Page 108 of Martyr

If there was only one camera that had been left unaffected, what were the odds it was the exact camera they needed in order to identify who’d come and gone from that level of the art building? Hunters Cross was massive. It was too coincidental. Messy.

Now that they knew what to look for, it screamed the accomplice.

“What if it’s just a terrible prank?” Nix had to admit there were plenty of people envious of his position with the Demons. He’d noticed it more and more as of late—maybe because he’d finally accepted this was his life now and had paid closer attention to the exposure that brought him.

Knowing there was someone out to get you sort of put things into perspective, and Nix had been overly cautious toward anyone who’d approached him since dropping the bait in the cafeteria.

The bait he’d given loudly in the presence of his friends. Including Dew.

“Then at least we’ll have caught the person who thought it was okay to humiliate you,” Lake said. He took Nix’s hand and motioned toward Beck. “Lead the way.”

* * *

There was no response when they made it to Dew’s dorm and knocked. Nix and the others stood safely out of eyesight off to the side, with only Beck in front of the door, so he’d be the only one spotted through the peephole, but maybe they’d been caught already.

“He’s not answering.” Beck tried calling Dew again, this time with it off of speaker mode. He leaned in and placed his eardirectly to the door, pursing his lips. “I don’t hear anything from inside.”

Had Dew already fled?

Nix felt kind of bad that he was so quick to believe the worst in Dew, but things weren’t looking great if the guy had up and vanished.

West stepped up to the keypad, placing his multi-slate screen to screen. “Forget this. Let me just hack the locking mechanism.” Almost before he’d finished with his sentence, there was a click. “There. Just go in.”

Beck hesitated, probably because he worked for the university and encroaching on student’s privacy was a big no-no, so Lake brushed him to the side and did it himself.

They stepped into the empty room, Beck taking up the rear and shutting the door behind them. The space was typical, though it was set up for a single student and not two, so it was slightly smaller than the one Nix had shared with Grady. It was also sort of a mess, with clutter strewn about.

The bed was set lengthwise against the far wall, with a desk angled so one half could act as a nightstand of sorts. There were two windows, one between the bed and the wardrobe, and the other just above the desk, overlooking the front of the building.

Which meant they very well could have been spotted arriving.

West and Nix went straight to the desk, while Lake began snooping through the contents of some of the cluttered piles on the bed and floor.

“Forgive me,” Beck cleared his throat, “I understand this is important, but I—”

“He’s our fourth,” Lake stopped him. “If someone insults him, they insult us, not you.”

“Thanks for getting us this far,” West added. “If the university tries to give you any lip for it, be sure to play the my-cousin-is-about-to-be-emperor card.”

The fact that Beck had willingly done all of this was already a great help. He might suspect that they believed Dew and the hacker to be working together, but there was also the chance he didn’t. They’d kept the truth of the matter between the four of them, swearing not to share their plan with anyone outside of their circle.

To Beck, this could just be them going to the extreme to punish someone who’d attacked Nix’s self-worth and have nothing to do with the hacker at all.

“Shit,” West cursed and drew their attention. He’d entered Dew’s computer and done a deep search for keywords, and there’d been more than a couple of hits. “He’s looked up poison a lot.”

“Poison?” Beck frowned and then glanced at Lake. “Why does it suddenly feel like you’re not telling me something?”

“Probably because I’m not,” Lake replied, leaving it at that.

Nix sent Beck an apologetic look but didn’t offer up details himself either.

“I’ve entered his email,” West said, and they all came over to stare at the screen as he scrolled through, stopping when a recognizable name appeared. “Is that…?”

“My father.” Beck scowled.

“Why would Dew have contact with an Order member?” Nix hadn’t even met Lake’s uncle, or any of the Club Essential members for that matter, and they were dating.

“It’s written in code,” West told them.

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