Sinner (Demons of Foxglove Grove #4)

Chapter 1

Nix didn’t remember how he’d gotten here, but it didn’t matter. Outside, the sky was dark, the light from the single lamp he’d thought to turn on spilling over the beige rug where he sat.

In Juri’s room.

With Juri’s laptop in his lap.

And remote access to Juri’s multi-slate pulled up on the screen.

It didn’t matter that he shouldn’t be there, that Juri—who had clearly hated the Demons—would be livid if he’d still been alive to feel anything at all. Didn’t matter that those same hated Demons were currently outside, guarding the door while Nix tirelessly worked to find answers.

The Ferds could go fuck themselves if they were upset over Nix’s intrusion.

Juri’s ghost could go fuck himself.

The mixture of fury and betrayal warred with numbness within him, a strange concoction he couldn’t think too hard on. By this point, betrayal was nothing new, and he feared a part of himself had actually become used to it.

But…on the other hand…

Nix had never had friends before.

Now Dew was dead.

Juri was dead.

Who was next?

Who was to blame here, really? Was it them for working against the Demons? Had Nix merely gotten involved with the wrong party, dooming himself to this fate from the start? Was he collateral damage?

Or were they?

Was this somehow all his fault?

Had Nix driven them—

Found it!

He broke through the last hidden, password-locked file on Juri’s devices, running it through the inscription program—also password-protected—kept on Juri’s multi-slate. Say what you will about the guy, but he clearly had something to hide.

He’d gone all out with the security measures, taking steps Nix wouldn’t have even thought of on his own. Then again, the biggest secret he’d ever kept was his real reason for enrolling at Foxglove Grove University, a secret that had broken wide open, costing him and the people around him.

It’d cost Juri too, it seemed.

A handful of deleted messages between the King account Serendipity and Branwen’s Enigma profile flooded the screen of the laptop.

Nix had no clue why Juri would bother deleting them to cover his tracks, only to keep copies of a few, but it wasn’t like he could ask him that now, so he put the question to bed in his mind and focused on what he could understand.

There were maybe a dozen, and none of them seemed very noteworthy at first glance. Certainly not the type of thing worth keeping out of what Nix imagined had been hundreds of correspondences.

From conversations about favorite beverages, to hating certain professors, to discussing how Branwen had cut her hair differently…

Nix read all of them thoroughly, not skipping over a single one, no matter how mundane.

He’d come all this way to understand his cousin, and with each line read, he felt like he was doing that.

While simultaneously driving himself further away.

It wasn’t a full picture, only snippets, but the image they created seemed pretty obvious to him. Had that been why Juri had kept these ones specifically? Had he planned on telling Nix the truth after he’d used him to take down Lake and the others?

Or had it been out of sheer guilt? Guilt formed when Nix had told him how Branwen felt wronged by the King she’d been dating . Who she’d been in love with.

Had Juri somehow recovered these files after they’d already been erased?

It frustrated Nix that he would never know. He’d never get answers about these chat logs and why they were kept.

But he felt like there was one burning question he now knew the truth of.

“She was wrong,” the words whispered off his lips, the only sound aside from the furious clicking of keys as he scrolled.

As close as Juri and Branwen were, as deeply rooted their connection clearly was, there was no indication that there’d been even a whisp of romance between them.

Nothing at all.

Juri confided in her and trusted her with his deepest, darkest thoughts and emotions. He’d told her about his past, his hatred toward the system, and the things done to his brother. He’d explained why Yejun and the rest were evil, how they needed to be taught a lesson.

But not once had he ever expressed feelings for Branwen.

Even messages about their meetings sounded casual, the type of things one would say to a close friend.

Serendipity: Thanks for meeting in the library. I really needed to get that off my chest.

Serendipity: I can’t believe Yejun fell for that. You’re a great actress! You have him eating out of the palm of your hand. No one would believe it if I told them.

Serendipity: Lim asked me to go with him. Maybe I’ll see you there. If we get a moment to sneak off, I want to hear all about how it went at the Roost today.

Nix reread some of the random responses Juri had sent, noting that none of them came off the way one would expect if the two had been in a relationship.

The mention of Lim, especially, the name of the guy who’d apparently been sexually assaulted by Rase, leading to Yejun publicly humiliating and blinding the guy.

According to what he’d been told, Juri had broken his own code and asked for a favor from Yejun after Lim had been accosted. He’d hated having to do it, hadn’t hidden that fact from June, but had wanted help making Rase pay more than keeping his pride.

All of that went down while Branwen was still locked up at the Roost. If she’d heard about it, heard that Juri had asked Yejun for help for someone else, after everything she’d done because he’d insisted the Demons were evil…She must have felt abandoned.

But why lie about the two of them dating?

Unless…she really believed that?

How could she?

Nix ran a hand through his hair, frustrated.

Was his cousin delusional, or was he still missing something important? He needed the rest of the chat, but no matter how hard he searched, it was clear Juri hadn’t kept them.

He closed the messages and clicked on another folder, pursing his lips when seven videos appeared. The footage was of the hallway in Dew’s dorm, the videos all showing specific times Juri visited. In all instances, he didn’t stay long, was mostly in and out.

What reason could he have for deleting this?

Nix pulled up his chat history with Dew, scrolling through a whole lot of nothing for a while before he gave up and typed in the exact dates from the videos.

Dew: Yo, I got the new batch. Stronger, like you asked.

Juri: Thanks. Be there in ten.

Dew: Hope you know what you’re doing.

Juri: Talk when I get there.

What he’d been doing was slipping drugs to Branwen so she could dose Yejun and, later, West. So Dew was the supplier. That helped tie in his involvement and answer why he might have thrown himself off the building when Nix had gotten too close to the truth.

Had he done it to protect Juri, the same way Branwen had taken her own life to keep him safe?

Even after feeling like he’d betrayed her, she’d still taken his identity to the grave.

Why? Because she’d known writing out what she’d done was too risky?

But then why send Nix all the way here to solve this shit on her behalf?

Had she thought maybe there was a chance Juri hadn’t abandoned her after all?

“What a shit show.”

He couldn’t find any evidence in his talks with Dew that they’d changed the plan from knocking out Yejun to poisoning West. Nothing. He combed through everything for any hint of a clue, but as far as he could tell, their end goal had never altered.

“But if they didn’t poison West, who did?” Branwen had been caught red-handed slipping something into West’s tea. They’d tested it, had confirmation that it was drugged and—

Nix shot to his feet and rushed to the door, yanking it open with so much force, he almost stumbled back. He caught himself, eyes scanning the shocked looks of the Demons who’d been patiently waiting for him in the hallway.

“The tea,” he breathed, somehow out of breath just from that little bit of movement. How long had he been sitting here?

“Tea?” West frowned. “Are you thirsty? I can—”

“You tested the contents of the glass,” he said, “the one Branwen slipped something into. But what if she wasn’t poisoning you? What if the poison was already there the whole time? What if it was—”

“The tea.” Yejun caught on, blinking.

“Did you test it separately?” Nix asked.

“No. Not, but…” He shared a look with Lake. “Firebird, I’m sorry, but we tested the contents of the vials she had on her. We know for a fact that’s where the poison came from.”

Nix deflated some, but he wasn’t willing to let this go.

“Juri got rid of a lot, so there isn’t much, but he and Dew talk about a substance a few times in their regular text feed.

It doesn’t sound like Juri or Branwen knew what it really was.

There’s mention of it being a stronger dose of the same sedative they’d been giving Yejun. ”

“Songbird.” Lake took his hand, but he pulled away, not wanting to be distracted when he finally felt so close to…something.

“No,” he shook his head, positive he was right about this.

“Branwen never poisoned you—or, at least, she didn’t mean to.

Since she never got anywhere with Yejun, you were the next target.

Considering how you controlled the app and kept tabs on everything, it was a smart guess.

If she could get into your systems, she could find the evidence they were looking for and get out of there. Finally stop pretending.”

“Evidence for what though?”

“It didn’t matter,” he explained. “They just wanted something, anything, to help prove to the world you were monsters.”

“And they were willing to risk their lives for that?” Lake frowned. “For a chance they’d uncover some secret horror?”

Nix stared at him. “You can’t stand there and tell me Yejun stabbing a man through the eye with a fork was a one-off.”

He wasn’t na?ve. He knew exactly who these three were.

“If you gave me access and I checked right now, I bet I’d uncover a shit ton of crimes that could easily be used against you, at least enough to turn the public.

That’s all they wanted. Juri wanted you to suffer the way his brother had.

He wanted you unmasked in front of the entire planet, so you’d feel the way his family felt.

Embarrassed and whispered about in the streets.

He did not, however, intend to murder any of you. ”

“Okay, but your cousin—”

“My cousin was convinced Juri was going to get his revenge and run off with her into the sunset. Hell if I know why. Juri wasn’t into her like that.” She’d lied to him about having a boyfriend and about hooking up, but that wasn’t important context here.

Lake sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “Pack it up then, Songbird. Let’s take it all home. You can keep working there. It’s late.”

“Can’t.”

“Nix. I’m worried about you.”

“Don’t be.” He totally, one hundred percent, should be.

“I can’t leave. Juri set up a location key.

I can only access these hidden files here.

If I move the laptop even a foot out of bounds, everything will relock and I won’t be able to get back in without a new passcode, which I won’t be able to create without access to his—”

“I have no idea what you’re saying.”

“I do,” West interjected with a sigh of his own. “He’s saying we’re stuck here until he’s satisfied. Isn’t that right, Nixie?”

“Yes.” Without wasting another word, Nix slammed the door in their faces and returned to his spot on the floor.

There had to be more here, or a way to recover the deleted chat logs and messages. There was no telling how long he’d have before the Ferds came collecting for Juri’s things.

He had to get through all of it before that happened.

He had to.