She smiled. “Don’t get hysterical, and I won’t.”
“What if I refuse to work with Lysander?”
“Then you refuse. I don’t force people to do my bidding, Kaden, even if they are being a stubborn horse's ass.”
I sighed, figuring if she wanted to control me, she could’ve done what she did to him, but she hadn’t—at least, not yet.
“Okay, but I don’t like any of this,” I admitted. “I don’t like Lysander, and he clearly doesn’t like me, but I’ll do whatever.”
“That’s a good lad,” Dr. Grace said and dismissed me.
For the rest of the day I wondered if Dr. Grace’s powers of persuasion had anything to do with my being here. If I were to guess, it was just another way for the powers that be to control me. I wondered how much influence she had over me and decided to do some major studying to figure out what I could do to keep Dr. Grace out of my head.
Chapter ten
Lysander
Psychedeliccolorsflowedthroughmy mind. I knew I was angry, but I couldn’t figure out what I was angry about or even how to be angry. I woke up back in my room with no idea how I ended up there. I remembered being outside Dr. Bisbee’s office. I remembered being upset by that guy. Fucking Kaden.
He’d tried to kill me when I walked into the Practicum class. Mr. Morehouse had immediately taken me out of the classroom to his office. When I blew my top, he just shook his head. He refused to say the guy had attacked me, and after I yelled that I had a classroom full of witnesses, he shrank away from me.
Fuck that!I thought to myself. Mr. Morehouse then escorted me to the Dean of Students office and left me there. I assumed I was going to be apologized to, but that was it. That was all I could remember.
What happened after that? Well, I could guess. I figured someone had drugged me. I had never been high on psychedelic drugs, but I knew enough about them to know that was probably what happened. I was just about to call my mom and tell her and Pete to come get me when there was a knock at my door.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It's Dr. Bisbee, Lysander, may I come in.”
My instincts said no. In fact, my entire being said I should avoid it. “Dr. Bisbee, I’m not feeling well at the moment. Can we speak tomorrow?”
There was a long pause, then she answered that it would be fine.
Strange things were afoot. I didn’t know what, but I didn’t like it. Instead of calling my mom and Pete, I called the twins.
“Hey, guys, if you’re free, do you mind coming to my room?”
“Of course,” Kyle said. “Kaylee said we’ll bring chips.”
I chuckled. I’d only known them for a week, but it was long enough to know they were both human food disposals.
When they’d finally filled up on enough snacks to feed a stadium full of people, I told them what had happened, or at least what I could remember. “The weirdest part,” I said, after they’d asked several questions about the incident with the darkling, “…is that I think Dr. Bisbee is somehow involved with drugging me. My senses were on high alert when she came to my door this afternoon.”
“What?” Kaylee asked. “She came here to see you?” I nodded. “And? What did she want?”
“I told her I wasn’t feeling well and sent her away.”
“Smart move,” Kyle said, shaking his head. “Yeah, you’ve got something psycho going on here.” Kyle acted like he was trying to stab me.
I didn’t laugh, instead I felt concern. “What, you think she wants to stab me?”
“No, dude, have you not seen the movie Psycho?”
“No, my mom’s allergic to any movie not made by Disney.”
“Oh, that’s just wrong,” Kyle said, making me smile this time. “We must begin your education now!”
“Anyway,” Kaylee broke in before Kyle went off on a tangent. “So, you need to avoid Dr. Weirdo until you know what’s going on. Are you going back to that class?”
