Page 12 of A Lesson in Obedience

River turned around and sat on the bed. “You weretoldto take her?” He turned his head to look at me, but I nodded towards his friend. He didn’t want me to open my mouth and scream at him, so I kept my thoughts to myself at the moment.

Grayson fidgeted a little as if he was afraid to say his next words. “Yeah.” He grabbed River’s arm, pulling at the fabric of his shirt. “You have to b-believe me. I-I didn’t know she was involved. I didn’t know she was who he was looking for.”

River ripped Grayson’s hand from his shirt, keeping his hand over his when he sat on the bed. “Who told you to take her?”

Grayson bit his lower lip, a few tears that had welled up in his bottom lids finally dropping down his cheek. “Your dad.”

“Excuse me?” I asked, getting closer to the bed.

“I thought since nothing we’d done had worked then they would just leave me alone. Our deal was done.”

River moved his hand away from Grayson’s. “Your deal? You’ve been working with my dad to somehow get to Riley for whatever reason you aren’t fucking telling us?”

Grayson shook his head. “No, well, we did have a deal, but I didn’t know about Riley. River please! I wouldn’t have done any of this if I had known that she was the one he was looking for.”

“What did our dad want with Riley?” I inquired, inclining my body towards him so I wouldn’t miss a thing.

Grayson wiped his hands over his cheeks. He tried to reach for River’s hand again, but my brother kept his hand away. Grayson tried to keep the look of hurt from his face and continued, “He needed her for Chancellor Fowler.”

“Chancellor Fowler?” I asked, remembering how Riley had mentioned him before.

Grayson smacked his lips together, gathering his words. “He’s the one who killed Mr. Monroe.”

“Wait, what?” River scrubbed his hand down his face.

“And he’s her real dad.”

I nearly choked. “What the fuck, Grayson?!”

“I didn’t know! I went to figure out shit with my scholarship and Chancellor Fowler and your dad were there waiting for me. They gave me an ultimatum; I either do what they asked or I lose my scholarship and my entire life, everything I’ve fucking worked for would be completely fucked.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose; surprised steam wasn’t erupting from my ears with how fucking pissed off I was. I let out a humorless laugh. “You shadow wielding little shit. The disappearing witches…that was you.”

“Yes, but I brought them back!”

River pushed off the bed with a harsh groan. “That doesn’t fucking matter! You didn’t see what she did in her comatose state! You didn’t see the look in her eyes when she even mentioned your name!” I came up behind him, reaching for his shoulder. River shrugged me off. “Whose blood was it?”

Grayson’s eyes looked down towards his comforter, picking at the material. “Chancellor Fowler did it, not me.”

“I didn’t ask who did what. I asked you whose it was.” River’s voice was less and less comforting and more stoic. The charm he’d mastered so well was fading away.

Grayson moved his mouth around, looking as if he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. “I didn’t know she was going to be a part of this. I didn’t know it would end like that. I never hurt Riley, he did!”

I quickly moved past my brother and lunged onto the bed, pulling Grayson up by his shirt. I could hear the fabric strain under my hold. “It’s too late for regret. Blame it on Chancellor Fowler allyou want, but in the end, she still sees you as a villain in her story and hiding out in your room isn’t going to change that. I don’t care what you didn’t know; I’m only interested in what youdoknow. Whose. Blood. Was. It?”

Grayson opened and closed his mouth, peeking over my shoulder at River. “Marianne’s.”

I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me.

“Marianne?” River asked, his voice shaking. “Marianne!” The next time he said it, the anger that was threaded in his words was obvious.

“Who is Marianne?” I asked, letting Grayson go and shoving him back on his bed.

“She’s one of Riley’s best friends,” River said, crossing the room to the other side of the bed. “That’s why she didn’t want to talk about it…”

A knock came at the door that made us all jump.

“Grayson, sweetheart. You should really eat something.” Grayson’s mother’s voice entered the room with its light-hearted energy, but even that wasn’t enough to break the tension.