Page 15 of A Lesson in Deceit (Mystic Riegan Duet #1)
Riley
I ’d made it through three classes, including the Intro to Magical History class that I’d forgotten I’d signed up for. I heard Corrin giggling from outside our door before I got inside. She gave me a quick wave and then proceeded to continue speaking.
I threw my backpack on the floor and ducked down, searching for my weekender bag under my bed.
“Mateo, say hi.” Corrin squatted down beside me, holding her phone in front of my face.
A tan face surrounded by long brown hair that curled right at the nape of their neck looked back at me.
A trimmed mustache that formed into a full beard covered the lower half of their face and thick defined eyebrows that framed brown eyes shot up in an amused expression.
Mateo smiled, their canines looking more pronounced than most.
I knew a few facts about Corrin’s partner: they were Colombian on their dad’s side and Mexican on their mom’s, they grew up in Mexico until the age of sixteen when they moved to the states.
They did college online which made them free for Corrin to talk their ear off whenever she felt like it—while also being free to work at the wolf shifter bar in Mill Valley— and they had something called a knot.
I’d read a book where the shifters had them, but once Corrin started going into detail about Mateo’s in particular, I shut my ears off.
Mateo looked over their shoulder, nodding at the person behind them, and then looked back at Corrin through the screen. They rolled their eyes, shaking their head. “ Tengo que ir a lidiar con unos idiotas. Te amo. Hablaremos al rato. ”
“ Te amo .” Corrin said back, ending her call. I pulled my weekender bag out, while using every bit of advanced Spanish I’d taken in high school and all those additional online aids I’d used because I thought it would be a good skill to have, to be able to understand and translate.
My roommate put her phone to her chest, smiling to herself like a lovesick puppy. She sighed, looking over at me. “Oh sorry, so they said…”
“I know what they said.” I walked over to my dresser and started flinging things into my bag.
Corrin tapped her phone on her chin. “You do?” Her voice screamed intrigue.
“Something about dealing with idiots, they love you and they’ll talk to you soon.” I shrugged.
“Do you translate everything that they say?” She watched me move around the room, collecting items I needed for my stay with River.
I laughed, stopping in the middle of the room to look at her. “Believe me, if I heard something I didn’t want to, you would know.” She let out a sharp cackle, pushing her glasses up her nose.
Corrin tapped my bag. “Going home on your first day of class? I’m not judging, I go home a lot, but home for me is also like thirty mins away, thirty-five max.”
“No, I’m going to River’s. I only have one class tomorrow and it’s in the afternoon.”
She wiggled her eyebrows. “Ah, going to relieve some of that first day stress, are we?”
I rolled my eyes, adjusting the bag on my shoulder. I made sure I had my phone and my university ID, tucking them into the front pocket of my bag before I did one last look around. Corrin backed up, nearly tripping over my backpack.
“Oh god, sorry, I should have picked that up.” I apologized, kneeling down to get it but she beat me to it.
She waved me off, preparing to fling it onto my bed when she stopped. She brought the backpack closer to her, looking it over as if something had caught her eye.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?” I asked, concern lacing my voice.
“I may have to wear these fucking dampeners, but I come from a long line of witches, and I know magic when I feel it.”
I felt my eyebrows furrow. “Magic?”
“Mhmm.” My eyes widened when she brought my backpack up to her nose and inhaled. She hummed, pulling it back and flicking her eyes to me. She waved her hand around my bag. “Do you mind if I….?” She was asking if she could search it and I shrugged. I was more confused than anything.
She opened the larger section, nearly putting her whole face inside. Her expression showed even more confusion when she came up empty handed. She opened the smaller compartment, rummaging around until she yanked her hand back. She let out a hmph and stuck her hand back inside.
I blinked a few times in surprise when she pulled out the tiny glass piece I’d found in the grass. She let my backpack drop to the ground and started inspecting the glass more thoroughly. “Where did you get this?”
I stood so still that I swore I stopped breathing. It was a simple question, and I had a simple answer. What came after that answer was beyond me and I didn’t know if I was ready to divulge that to anyone. “Outside.”
“Outside where? One of the magic wielder class buildings?”
Suddenly I felt like my braids were too tight and my head was thrumming. “No, just outside one of the other buildings. Is it a big deal or something? It’s just a piece of glass.”
Corrin crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, yeah? Why do you have a random ass piece of glass in your backpack, Riley? You could have thrown it away like a productive member of society and prevented a glass hazard, but no you kept it for Hecate knows what reason.” She gave the glass another look, her eyes squinting. “Wait, is that blood?”
I placed my hand over my face, groaning. “Corrin, please?—.”
She placed her palm out, shutting me up. She took in a breath and let it out. “Your blood or someone else’s?”
I looked from the glass piece to her. Her expression was hard to read, but it just looked like she wanted to understand before making assumptions. “Someone else’s.”
“Did you cause this blood?”
“No.”
“Whose is it?”
My breath caught in my throat. If I wanted to speak, the words were having a really hard time making their way out.
Corrin’s face morphed into a look of sympathy when my mouth kept opening and closing.
She stepped closer to me, placing a hand on my bicep and squeezing.
“Where did you find it, Riley?” Her voice was soft now.
I looked down at the ground, speaking the words to the floor beneath me. “Outside the Department of Mental Magic building and…” I licked my lips, letting the rest of my sentence fall away.
Corrin clucked her tongue. “And you have no idea why this has magic on it?”
My head shot up. “No, I have no idea. I’ve never seen magic residue before, so I didn’t know what that was. I swear.” I vaguely knew that some magic produced a small amount of residue after it was expelled, but I didn’t know what it looked like or if it wasn’t physical remnants, how it felt.
She gave me a small reassuring smile. “I believe you.”
It made my heart pound a little harder to hear someone say that.
“It’s hard to do anything with these dampeners.” She pointed to her earrings, “but I can see about figuring out what kind of magic this is. I’ll need to scrape off some of the residue, but that’s magical science.”
I bit my lip, my nervous energy revving up. She tilted her head to the side. “Do you trust me?”
I heard my phone buzz in my bag. “I might have to now, don’t you think?”
Corrin rubbed her lips together. “Perhaps. If this happens to be connected with what I think it’s connected with, then I want to help.
Like I said before,” she sent me a devilish smile, “I don’t believe anything that’s been said.
I prefer the truth and if I can help obtain that, then that’s how I’d like to spend my time. It beats homework by a long shot.”
My phone buzzed again and then the ringtone for my mom went off. I sighed, nodding at her. “Okay, finding out what kind of magic that is and how strong it is would be a start. It will get me going in some kind of direction.”
“It might take me a few days, but I’ll let you know when I find something.” She placed the glass on her bedside table.
The sound of my ringtone stopped and then a long vibration sounded, letting me know my mom had left a voicemail. “I’d like to keep this a private matter.”
“River doesn’t know? Or your other boyfriend?”
“No, he doesn’t.” I scrunched up my face. “Wait, other boy?—”
“Whatever, fine, this will be between you and me. I’ll tell you something Riley, things like this,” she pointed to the sharp transparent shard, “it may seem small, but whatever I get from it might end up bigger than you thought. And secrets like that end up coming out eventually.”