Page 29 of A Lesson in Obedience

I shrugged him off and vehemently shook my head. “No. Don’t talk to me about that.” I shuffled off the bed, walking away from him and towards one of his dressers. “Idon’twant to talk about that.” A pit was developing in my stomach and I wanted to vomit from the feeling. “I don’t want to bring up what happened in that room. I’m already trying not to think about the fact that you have Grayson in this house and all that does it make my fucking heart hurt.”

Beau watched me from where he’d curled himself up in River’s closet. The door was open and he had made a makeshift bed out of some of the clothes that had fallen off of their hangers. I gave him a small smile, letting him know I was fine. His eyes drooped closed again, letting himself drift off to sleep.

“Grayson is?—”

“I need to talk to my mom.” I interrupted.

“Okay, I can take you there if you want to get dressed.” His words had a cautious tone to them.

“Tomorrow. I want to go by myself.”

The air stilled and River sucked in a breath. He was hesitating.

I turned on my heels and faced him. “Are you going to tell me no?”

He groaned. “Not exactly, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. Not without one of us with you.”

“You sound like your brother. She’s my mom, River. I don’t need to be babysat or watched like some sort of ticking time bomb.”

He got up from the bed, his mouth pressed into a hard line. “You didn’t want to go home hours ago, but now you do. I’m happy for it, truly I am, but your powers are still new, they are still pretty unstableand?—”

“I know that!” I yelled, nearly all the furniture in his room rose off the ground and then dropped. A loud banging sound echoed in the otherwise quiet room.

River didn’t let it phase him. His gaze went distant for a moment and then came back.

“Let me guess, you were alerting Asher that everything is fine?”

“Would you like him to rush in here and give you a lecture?” he volleyed back.

I bit my bottom lip, flinching a little when I accidentally bit too hard. “I go and you stay in the car, will that suffice?”

He let out a sigh in defeat. “Yes, gorgeous. That is good enough for me.” He stepped closer to me, leaning down to kiss my forehead. “We need to talk about school.”

“I already told Asher that’s not his decision to make.”

A painful look passed over his eyes. “You going to school isn’t Asher being a hardass. It has to happen, for your safety, your future…. for all of us.”

“Says who?”

River took my hands and pulled me back to his bed, waiting for me to sit down next to him. “Our dad and Chancellor Fowler.”

“You talked to them?” I gasped.

“Asher did. If you want to take a nap or something before I get into it, then I understand, but I don’t want to keep you in the dark about this.”

My phone buzzed and I looked over at the end table, grabbing it and seeing a text from Corrin.

CORRIN

Please show signs of life.

Ike had said something along the lines of Chancellor Fowler not letting me just sit idly by. It was laughable that I even considered that I had a chance of getting even a moment of solace about this. Of course, he would involve people I cared for, I had said it myself. He was an adult, but he acted like a petulant child,lashing out and causing havoc if he didn’t get his way. He wanted me under his thumb, living my life as a college student and embracing my powers, yet he wanted me unfiltered and undisciplined so he could fix it. He was my connection to these powers I had; he was the closest thing I had to that part of myself, that part of my mysterious family. Did he just expect my mom to come running back to him now that he’d removed my dad from the equation? Now that he had me?

That admission sent a shiver down my spine.

My phone beeped, alerting me that it was getting too hot, my hands feeling like fire. I willed my hands to stop shaking so I could be able to type. I took methodical deep breaths before I wrote my reply.

I’m good. Beau and I are both settled.