Page 61 of A Lesson in Obedience
I tapped my pencil against my book, realizing that I was retaining none of what I’d read for the past thirty minutes and closed it. I searched inside my backpack for the novel I’d been slowly working my way through. It was a monster romance that involved a different planet and I really needed something I could lose myself in. I had only read about two pages when two bodies were hovering over me.
“There you are!” Corrin yelped, getting harsh stares from a few students. She turned around, throwing them her middle fingerbefore rushing to sit down next to me. Ike grunted as he sat down in front of me, trying to get comfortable spreading his long legs out.
“I will just say, I’m missing an entrepreneurs club meeting for this,” Ike pointed out, getting his phone out and tapping away.
I narrowed my eyes at both of them. “How did you know I was here?”
Corrin waved her hand dismissively. “I tried texting you, but I guess you didn’t hear it. I texted River. He told me you were probably here.”
I took my phone from the side pocket of my backpack, realizing I had two missed texts. One from Corrin and one from River. “So, you just happened to pick the right floor?”
Ike snorted. “No, we looked like idiots ducking down each aisle on the first two floors.”
Corrin shushed him, taking a book out from her bag. “I get bored very easily, so I decided to do a little digging on the coven, especially Evie Malcolm, the lady that created your necklace.”
I sat up a little straighter, putting my book down and placing it next to me. “And?”
“Ike is really good at researching and doing archive stuff, so I asked him if he could find anything relevant to that time. And as annoying as my twin is, he never disappoints.”
“I am right here you know.” He kicked her foot with his own. “Compliment aside, there were some articles about Mystic Riegan’s chancellor dying suddenly and that took over a lot of the headlines. That guy really had the school thriving during his time. I collected a few old pictures of the coven, but the craziest thing I found was something I guess the school tried to bury but clearly not good enough.”
I raised my eyebrows telling him to continue.
His dark eyes danced with excitement as he explained. “Evie Malcolm was apparently having an affair with the chancellor.”
I pursed my lips, feeling Corrin grabbed my arm. “When he told me I was like, oh my god, that was something the coven alwaystalked about as like a world class rumor. No one could really verify if it was true or give that much detail, especially about the chancellor’s wife. Celica and Mystic Riegan being an intertwined legacy means that that kind of scandal would have to be covered up, especially after the chancellor’s death.”
“Not well enough, it seems,” Ike said, smugly. “Evie Malcolm and the affair is as close as you get to any details on that time besides the fact that the guy died.”
I moved my braids to my back, sitting cross-legged. “Chancellor Fowler’s dad was the Chancellor back then. My mom told me all about how when his father died, things changed for him. She told me he always accused his own mother of doing it. His mother was the coven leader, so she would have had to know Evie.”
Corrin opened her mouth, letting a small breath escape before frantically flipping through her book. “In all the searching, we found this.” She finally found the page she wanted and stopped, bringing the book between us so I could see. She pointed to a slightly grainy picture of a collection of men and women together.
“What am I looking at?”
“This is the coven during that time and that,” Corrin pointed to a girl with wispy dark hair, “is Evie Malcolm.” She moved her finger over to a woman with dark brown curls down to her waist. She looked older than all of them, but she was beautiful, the picture of pure regal grace. “That’s the coven leader, Teresa Lowe. Riley, I recognized her because she was the coven leader up until your dad died.”
“Wait, the one you said just up and left?”
Corrin nodded, her bright pink crop top sliding down one of her shoulders. “Yeah. Teresa and Erik never really show up in pictures together or anything. It’s like they damn near avoided each other. She never even talked about her son when we interacted. Maybe the change to his mother’s maiden name was some kind of fresh start when he took over, since Erik Lowe stopped showing up in any kind of research we’ve done about a year after his father’s death. It’s likehe disappeared for a while.” Corrin eyeballed the picture some more like she was searching for something. “Then all of sudden, after a number of different chancellor’s all related to that family, he pops back up with a different last name. I couldn’t find any other details on it though.”
She tapped her finger against someone else in the picture. “That’s Chancellor Fowler, well, the bottom says Erik Lowe.” I peered at the photo, seeing him as a younger version of himself. He didn’t look happy or sad; he just looked content. I wondered if this was after my mom had left or before. He was handsome in a way that had me understanding why my mom fell for him, but I knew what he was, what he would become and I had to look away from the photo.
I closed the book, placing it back in Corrin’s lap. “Yeah, my mom said that she was told he just went off the grid when she came back to California. She thought it was over. What does this all mean?”
Ike cleared his throat. “If you were going to do that type of magic, the kind that involves housing whole magical abilities into an object for supposed infinite dormancy, you would consult your coven leader or your coven leader would be the one bringing you the project in the first place. That’s big magic and not something you just go off and decide on your own.”
“So…that would mean Teresa had to know what Evie was doing. She would have been aware that the necklace was for my mom… for me,” I spoke my words towards the ground, trying to make it all make sense. “She knew my mom was back the entire time, but she never told Chancellor Fowler.”
Corrin hummed. “I mean, you said they didn’t get along, maybe that was her way of keeping your mom at bay. Or maybe she wanted to help your mom. The past could be in the past, you know?” She nibbled on her bottom lip, her eyebrows furrowed.
“Corrin, what are you thinking?” Ike asked, his voice full of knowing skepticism.
“Nothing terrible, just maybe if I can find out if Teresa Lowe is alive, then perhaps she can help us with getting her son to chill thefuck out. Get rid of him. Remove him from the situation.” She flinched when she was done, waiting for her brother to explode on her.
Ike groaned, running both his hands down his face. “Are you trying to give mom and dad a heart attack? The witch kidnappings, the chancellor being way too connected with a coven you happened to still be in and now this?!” His voice raised a little and a few students shushed him.
“Okay, calm down, both of you. I can take this to the guys and we can figure it out, without you. I should have never involved you. Ike is right; your parents have been great to me and I don’t want to be any more of an issue for them.” I took her knee in my hand and squeezed.
