Chapter 16

Nix waited for Yejun outside the locked door of his private studio in Hunters Cross. Even though it was well into the evening, the lights in the building were all left on, and he'd passed more than a handful of rooms that were clearly occupied. Apparently, it wasn't abnormal for artists to work this late.

He was used to late hours himself. Back home, he'd studied so long that more often than not he'd be heading to bed while the sun was waking. Nix had known what he wanted to do with his life since he was eight, and everything he'd done since had all been toward that goal.

Until now.

His mind wandered back to what Yejun had said the other day, about how this could potentially give him an in. Star Eye Holding was the largest gaming company on the planet, and had been Nix's dream job for years. He'd been well on his way to achieving it, top of his class at his old university, good reputation with his seniors and professors…He'd been so close.

An inkling of anger toward Branwen flickered to life in the center of his chest, and he did his best to try and bank it down, like he did every other time this occurred. It wasn't right to blame the dead, and yet…

No. No, the only person to blame was whoever pushed her past her limits. That was who Nix needed to hang all of this on. If he was lucky, he'd discover their identity sooner rather than later. If he were really lucky, it wouldn't be one of the Demons.

Not because he liked any of them, but because he really could kiss his dream goodbye if that ended up being the case.

There was a chance he could discreetly handle this himself if he found out the King's identity and it wasn't one of them. He'd get his revenge and complete his contract with Lake and the others. All he had to do was make it two months to Demons Passing, then he'd be in the clear. After that, he could get back on track and pretend like all of this had never happened. And if Yejun kept his word and also helped him get his foot in the door?

Nix wasn't above accepting that offer. He knew his skills were good enough, but this was Tulniri. Nepotism wasn't just a possibility, it was practically part of their culture. Everyone knew you could be replaced at the drop of a hat if an Essential got involved.

Grady hadn't been pleased when Nix had started getting dressed earlier. Even without saying as much, he'd known where Nix was heading off to. He'd bid him farewell with yet another warning that the Demons were bad news, but it wasn't like Nix had a choice here. His roommate seemed like a nice guy, but there was no way Nix could risk telling him the truth.

He couldn't admit he was using them every bit as much as they were using him.

"Firebird," Yejun arrived then, calling down the hall. He didn't have anything with him, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his black jeans, water droplets dripping off the shoulders of his leather jacket and his hair.

Nix frowned but didn't straighten from the wall where he'd been leaning, the folded umbrella at his feet having formed a small puddle he was practically standing in. "Did you walk through the rain?"

"Why?" Yejun asked as he reached him, and it was obvious by the mocking lift of his full lips he was teasing.

"You could catch a cold," Nix said anyway, shrugging as he finally straightened when the Demon reached for the keypad next to the locked door.

"Worried about me?"

"Worried about myself, more like."

Yejun laughed. "Are you this brazen with the others? Or am I special?"

"Lake mentioned something about my sunshiny disposition when he had me sign the contract."

The door popped open and Yejun pushed it the rest of the way, motioning for Nix to enter first. "Leave the umbrella out here."

Nix shrugged and walked in, moving off to the side so Yejun could pass him. "Why did you call me out so late?"

Yejun chucked off his leather jacket, careful not to get water on any of the easels, and went to the corner where there was a coatrack Nix hadn't noticed the last time. He hung his jacket and then held out an arm, turning to lift a brow at him when Nix didn't immediately respond. "Jacket, Firebird. Come on."

"Oh." He removed it and crossed the room, holding it out, watching as it was hung next to the Demons.

"You remember what I was working on the other day?" Yejun asked, rolling up the sleeves of his black dress shirt. In the sharp overhead lighting, it became apparent the shirt itself was see-through.

"Yeah."

"It's all crap. I had to toss it, but the project is due tomorrow, which is why you're going to help me get it done in time."

Nix frowned as the other man moved away to the center of the room. There was a circular wooden slab there, and Yejun lifted a stool and set it on top. "I'm sorry? Are you asking me to…model for you?"

"That's exactly what I'm doing." Yejun paused. "Well, ask is a strong word, don't you think?"

"I have to pretend to date you out in public," he reminded. "I don't recall there being any mention of acting like your guys' slave." He motioned to the empty room. "There isn't even anyone else here to see this."

"The windows are currently in dark mode, which means no one outside will be able to see in. Same for the one on the door," he pointed over Nix's shoulder at it. "But we can change that if an audience is really something you want."

"That's not at all what I meant and you know it."

"Do I?" Yejun set his hands on his hips. "We don't really know one another well, Firebird. Right now, we're still in the learning stages."

It was on the tip of his tongue that he didn't want to get to know any of them, but Nix caught himself. Hadn't he just been thinking about using this opportunity to his advantage? Pissing off the Demon wouldn't benefit him in any sense of the word, if anything, it'd be more akin to shooting himself in the foot.

"Want to know what I've picked up on so far?" Yejun asked. "You've got pride, more than I would have guessed considering how you ended up here, under our thumbs. Maybe Lake is onto something after all. Maybe there really is a bigger secret you're keeping."

The mood in the room shifted, and Nix could sense it like a live thing. If he wasn't careful, the scales could tip unfavorably toward him. He'd always been good at reading people, and so far, Yejun wasn't that hard.

He wasn't Lake, in any case.

Lake, who kept his feelings so close to the chest even Nix was unable to figure out what he was thinking.

Yejun was different. He wore his emotions proudly, not bothering to hide them. In fact, he gave the impression he wanted them to be seen. Like, maybe, he wanted to just be seen in general.

"Or," Nix tentatively tried his luck, "maybe that's exactly why you should believe me. My cousin was aware of just how small my sphere of comfort goes."

"And that's all it took for you to step out of your bubble?"

He bristled. " All it took? She died ."

That cavern within him yawned and Nix momentarily was at risk of falling into it. The grief was still potent when he allowed himself to feel it, when he gave into the sorrow and the pain and the fury. It was the latter that had been driving him forward, allowing him to focus on the task at hand instead of crawling into bed and staying there for weeks on end like Branwen's older brother, Braint, supposedly was.

Yejun tipped his head, that suspicious gleam in his dark eyes unwavering. "How'd she die?"

He didn't want to tell him. Prior to this moment, Nix had foolishly believed that perhaps Yejun wasn't as bad as everyone had made him out to be. So far, he'd been the calmest—although, that was based off of their last encounter. Somehow, Nix must have forgotten that Yejun was the one who'd held him down at the Roost.

Had been the one to strip him at Lake's behest…

"Grady is right," he found himself saying, his distaste ringing clear. "You're all monsters." He took a step toward the door.

"You think you can escape just by walking out?" Yejun tsked. "You signed a contract, Firebird. Since it was made with Essentials, it's legally binding, no matter what you want to believe."

On most planets within the universe, a contract like that wouldn't hold much weight in court. Sure, Nix had signed his name to it, but he could easily claim—and rightly so—that it'd been under duress. Since most civilizations considered consent to be important, they wouldn't allow it to be given away lightly. They'd stand by him if he tried to fight it.

But Tulniri wasn't like the majority of other planets. Nix had had the misfortune of being born on a planet and in a galaxy, in particular, that had murky laws where things like consent were concerned. A lot of that had to do with the fact it was jointly run. The Imperial family had a say, but so did Club Essential.

And the Demons of Foxglove Grove? They were the future of the club. Which meant they might as well be the club.

"You guys could have chosen anyone," Nix stated. "Why me?"

"Because Lake wanted you," he told him matter-of-factly.

"And you and West just roll with whatever he wants?"

"I want Lake to be content," Yejun corrected, "and West…West wants what Lake wants. In more ways than one. We stick together."

Nix crossed his arms stubbornly. "If I contest this contract, yeah, I'll lose against you. But I won't be the only one screwed over. You need me to draw out this hacker, right? What happens when this person finds out I'm not actually as invested in this arrangement as you all want him to think?"

Yejun chuckled darkly. "Actually, that'd also work in our favor. Chances are very good that would only make him come to you sooner."

"What?" Nix didn't understand.

"The hacker is out to get us," Yejun shared. "So if he thinks you'd help him achieve that goal?"

"Is that what I'm being used for?" He shook his head. "That's what you both meant when you called me na?ve?"

So the real plan was that the hacker would approach him and try to recruit him. If he believed that Nix hated the Demons, he would be more likely to do so, but they'd painted themselves into a corner by trying to appease all sides. The club was under the impression Nix was here willingly and helping them out in exchange for sexual gratification. In order to maintain that illusion…

"Essential wouldn't view it the same way," Nix dared point out.

"Which is why you're going to continue to be the good little birdie I know you can be," Yejun said without skipping a beat. "Put your stubbornness and pride aside and look at it this way: it's either a lose-lose or a win-win situation. At the end of the day, the three of us might be in charge, but I'll let you in on a secret Lake and West would never." He moved closer.

"What's that?" Nix forced himself to hold still as the other man approached, not wanting to come off weak even though his nerves were thrumming.

"You've got the power here." Yejun stopped so close he could feel his warm breath gust across his face and captured his chin between two fingers. "You're right. You could play the victim and make it publicly known that we're forcing you. The Order would be displeased with us and probably call us in for a scolding. They wouldn't trust you and you'd be number one on their shit list—you could kiss Star Eye goodbye, that's for sure. They won't do favors for anyone they don't trust.

"Or, you can lean into things. Convince the rest of the world that you want to be here, lavished by our glorious attention. The hacker will eventually come to you and try to sway you to his side, and the Order will believe that's all part of our plan—because it is. We catch the bad guy, you get that fancy job, and the story ends with a happily ever after."

It sounded great when he laid it all out like that, but…

"That's not how the real world works," Nix said.

"Maybe that's not how things ended for your cousin," Yejun corrected. "But your story could be different. It can be better."

He slapped his hand away and glared. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"How did she die, Nix?"

"That's none of your business."

"How did she die?" he repeated, but his tone changed. It was no longer demanding, now low and almost soothing. Like he was trying to coax the answer out of him.

Nix hated that it worked. There was a good chance that it did only because he'd been bottling it up, unable to talk to anyone about it. His family had been absent most of the time he'd been home, and he'd only really seen them at the funeral. His friends hadn't known Branwen, so there'd been no point in discussing things with them, especially since they weren't all that close.

He hadn't been lying about the part where he'd spent most of his time as a bookworm, locked in his studies. Since transferring, he'd only spoken to his old roommate twice, and they'd lived together since freshman year.

There was no way Nix could trust any of the Demons with the full truth, not until he had one hundred percent certainty none of them had been involved, but if this was a give and take like Yejun was trying to make him believe, perhaps using him to get this off his chest wasn't so bad?

"She took her own life," the words felt foreign on his tongue, practically whispered in the small space between them.

To his credit, Yejun winced.

"She left me a note," he continued, all of it suddenly pouring out of him. "Just me. Her older brother had to sneak it to me even, because he didn't want their parents getting hurt by that fact."

"Did she tell you why she did it?"

"Someone hurt her."

Yejun's hand cupped Nix's chin, but before he could shove him off a second time, the Demon was pulling him in. He wrapped his arms around him tightly and held him close, patting his back as if he were a small child in need of comfort.

Frustratingly, that also had the desired effect, and before long, Nix was responding, reciprocating the hug. He inhaled and breathed in Yejun's scent, a mixture of pomegranate and turpentine with a hint of musk. It wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"I'm sorry, Firebird," Yejun said.

"You mean that, don't you."

"Of course I mean it. And I understand now how something like that could push you into making these types of extreme changes. Running from your emotions is never the answer though. If you came to Foxglove to escape your demons—"

Nix snorted before he could help it, finding that morbidly funny.

"Right," Yejun grunted, pulling away. "Poor choice of words."

"Anyway," Nix cleared his throat, "we're done arguing now, yeah?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, we're done. I hereby call a truce."

Nix smiled and nodded, acknowledging that he actually felt a little bit grateful for that. Being on decent terms with one out of three was something, and even though the moment had been fleeting, being able to confide in another person had been…elevating. He didn't feel better , but he didn't feel worse.

"You needed me to model?" Nix took a step toward the circular dais, figuring cooperation was the least he could do now. Only to be stopped by a hand on his wrist.

"I do," Yejun confirmed, but that glint of something mischievous was back in his eyes. "But not like that."

Nix's brow furrowed. "Like what?"

"You didn't pay much attention to my work the last time you were here, did you?" Yejun grinned and leaned in, holding his gaze all the while. "Get undressed, Firebird. I need you naked." His grin widened when Nix sucked in a breath and he added in a teasing lilt, "Your state of arousal is up to you. Your choice."

Choice.

Bullshit.