment to your family. Try to make amends with my daughter, if you can. Truly, I am keeping my fingers crossed for both of you.” He reached out and brushed his palms against my shoulders as if he was making me look presentable.
His fingers tightened around my shoulders and I swallowed the lump in my throat. His voice got low and his eyes turned dead and soulless. “You come at me with your shadow again, you try to get the upper hand against me and I will make Professor St. James’ decision easier. I’ll have Oliver forgo the plan and mentally debilitate Riley’s precious telepath and then I’ll crack his head against the pavement over and over again. You and I both know you care about him just as much as my daughter and I’ll make sure Riley is aware that you could have prevented this if you just listened. You all seem to want to help her, but in the end all she’ll end up being is hurt and if I’m who she wants to cry to well then I’ll shoulder that burden.” He smiled at me, almost like a glowing politician. “I hope we have an understanding.”
My voice shook when I spoke. “You really are a monster.”
