Supernatural Boarding School #1 - A Bond of Love ✅

Chapter 21

‘Fine, go ahead.’

‘Well, I am sorry about the mind control. Truly.’

I gasped. ‘You… you are admitting it?’

He sighed. ‘It’s a long story.’

I put down my brush and sat down on the ground. ‘Well, tell me. We’ll finish this up tomorrow. Or later. Whatever.’ I was too curious to realize I was supposed to be mad at him.

Eros smiled, sitting down opposite me. He was close, a bit too close to be comfortable, but I didn’t say anything. ‘Well. I can control anyone’s mind if I want to, even supernatural people’s minds. Even your mind, as you know. I guess I’ve been able to do it for a long time, way before I came here, but I only realized what it was when I’d been here for about six months. I found out as much about it as I could and I practiced on some classmates, without them realizing. I thought I could control it, but I can’t.’

‘What do you mean?’ I frowned. ‘You can’t always control minds?’

Eros smiled, but there was no joy in it. ‘No, it’s more like the opposite… I can control anyone’s mind at any time, but I can’t always control when I do it. My control can slip and then I’m letting the other feel what I want and they will do whatever I want without me even trying to control them.’

‘Oh,’ I mumbled, frowning again. ‘Does that happen a lot?’

‘No, rarely. Only when I’m… too preoccupied to stay in control all of the time. It happened around you.’ His eyes were searching me for a reaction. ‘That one night in the empty classroom.’

‘When I kissed you back,’ I realized quietly. ‘And you didn’t want to use it?’

‘I didn’t even realize I’d been using it until I saw your dazed face when we broke apart.’ His face was rueful. ‘I’m truly very sorry.’

‘But… you say it only happens when you are preoccupied and you kind of project your feelings on the other…’ I mused. ‘So… you were actually…’

‘I wanted to kiss you so badly I made you want to kiss me back without realizing it.’ He sounded unsure now, not certain if he should be telling me this. ‘And I can’t promise you it won’t happen again.’

I gulped. ‘Are you… preoccupied right now?’

He smiled slightly. ‘I am in control, don’t worry. I have to focus really hard, especially when you are this close, but I’m not controlling your mind.’

‘How can I be sure?’ I hedged, hoping he was telling the truth. The idea of him tricking me into kissing him again wasn’t exactly reassuring. It did make me feel strangely smug to know Eros wanted to kiss me, and had to work at not making me want to kiss him too. A small part of me did want to reach over to him, to touch him. But I couldn’t tell if that was just me or a slip in his careful control.

‘You can’t be.’ He put a hand on my knee. ‘But I can promise you I won’t try anything. And you should be able to recognize the feeling - the fog settling…’

I leaned back a little, putting a bit more distance between us. ‘Okay… but you did mean to control me the other times.’

‘I was hoping you would let that go.’ His face grew mocking. ‘It seemed funny at the time to confuse you a bit. To control you while trying to convince you I couldn’t do it.’

‘Yeah. Real funny.’ I pursed my lips. ‘The kiss I can forgive.’ Partly because it hadn’t been that terrible, but I’d keep that to myself. ‘But the mind control in general… I don’t approve.’