Page 111 of A Lesson in Obedience

“And he never spoke about where he was going?”

“No, he didn’t do much talking at all. He looked dazed, like he wasn’t himself.”

Grayson ran his hands into his hair. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Ike forced Grayson to look at him straight on. “What about my sister?”

“Corrin is fine. Everything was clear when I got to Riley.” Grayson was about to open his mouth again, but Ike brought his phone screen up to his face and walked away, placing it to his ear.

“Grayson,” I called, his shoulders relaxing when he turned to look at me.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s River?” We were back at the house, so he had to be here. That was the plan.

I watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. “I—he—” He looked from me to the doorway as if River would just walk right in at this very moment.

“Grayson, what’s going on?” Beau lifted his head up, his ears perking.

River’s not okay, Mom.

“What?” I asked my familiar, waving Grayson off when he tried to respond.

It wasn’t him. He’s not okay.

“It wasn’t him?” I repeated, looking down at the ground and thinking this over. He’d been in my head for just a moment during my absolute meltdown. The person who’d fumbled my memories had vanished and now so had River.

Chancellor Fowler’s words came back to me like a gut punch. Disobedience breeds consequences. And he had yet to make good on his threat, but maybe this was it…

“Corrin is fine and Mateo said she’s worried about Riley,” Ike said, walking back into the room. “He’s calling Jade and filling her in.”

She was worried about me? That can’t be right. The way she’d looked at me told a different story.

“Have you tried to call him?” I cut in, moving Beau off of me and standing up. The feeling of my wet clothes sticking to my body wasn’t a bother to me anymore.

Ike tilted his head to the side, a little confused until he realized I was asking about River. “Oh, I’ve tried to call him, text, all of it.”

The front door flew open and Asher ran inside, swiveling his head around and placing his eyes on me. He came over, tentatively tilting my chin up. “Are you alright?”

“Coven aside, yes, but where’s your brother?”

Asher’s eyes grew sad. “I don’t know. Wherever he is, he’s under our dad’s control.”

My heart started to speed up and I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe. What was he going to do? This was all because I couldn’t figure my shit out, because I was so fucking difficult. This was all because they wanted to help me, because there were parts of all of them that cared about me enough to put themselves in danger.

I was the reason my mom decided to leave, albeit I wasn’t even born yet, but still. I’d decided that I needed to look further into my dad’s death and step foot on that campus. I’d put all these people who called me their friend on the chopping block, for what? Things had just gotten worse and worse and all I had was more pain to showfor it. Me and the guys had fixed things, we were united again, but now it was falling apart.

Because of me.

“Hey, Riley, look at me. We’ll find him. I just need to—” Asher stopped talking, taking out his phone and squinting at the screen. He immediately put it to his ear. “Hello?”

He didn’t move from in front of me, so I planted my feet and refused to leave my spot as well. Grayson and Ike crowded around us, waiting.

“Yes, that’s me. Wait, what? When?” Asher placed his fingers over his forehead, slowly rubbing back and forth. “Okay, okay, w-what happened? Okay, yes, I’ll be right there. Yes, thank you.” He tried to sound calm, but his voice shook right at the end.

“Asher?” I asked, reaching out and touching his elbow.

He flinched as if he was suddenly out of it. Shaking his head, he nodded absentmindedly, looking at each of us. “We need to go to the hospital. Now.”