Chapter 13

Nix groaned and buried his face against something warm, slowly coming to his senses. His whole body felt lax and he was still naked, currently being carried up the winding staircase to the second level of the Roost.

“Almost there,” Lake said softly, holding him with ease.

“What happened?” It was a dumb question since the answer was obvious, but Nix asked it anyway.

“You passed out.”

“Don’t have to sound so smug about it.” He peeled open his eyes and blinked up at the underside of Lake’s jaw, catching the guy’s partial smirk.

“West is making you tea, and June is headed to your next class to collect notes for you, since you obviously won’t be making it.”

“Shit.” Nix wanted to argue on principle, but his legs felt like jelly. “We didn’t even have intercourse. I shouldn’t be this put out after only two orgasms.”

“It was three actually,” Lake corrected. “You were a bit out of it for the last one.”

“And you thought, hey, whatever, might as well keep going anyway?” Nix huffed. “Bastard.”

“Get the door for me.” Lake stopped in front of it and Nix reached out and twisted the handle. Once inside, he brought him straight to the bed, frowning when he went to lower him to the mattress and Nix clung to his neck.

“It’ll get dirty.”

“West cleaned you off already.”

He didn’t remember that either. Nix narrowed his eyes. “Did he use his tongue to do it?”

“He used a washcloth,” Lake reassured, setting him down and waiting patiently for Nix to finally let him go before stepping away. He went to the dresser and pulled out a set of clothing.

Nix dropped the pants in his lap and held up the oversized sweatshirt. “Why do these always have your waif number on the back?”

“Because I like seeing you in them,” Lake said shamelessly.

“Possessive freak.” Nix shifted so his legs hung over the side and slipped into the pants, pausing when he got the sweats up to his thighs.

“It’s a good thing you’re needy then, isn’t it.” Lake grabbed the waistband. “Lift.”

Nix stuck his tongue out pretending not to notice when that earned him a warning look, too busy shoving his head through the hole of the light gray sweatshirt. As soon as he was wrapped in the warm clothing, he laid back on his side and sighed.

He’d never tell him, but Lake’s bed was probably the most comfortable surface Nix had ever been on.

His room was nice, too. Quiet and…cozy. Books lined the shelves, and the skylight above them showed a darkening sky and heavy raindrops pinging against the glass in a tune that he could easily drift off to.

“Sleep if you want to.” Lake sat at his desk, a large slab of wood built into the same wall the bed’s headboard was resting against. He pulled his holo-pad from his backpack on the floor and started to flick through it.

“What are you doing?”

“Studying.”

“For what class?”

“It’s not for a class.”

Nix adjusted the pillow beneath his cheek. “What’s it for then?”

“Becoming emperor.”

“There’s a test for that?”

Lake smiled. “No. I’ve been away for a year, I need to go over any political changes that were made by the late Emperor during that time.”

Nix watched him for a moment and then, “You said the two of you weren’t close.”

“We weren’t.”

“Were you ever?”

Lake pursed his lips, then shook his head. “Not that I can recall.”

“Is there a reason?”

“Not really. We just weren’t.”

“Boring.”

He snickered. “I’m sorry my family relations aren’t amusing enough for you, Songbird.”

“I don’t forgive you.”

Lake’s smile died. “I know.”

Nix searched his expression, but it’d shuttered. “Does that bother you?”

“Yes,” he replied. “But you will. Eventually.”

“Cocky.”

“Confident.” Lake set the holo-pad down and turned to him. “Weren’t you going to sleep?”

“You said West was bringing me tea.”

“Do you even like tea?”

“I like that one. What’s it called?”

“Xuj tea,” Lake told him. “It’s a fruit native to Essence.”

Essence was a neighboring planet. “What’s West’s connection to it?”

“My mother.”

Nix thought he might have misheard. “ Your mother?”

He nodded. “She used to make it for us after school when we were kids. Or whenever West came over crying because his dad missed an event or berated him. It’s sort of become a comfort drink for him because of that. He’s been making it ever since her death.”

Over summer breaks, Branwen’s mom had cut thick slices of yeith melon for the two of them. They’d spend all day outside playing in the woods and then return just as the sun had started to set, already craving the slice they’d each get before dinner. It’d been a ritual that hadn’t changed even once they were too old and the playing pretend amongst the trees had turned into movies at the local theater and trips to the mall.

This past summer, Branwen had been too busy and the two of them hadn’t seen each other. The whole season had come and gone and Nix hadn’t had a single slice of yeith melon. He hadn’t even thought about it.

“You and West have a complicated relationship,” he said, mostly to distract himself from his tumultuous thoughts, and to keep Lake from asking about it. The Imperial was already giving him a funny look, so he must have picked up on something crossing over Nix’s expression.

For a moment, it seemed like Lake wasn’t going to let him get away with it, but then he sighed. “West is my brother. Family is always complicated.”

“Says the guy who was just telling me about how boring his family history is,” Nix replied in an off-handed tone. No one would truly consider Lake’s history boring. Orphaned at a young age, abandoned by his uncle, and then this only remaining living blood relatives die mysteriously? “All they’ve told the public is the Emperor and the Royal Consort both got sick. Is that really what happened?”

Lake cocked his head. “What do you think?”

“Before? I didn’t think anything of it. Now?” He grunted. “There’s got to be more to it. Aren’t you afraid?”

“Of?”

“If someone can get to the Emperor, they can get to you.”

The Imperial stood and came over, settling down on the bed at Nix’s side. He reached out and brushed a coil of his blond hair off his forehead, tentatively at first, as though he thought Nix might push him away.

At this point, why bother?

He was too exhausted to fight with Lake for no reason.

Besides, he preferred him this way. When it was just the two of them and hushed tones. It felt intimate, but not in a sexual sense. Felt like there was something real between them. Something more.

“Don’t worry,” Lake said. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“That’s not at all what I was saying.”

“So,” he smiled, “promise you won’t let anyone hurt me either if you’re so concerned for my safety.”

“I’m not.” Stubbornly, he looked away.

“Okay.”

“I’m not,” he insisted.

“I believe you.”

“Lake.”

“Yes?”

“Are you really going to let Juri be the sacrifice?”

He placed an arm around Nix’s middle and leaned on it, caging him in casually. “I don’t see any cons. His reasoning made sense. It’ll be good for you to have an ally in the Club other than us. Someone who can keep their eyes peeled for you and be a shoulder when you need one.”

“And you…trust him?” Nix couldn’t help but be a bit baffled. “You trust that that’s all he wants?”

“What? To be your friend?” Lake asked. “Because of what Yejun said? I might have been jealous of Juri before, but not anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because you never would have lost yourself like that if you had a crush on him,” Lake explained. “You’re too self-conscious for that. Sure, you’re a good faker, but I know the sounds you make when you’re desperate to come. You weren’t putting on a show today.”

Nix hesitated and then decided to take a leap of faith and just be honest. “You agreed to a compromise. You didn’t force me. If you had, if you’d made me strip down and be touched like that in front of someone other than you three, I never would have forgiven you.”

“I know.”

“I mean it, Lake.”

“That’ll never happen, Songbird. The only ones allowed to steal your dignity is us, and we’ll do it behind closed doors, in the security of our own home.”

“I should tell you you’re disgusting for saying that,” he sighed. “But I don’t want to.”

“I heard what you said in your dorm yesterday,” Lake told him. “I got a list of names from—”

There was a sharp knock on the door a second before Yejun entered without waiting to be asked inside. He strolled toward them and set a steaming glass mug on the end table, eyes scanning over Nix before he bent to press the back of his hand against his forehead.

“What are you doing?” Lake didn’t bother moving out of the way.

“Checking his temperature. He looks flushed,” Yejun replied.

“Of course I do,” Nix stated. “I just came so much I passed out. You want to try it?”

“You offering?” Yejun waggled his brows and then laughed and took a step back when Nix glared. “All right, all right. I was just kidding.”

“I thought you were going to get notes from his class,” Lake said.

“I called someone taking it and told them to send a copy of theirs over,” Yejun replied. “Made more sense than going all the way myself. Do you need anything else, Firebird? Hungry?”

He shook his head.

“You sure? Then how about…” His gaze swept down Nix suggestively.

“Get out,” Lake ordered.

Yejun grinned. “It was just another joke, calm down.”

“Go find someone else to get your dick wet.”

“Dude, not in front of Nix.”

Nix scoffed. “Like you haven’t already told me yourself that you sleep with other people?”

“Does it bother you?”

He frowned. “Why should it?” He made a big show of jabbing a finger directly into the center of Lake’s chest and leaving it there. “I also fuck other people.”

For reasons Nix couldn’t comprehend, instead of finding that funny, Yejun scowled.

“Nix was about to take a nap.” Lake motioned to the door, lifting a brow when the other Demon didn’t immediately react. “June?”

“Huh?” Yejun stared at him and then blinked. “Oh. Yeah. Right. I’ll get going.” He took another step away and then added for Nix, “Call me if you need anything.”

“Sure.”

Lake waited until they were alone before he stood and wandered back over to his desk. He’d only just barely picked up the holo-pad when he noticed Nix watching him though. “What?”

“I’m not tired anymore.”

“It’s too late to go to your class. It’s already started.”

“I don’t want to go to class.”

“Then, what do you want to do?”

Nix didn’t really know. He glanced at the holo-pad. “Got any movies on that thing?”

The Imperial seemed to have an internal debate with himself, but it didn’t last long. He was back on his feet and rounding the bed in less than a minute, settling into the empty spot next to Nix. “What genre?”

“Anything is fine.”

He handed over the holo-pad. “You pick then.”

Nix sat up and rested back against the headboard, brow winging up when he saw all the tiny icons. “Wow. You have a lot.”

“One of my friends on Vitality is a movie buff. He gave me access to his extensive collection.”

“So there are movies from other planets on here?”

“Yes.”

“Which one is your favorite?”

Lake leaned in and scrolled until he spotted it and then clicked on the miniature poster.

“‘An ex-detective must infiltrate the Brumal Mafia in order to avenge his murdered brother, but what happens when he feels a pull toward the man in charge of it all? The one who may be responsible for his greatest pain?’” Nix read off the description. “Really?”

Lake shrugged. “I liked it.”

He clicked into the credits list and a row of photos popped up. “Ah, I get it now.”

“What?” Lake frowned.

“The lead actor is hot. Let’s watch it.”

“No.” Lake went for the holo-pad but Nix pulled it out of reach.

“What? Come on. Why not?”

His silence was answer enough.

“You can’t be jealous of an actor,” Nix chuckled. “Besides, he’s hot, sure, but that doesn’t mean I’d let him finger fuck me in front of a classmate.” He hit the play button before Lake could argue further and then settled back, placing the pad so it was centered and resting on Lake’s right thigh and his left.

The movie started, the soundtrack beginning with long drawn-out notes that elicited a sense of mystery. Nix recognized it as beiska music.

“Drink your tea,” Lake reminded.

He picked up the mug and quickly turned back in time to see the camera pan down a dark alley.