Page 40 of The Obedient Lie
Then I walked past him.
Soft steps. Controlled pace.
Like I hadn’t seen him.
Like he hadn’t just seeneverything.
Outside, the black cars were already pulling up.
Men in suits stepped out first, scanning the path ahead.
My brother would be behind them — tall, sharp, and untouchable — the crown of our family stitched into the lapel of his coat.
I crossed the courtyard as if nothing was wrong.
As if Bastion Crow hadn’t just watched me rehearse how to survive.
He didn’t say a word. And I didn’t look back.
My bottom lip trembled as I tried not to cry.
Not because of the lunch with my brother — that had goneperfectly.
He told me I looked radiant. That I reminded him of our mother when I smiled like that.
I didn’t tell him how long it took me tochoosethat smile.
I didn’t tell him I hadn’t slept in my own bed in weeks.
That my perfume had been replaced by the must of old theatre curtains.
That my shampoo had been reduced to a travel bottle I hid under auditorium seats.
I just smiled. Ate slowly. Nodded politely.
And by the time I got back to the academy, the email was already waiting.
Office of Residence Discipline
SUBJECT:TIME-LOCK LODGEMENT ENFORCEMENT
Time-lock.
My stomach turned at the word.
Everyone whispered about it, but no one actually got put on it — not unless they’d seriously messed up.
And I hadn’t even doneanything.
They said I’d “neglected communal dorm policy.”
They gave me three months.
Ninety days of mandatory curfew, beginning tonight.
7 p.m. lockdown.
8 a.m. release.
