Page 64 of A Lesson in Obedience
River looked over his shoulder at Asher, who raised his eyebrows and shook his head as if to say, ‘your call.’
I didn’t let either of them speak. “Someone tried to mind control you today?”
River rolled his lips together and sighed. “Well, not exactly, but they just…”
“Yes or no, River? Did someone get into your head and try to hurt you?”
“Riley, it’s not that simple. I don’t know if they planned to hurt me, it just felt…”
I cut him off again. “Yes, I heard what you said. An aggravated warning. It’s still a threat of some kind and you didn’t think to tell me the minute you saw me?”
He opened his mouth to argue but then closed it. His eyebrows turned down and he looked to Asher, as if his brother had the answer.
Asher ran a hand over his beard. “Oh, don’t look at me to save you now.”
River stepped out of the room, moving closer to me. “I was going to tell you. This was about our dad and anything associated with him…telling Asher just seemed like the most logical first step.”
I hummed. “Fine, makes sense, so why didn’t you say anything when we got back here? You let me go into your room and still nothing. Does that come with more logical reasoning?”
I heard Asher let out a small chuckle.
“Okay, I know it looks bad, but?—”
I smacked the side of his head, and he gave me a shocked look, blinking a few times.
“Ow! I’m sorry! I should have told you.”
“Hmph, you think.” I turned on my heels to take the stairs two at a time. I heard footsteps following behind me.
The minute I hit the kitchen, River grabbed my arm, spinning me around to face him. “Riley, I am sorry I didn’t tell you, but I don’t particularly love adding to your plate that is already toppling over every fucking minute. My dad is an issue, but this wasn’t my dad at all, not directly. I don’t know if that makes it better or worse; I don’t know anything. All Idoknow is that even if this situation has to do with me, I will always wonder how it affects you.” His words came out breathy like it was taking a lot for him to make sure he was saying things the way he wanted. He looked over my shoulder and I noticed Asher was behind me, leaning against the kitchen counter.
“Did you confront your dad?”
“We tried.” Asher offered. “He wasn’t in his office. Surprise, surprise. If he got that one student to rip off your necklace at the meeting, then what’s to say he didn’t enlist someone to do this as well?”
I tilted my head to the side in thought. “Compulsion isn’t taught anymore. There are a lot of mental magic classes and workshops at the university, plenty of different majors, but that isn’t one of them, so unless our dad has been secretly preparing a student for this very moment, he has to be using an outside source.”
“Those mystery books really enhance your deductive reasoning skills,” Asher joked, smirking at me when I frowned at him.
I touched River’s arm, feeling this warm skin on my fingertips. I dragged my hand up to his shoulder and over this neck, cradling it. “I need to know everything from now on.”
“Riley, I was going to?—”
“Everything.” I pressed my fingers into his neck for just a tiny hint of emphasis. I considered bringing up Celica and my choice to join them, but I pushed that thought away. River’s dad seemed to be the one who couldn’t play by the rules of a game they created, it was only the first day and he was getting a head start that no one had offered.
He wrinkled his nose, clutching my hand and removing it, but he didn’t let it go. “Yes, Riley. Everything. Since we are saying everything, then you should know Grayson helped me out. I won’t get into the details cause they’re honestly a little weird, but he was there. I didn’t go through what I did alone.”
My eyes never left his face, staring directly into his green irises. Grayson made sure he was alright. “He used his magic,” he cut his eyes to Asher, “yes on campus, so don’t pull your university rules shit on me.”
“I wasn’t going to. I’ll thank the shadow wielder when he gets home. I can be nice,” Asher said, the tone in his voice full of sarcasm.
I remembered his shadows feeling unfamiliar and cold when they’d wrapped around me when he was operating under Chancellor Fowler’s influence. I imagined them doing something good, something good for a person I loved. He hadn’t done it to seek my affection, but he’d done it because he cared about River. Maybe I needed to create new memories with the Grayson that wanted a second chance.
On his knees, Riley. It’s actually more liberating than you think.
“Hey, you okay?” River had slightly bent his knees to meet me at eye level. “You kind of zoned out for a minute.”
I lifted his hand to mine and kissed it. “Yeah, no, it was nothing. I was just thinking that maybe it’s time we had a talk. Grayson and I.”
