Chapter 15
Nix exhaled slowly and gathered his courage before knocking on the door. Technically, this was his room too, so he could just walk in, but—
Grady pulled the door open and then paused when he spotted Nix standing in the hallway. They stared at each other for a while before he finally retreated and walked back into the dorm room the two of them had only shared for around a month or so.
“Hey.” Nix cleared his throat and came in, closing the door behind him so they could have some privacy.
While some of the student body had gone home for the first four days of the holiday, they were already returning, what with the big festival the day after tomorrow.
With no classes, many of them were lingering in the hallways and hanging out in the common spaces.
Nix knew he’d already been spotted by a few people on his walk over here, and once he’d entered the building.
His status as Royal Consort had painted an even bigger target for gossip on his back, and he’d rather avoid dragging Grady down with him.
At least he could walk about freely. The Demons had agreed, so long as he went straight to the dorm and back, he could go on his own now that Hendrix had been located.
Technically, the threat should be done and over with, but he understood their lingering concern.
After everything that had happened with Dew and Juri, Nix even agreed with them that being cautious was the smart play.
But he didn’t want to leave this thing with Grady longer than necessary, and at this point, if another one of his very tiny friend group did intend to turn on him and reveal themselves as pawn in Hendrix’s misguided attempt at the throne, Nix would rather they just go and get it over with.
Some of that numbness that had settled over him after Juri’s betrayal still lingered in his system, but that was yet another reason to force himself to come here and confront his friendship with Grady.
Nix was putting himself in uncomfortable situations on purpose to try to shake this melancholy state.
He needed to prove to himself that not everyone was out to get him.
That there were still people who could be trusted.
Letting Yejun screw him in a rainstorm out on the back porch had worked wonders, and Nix wanted to repeat that process here.
He wanted to show both himself and Grady that, no matter what, they didn’t have to doubt each other.
“Hey.” Grady returned to what he’d seemingly been up to before Nix’s interruption and went to his bed, where his open travel bag was. He must have gone home these past few days.
“Can we…talk?”
“We’re talking right now.”
Nix went silent.
Grady didn’t last long through that, tossing a pair of boxers into the top drawer of his dresser with more force than necessary before spinning on Nix.
He glared. “Look, I get that you feel bad, and from the sounds of it, it wasn’t your fault this time either, but…
I just…I can’t do this right now, okay?”
This time.
Right.
“They were my best friends, and everything was going well until…” Grady stopped himself.
“Until I came along,” Nix finished for him.
“No, I didn’t mean…Shit.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Khloe dropped out. Did you hear?”
Nix shook his head.
“Her parents are too freaked out by everything that’s happened. We were close to both Juri and Dew for years, they’re afraid she knew all along what type of people they were and ignored it.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I know,” Grady agreed. “Khloe isn’t like that.
I’m not like that. If we’d had any clue…
” He pursed his lips. “I knew Dew was getting himself involved in something shady, but Juri…He was always the voice of reason in our group, you saw that for yourself. Nix…You were there that day. Was he really trying to make a claim on the throne?”
For safety purposes, the full story hadn’t been released to the public, and no one aside from Nix and the Demons knew the parts that involved poison.
They’d gotten the coroner to announce that Juri had died from a rare heart disease that had gone unnoticed and untreated, but the High Council obviously suspected foul play.
Unfortunately, the poison used on Juri was the same as the one used to kill the emperor and deceased Royal Consort, meaning it’d left no traces behind. Lake was waiting until after he’d been crowned to reveal everything they’d gathered about the situation.
But Nix couldn’t tell Grady any of this. Couldn’t deviate from the agreed-upon plan. The Demons trusted him, and as much as he wanted to believe in Grady’s friendship, Nix was admittedly a bit jaded in that department, all things considered.
So, while he felt a pang of guilt at having to twist the truth, he found himself easily slipping into the half-lies.
“He was,” he said. “It was weird. He was acting really out of character. But he had DNA tests to prove that he shared a parent with Lake. When there was pushback from the Order, he got worked up, and the next thing I knew—” Nix tightened his fists at his sides, trying to fight off the images of Juri dying in his arms.
Juri was a lying shithead.
He’d also been Nix’s first real friend. That sort of attachment was hard to will away, no matter what kind of scummy things he’d done at the end.
“It was awful,” he stated.
“Dew was fucking an Essential,” Grady laughed humorlessly and dropped down onto the edge of his bed, “And Juri discovered he was Lake’s half-brother. And I had no idea. They never gave anything away. Some friend I am.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. Clearly people don’t find me trustworthy.”
“I’m sure they were just trying to look out for you.
This isn’t exactly the type of thing you want to find yourself a part of.
If they were messing with the club and—” His other odd comments finally registered in Nix’s mind, and he paused abruptly, frowning.
“Hold on. What do you mean, Dew was sleeping with an Essential?”
“I wasn’t sure whether or not to tell you,” Grady glanced at him sheepishly, “which is why I kept quiet all this time. It didn’t seem right, you know?
To talk about his secrets with him dead and all, but fuck it.
At first, I didn’t even remember. Not until you asked me about your cousin and mentioned she was supposedly sneaking around with someone at the library. ”
“What? What does this have to do with Branwen?” How much did Grady know about the secret King account and Dew’s involvement with it?
“Nothing,” he said, shooting down all of the tension that’d been growing within Nix.
“But I caught him once. It was an accident, but Dew kissed the professor in his classroom. If either of them had been caught, he would have been in serious trouble, so I kept my mouth shut and never even bothered confronting him.”
“Why do you think only he would get into trouble?” Wasn’t a professor sleeping with a student worse? They were meant to be the person of authority, after all.
“Because it was Beck Bardin,” Grady replied, missing how Nix paled at that revelation.
“Beck is considered part of the Imperial family even though he doesn’t have a title, and he’s in line for the throne.
He’s close to Demitrious Corleone, and both he and his father are members of the Order.
Are you kidding? If they were caught by anyone, there’s no telling what Beck would have done to keep his secret. ”
He was right. Even though Nix had never personally had any problems with Beck, and both Yejun and West trusted him, he also wasn’t na?ve enough to believe a guy raised by Hendrix and Demitrious would ever allow himself to be brought down by anyone.
But…
“Are you sure it was Dew and Beck?” There had been no mention of Beck on Dew’s devices, and Nix had searched since he recalled Beck saying Dew had a crush on him.
Had the crush actually gone both ways?
Or had Beck simply been using Dew?
The latter seemed like the more obvious answer, considering how Beck felt about West. His feelings for the Demon were clear, but Nix hadn’t said anything because he wasn’t overly concerned about it.
He trusted West, and if Beck hadn’t made a move yet, what were the odds he’d bother doing so now, now that West had already placed a claiming mark on Nix’s neck?
“It was definitely them. It was after hours, so they weren’t expecting anybody, but it’d forgotten a textbook. They didn’t see me, obviously, but I got a good look at their faces,” Grady insisted. “Why? What aren’t you tell me, Nix?”
Could this be the piece of the puzzle they’d been missing?
Maybe he could let on just a little bit more…
“Dew gave Juri a King account,” Nix explained. “It was the account that had contact with my cousin.”
“What?” His eyes went wide.
“Yeah, that was my reaction as well. Anyway, we couldn’t figure out where Dew had gotten the account.”
“There’s no way he leveled up to that tier on his own,” Grady stated, voicing the exact thing Nix believed. “So, now you think Beck gave it to him?”
“It kind of makes the most sense.”
“That Professor Bardin gave his boyfriend access to a tier that would have let him sleep with anyone he wanted to on campus?”
“What if they weren’t exclusive?” Nix asked. “Hell, what if they weren’t even dating?”
“It’s possible. I did see Dew hook up with a lot of random Freshmen and Sophomores this semester. I just sort of figured whatever happened between him and Professor Bardin had ended.”
Was this not as big a deal as Nix was making it out to be? Maybe he was just primed for drama after everything, seeking out monsters and evil connections that weren’t really there.
Really, so what if Beck had secretly dated Dew? From the sounds of it, that was last semester, before Nix had arrived. Even if he was the one who’d gifted the Serendipity account, it’d been Dew who’d passed it off to Juri. There were chat logs that backed that up, it wasn’t just a theory.
And if Beck had known the account was being used by someone other than Dew, he would have shut it down, right?
Or, at the very least, he would have said something when Nix and the rest were so desperately searching for whoever Branwen had been involved with—
Except no, no, he wouldn’t have, because Nix had never confided in him about that.
But Beck was in love with West. The moment he’d thrown himself at the boxer after West had been shot made that clear. He couldn’t have developed feelings like that overnight, so why would he have risked his career and reputation by sleeping with Dew if he didn’t even like the guy?
Had he liked the guy, too?
He’d liked them both?
Nix liked three people at once, so it wasn’t like he could judge but…
Something about this wasn’t feeling right.
“I need to go.” Nix took a step toward the door, but Grady stopped him before he could get far.
“Hey. Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but…Can we…Let’s give each other some space for a while, okay?”
It hurt, but he couldn’t blame him. A part of Nix had been thinking of asking for the same thing even.
After being betrayed by Juri and Dew, he was wary about friendships outside of the Demons.
It was unhealthy, but something he planned on working through and dealing with at a later date.
For now, space from Grady was probably what was best for both of them.
“I completely understand,” he said.
“Thanks. It’s nothing personal.”
“Trust me, I get it.” Nix offered him one last friendly smile and then walked out of the dorm for the final time.
That wasn’t exactly how he’d hoped things would go, but at least he felt more confident that Grady wasn’t also hiding some evil, secret identity. It sucked about their friendship taking a blow because of the actions of others, but he didn’t wallow on that for long.
Grady might be who he’d always seemed, but that wasn’t the case for Beck.
Nix needed to find Lake.