Chapter 22
“Well shit .” Yejun pulled away from the screen and dropped back onto West’s bed. “You found all of this hidden on Beck’s computer?”
Yejun had arrived while Nix had been working on it, and they’d read him in. For obvious reasons, he hadn’t been as shocked as the rest of them by Beck’s confession, though he’d gotten appropriately angry when they’d told him about the threats.
Nix nodded to answer his question, but didn’t yet speak. No one else did either. Seemed like they were all wrapping their heads around what they’d just read.
There were hundreds of pages of chat logs between Juri and Branwen, and between Beck and Dew.
Everything was here this time. Nothing was missing.
West had managed to pull a couple of Juri and Branwen’s logs before, but they weren’t nearly as incriminating or as detailed.
Beck must have been in a rush when he wiped it all from the main system.
He’d probably kept it just in case, since it was incriminating evidence against both Juri and Branwen that they’d messed with the Demons.
“I couldn’t find anything linking Beck with his father’s plans,” Nix revealed. “Aside from that one chat where he accuses Dew of getting Hendrix involved, there’s nothing. But he could have easily planted that email on Dew’s computer.”
“He sounded genuinely concerned over Dew’s actions,” Yejun disagreed. “I’m not saying he’s a good guy, but…”
“He was playing with him,” Lake reminded. “How can we be certain any of this is real? For all we know, he was acting to trick Dew.”
“Trick him into what? The guy was already head over heels for him. Hell, he fucking jumped off a rooftop to make a point.” Yejun caught himself too late and gave Nix an apologetic glance. “Sorry. That was crass of me.”
“No, you’re right.” As much as Nix wanted to be correct, wanted to connect Beck to the poison and all of their problems, it didn’t seem like Beck had any clue that the drug being slipped to West had been more than a sedative.
“Everyone was used by someone in this situation, but I don’t think it was Beck. ”
“That settles it. Hendrix hid behind students,” Lake growled. “Coward.”
“You think that’s when the poison was introduced?” West pursed his lips. “Makes sense. Hendrix wouldn’t have told Beck what he was up to, given their rocky relationship, but we know Dew tattled about something to try and get Beck to spend less time with me.”
“Juri sometimes got the sedatives from Dew,” Yejun recalled reading in a couple of the logs. “If Dew started getting them from Hendrix…It could have been anything.”
“Dew wouldn’t have cared either,” Nix surmised. “He didn’t care about hurting anyone, so long as he got to be with Beck.” He ran a hand through his hair. “A lot of this we’d already figured out, but…It’s different, somehow.”
“It’s different seeing it with our own eyes,” Lake said, resting a hand on Nix’s back. “How are you?”
“It’s hard reading through Branwen’s chats with him.
It’s like she was both the person I remember and the new version I’ve just discovered, all wrapped in one.
Reading how Juri strung her along, fully knowing how she felt…
” His hands tightened into fists, but he didn’t bother finishing that sentence.
“So, let’s just spell this out so we’re all clear,” Yejun suggested.
“Beck starts fooling around with Dew because he’s lonely and wants West bad.
Dew develops a creepy attachment to him.
Juri either asks for or is randomly gifted the Serendipity account—which Beck had given to Dew first—where he connects with Branwen. ”
“Juri confides in Dew that he and Branwen are getting close to Yejun in order to find evidence to use against us,” West picked up the timeline. "Branwen accidentally catches the two of them fornicating in the library.”
“Grady saw them once as well,” Nix added.
“Wild. It doesn’t seem like they ever caught him.”
“Out of jealousy over the time Beck’s been spending with West, Dew gets Hendrix involved. This must be when the poison is introduced to the equation,” Lake said.
“I’m pretty sure Juri was trying to tell me he and Branwen had nothing to do with that at the end,” Nix told them. Juri had struggled to speak, but he’d put in the effort to try to clear his name.
And Branwen’s.
That was something, wasn’t it?
Maybe Nix was willing to settle for any scrap that made Juri out to have even a shred of decency, but he had to find comfort where he could, and knowing that Juri had used his last breaths in an attempt to also make it up to Branwen?
Since that was all he was going to be getting in this lifetime, Nix would have to be satisfied.
“If these really are all the chat logs,” West motioned to the screens where the script was still up, “then there’s never any mention of poison between Juri and Branwen, or Beck and Dew. I have to run through them to be sure none of them were altered in any way, but I don’t think they were.”
“Juri wouldn’t have told her,” Yejun stated, but then sighed, “but you’re right. I don’t think they knew. Shit.” He dropped his head into his hands. “I was so angry…”
“You couldn’t have known,” Lake came to his defense. “Given the information you had at the time, it was only logical to assume she’d done it on purpose.”
“She told me she hadn’t. Swore on her life that she’d had no idea.”
“But she still wouldn’t turn on Juri,” West pointed out. “If she had, you could have brought him in for questioning sooner, and we could have figured this out months ago. No one would have to die.” He turned to Nix, who’d gone quiet. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming her.”
“I know.” Nix could see where they were all coming from.
Even his cousin. “She thought Juri loved her, even if they weren’t openly together.
I bet she thought there’d been a mistake, and if she stalled, you guys would find proof of that and let her go.
If she named Juri, he’d be dragged into it, might never forgive her…
.Might get hurt. Especially after hearing what you did to Rase. ”
“I would have broken every single bone in Juri’s body,” Yejun confirmed, though he didn’t sound pleased with himself. “As shitty as it is, she did the right thing.”
“She’s dead now because of it. I just don’t understand why he ghosted her after. You let her go. Was he afraid you were still monitoring her or something?”
“Juri wasn’t here for that,” Yejun explained. “There was a family emergency, something about his brother. I don’t really know all the details. But he took off before the semester ended, like the day after we caught Branwen. I didn’t see him around again until maybe midsummer.”
“That’s when he found out he was related to Lake.
” Nix recalled Juri telling him about the sudden issue with his brother and how that event led to him having to take a DNA test. “He hated you guys, and then almost got West killed without meaning to. It must have been shocking to discover that he was actually Lake’s brother. ”
“So he spent that time coming up with his half assed plan to try and overthrow Lake and take the throne himself.” West frowned.
“Why’d he wait so long though? He could have gone straight to the Order at the beginning of the semester.
Hendrix was fighting tooth and nail to prove Lake was too young for the position. Do you think that’s why?”
“He could have been waiting to see if the age issue made any waves,” Lake hummed in agreement, “but I think it’s a bit more obvious why he held himself back.
” When they all gave him a silent look, telling him to elaborate, he did.
“It’s because of Nix. He befriended him and must have felt bad about what he did to Branwen. ”
“You think he was legitimately his friend?” Yejun asked.
“What? You think he was using him the entire time?”
“I think there’s a very real possibility. Look what he did to Briant. No matter how guilty he felt about Branwen, that clearly didn’t stop him from locking up her brother or threatening her cousin.”
“Can we not?” Nix stopped them. “This isn’t important right now.”
His feelings toward Juri were personal, and he needed the time and space to sort through them on his own terms.
“Okay, let’s continue then.” Lake turned back to the screens.
“Branwen gets caught poisoning West. Yejun locks her up. West falls into a coma. It’s all kept secret, so Juri must have lost contact with her, but flown off to see his brother around the same time.
Dew clearly knows something is up, because he mentions it to Beck later, after Branwen has been released. ”
“He makes it sound like she was caught for the sedatives and nothing more,” Yejun said.
Further proof of Beck’s innocence. Although…
“Beck still knew she was messing with you and didn’t do anything to stop it,” Nix stated. “If he’d warned you, this could have also been prevented.”
“He was enjoying his free time with West too much.” He glowered.
“Trust me, I’m not planning on forgiving him so easily.
But confronting him, at least in my opinion, can wait until after the coronation.
If anything, these chats prove his obsession with West would have made it impossible for him to ever risk West’s life. ”
Very true. If he’d known what Hendrix was up to, Beck would have put a stop to it for sure.
“Next, Branwen is expelled,” Lake continued, “and the semester ends for the summer. Dew returns home and doesn’t hear from Beck.
Eventually, he gets fed up and returns for an impromptu visit that must have gone in his favor.
But as soon as the semester starts up, Beck clearly isn’t paying him as much attention as he used to.
So Dew decides to torment Nix as some twisted gift to try and sway him. ”