The Art of Persuasion

Chapter 8

"Well you've done it now, haven't you?"

Asher sat in his chair, head hung, as his mother paced in front of him. He thought hiding out in his library would save him. He was very, very wrong. She had come in, hurling that comment at him with deadly accuracy. Couldn't she tell that he already felt terrible? She could read minds so it should have been obvious.

"I've had to inform the council, and now they're have doubts about your self-control..."

"Everyone has lapses mother. We all have a weakness. More than a thousand years of self-control should not be tarnished by one tiny blip..."

"Twice, you've attacked her twice now..."

"Yes, but it's not like I've gone on a spree, and we're obviously making moves to fix the situation. Honestly they're just over reacting, you know what the council is like with change."

She knew he was right but his mother wouldn't stop pacing. He watched her do it wondering if something else was wrong.

"She's an odd one Asher, I'm worried for her."

Asher's inhale was sharp but only because he didn't like what his mother was implying. "I know she's got some peculiar traits, but if we're right about her powers she'll do fine. She'll be a great candidate..."

"No, of course she's a great candidate, I'm saying that her priorities are not the same as most mortals. While many would jump at the ability to immortal, quite frankly she seemed petrified of the mere idea."

"Well what was going through her mind?"

"I don't know, I can't get a read off of her," his mother admitted and Asher sat there taking that in. So she wasn't just blocking his powers, she was blocking his mother's too.

Instead of showing his worry, though, he donned a cocky grin. "Wow, that must be driving you barmy."

"Not going to lie, yes, because, while she animates her face quite prettily, I don't know what going on in her head so I don't know what her true motives are. I will tell you that she was surprised to hear about our lineage, and not impressed by the idea of becoming an immortal, but she also might have been in shock so we'll have to see how she handles it once she's managed to process the information properly."

Asher nodded he cleared his throat carefully before delving into the other thing he was worried about. "Does... does Bowen know what I did?"

"Yes, I do believe Cece told him," she said. "And if I'm going to be honest, he was distressingly uninterested in the whole matter." Yes Asher had noticed that Bowen seem rather unconcerned about Farren as well, which was... odd. "I worry that bringing her into our coven when it seems like Bowen isn't going to be interested in her much longer might also become a problem."

"Why would you say that?"

"Just because I can't read her mind doesn't mean I haven't gotten an idea of what she's like as a person. You forget, I've seen flashes of her through your mind, Bowen's and now Cece's. I believe, just by how you speak of her alone, that she is a person who loves unconditionally and with all of her heart."

An icy spear of nauseating jealous pierced him from stomach to heart. Why did it bother him that his mother thought her to be in love with Bowen? Was he just upset because he knew who held his brother's heart and it wasn't Farren? Granted Bowen seemed as uninterested in fixing things with his soul mate as he was in Farren.

He just didn't want to see Farren get hurt... for some reason.

He turned his eyes back to the supplies he had in front of him. After speaking to Farren... and then attacking her, he had sent a servant to the nearest town to gather supplies for the art classes she had wanted Cece to partake in. He figured it a way to make himself feel less guilty though now that he knew she remembered, and would be able to forget, it was going to be an olive branch.