He gave a slow nod, and for the first time in her life, she felt as if someone finally understood. “Control is my superpower,” he said without a hint of jest. “I can teach you.”
She could only imagine what Maddy would have to say about this, but she acquiesced with a deep breath and a nod. “Alright, then. Show me.”
They walked in silence to the stairs that led beneath the library, where stacks morphed into mazes diving through the giant roots of the Tree. The passages glimmered with dim overhead crystals and the omnipresent flicker of Luster. Rare nooks with chairs and tables lodged in off-kilter places, difficult to see without looking closely.
On the main floor, the library was bright and yawning, with wide stairs leading to open upper floors and large windows shedding gold across every surface. Down here, the place felt a bit spooky, like curious creatures lurked in the shadows, reaching out ghostly fingers in want of things Anna could only imagine.
“Is there really no better place to do this?” she asked, rubbing the goosebumps from her arms.
David shrugged. “There probably is, but this is both the closest and the least likely to be interrupted. Have you noticed no one ever comes down here?”
“Because it’s haunted, obviously.”
He shot an amused glance over his shoulder. “Haunted?”
“At the very minimum, it’s creepy.”
“So is Morgan,” he deadpanned, “so it’s fitting.”
With a nod of concession, she followed until he chose a hidden nook off a sharp corner. Two red wingback chairs sat catty-corner to each other, and a trio of lavender crystals hung from the low ceiling. The entire place smelled of vellum and earth, with the barest hint ofsomething sweet, something that reminded her of rain-drenched leaves.
David took a seat and gestured her to do the same, scooting his chair until they sat knee-to-knee.
“The first step,” he said, green eyes darkened by the low light, “is confidence. When I was young, I didn’t know why sometimes people would do what I said, but when I realized it was the way I said the words, it got easier. And then, once people kept obeying me, I got more confident that they’d do it, and it gave me even more power. It was a cycle.”
“So what happened when you were a kid that brought it out?”
His bare expression darkened a shade. “I just had to really want it. Whatever I was asking for, I was desperate for it.”
Desperate.
A powerful word.
Anna knew his childhood had not been happy. She suspected it had been abusive, as that scar on his forehead had clearly been inflicted by a blunt object. The jagged edges of it tormented her curiosity—and probably haunted his dreams.
She leaned forward. “So how do you do it now? When you aren’t desperate for something. Like, when you compelled me to come to the library with you, how did you do it?”
A wry smile pulled at his mouth. “I was pretty desperate for that, to be truthful. You said you knew about Morgan’s magic, and no one else seemed willing to teach me.”
Oh. She hadn’t expected that. “Okay, then. So that day you made me read to you, how did you do it?”
His gaze turned inward, thoughtful. “There’s a certain timbre. Their eyes always dilate when I reach the right pitch.”
Anna nodded.
“Then, if they resist, I do things to keep their attention on me. I use their name or touch them or get close enough that I’m the only thing they can see. Oh, and it works better when they think it’s their idea.”
Her throat thickened, and she swallowed against it. “Why do you know so much about this, David? How often were you doing it?”
“A lot.”
That was it. No further explanation. JustA lot.
But why? The questions were maddening.
“So try it,” he said. “Think back to how you got me to stop and just do it.”
“But I have no idea what to ask you to do.”
