Page 2 of Martyr

“Or what? Going to bite me again?” Nix stared him down daringly.

“You’re sure she told you she was dating a King?” Lake changed the subject.

“Yes.”

“That doesn’t make sense. The hacker we’re after wouldn’t need to use her to climb the ranks if he already held that position himself.”

He shrugged. “Not my problem that the pieces don’t fit for you.”

“Nix.”

“Deal with your own issues,” he snapped. “I’ll deal with mine.” Nix pushed off the wall and crossed the room, snatching the duffle out of Lake’s grasp. “Starting with this. I don’t need you keeping tabs on me or your protection or whatever other bullshit excuse you’ll give for why I need to move in with you. My answer is no. I won’t do it.”

“You’re upset.”

“Of course I am!”

“What I mean is,” Lake took the bag back but dropped it on the ground at their feet, “you’re emotional right now. Once you calm down, you’ll see reason. Part of you wants to refuse to believe we’re after the same person because you’re angry with me, but the only way for you to really find out for sure is by continuing your investigation.”

Nix tightened his hands into fists at his side. “What investigation? I’ve done nothing this entire time but be your fucking toy!”

“I bit you,” Lake said darkly. “You know better than that.”

His shoulders caved somewhat, and even though he hated himself for the weakness, Nix found he no longer had the energy to keep up with his warring emotions. “You’re worried Yejun willfind out and it’ll affect him negatively. Fine. I’ll go. If I transfer back to my old school—”

“I bit you,” he repeated.

“You didn’t mean it.”

Lake’s eyes narrowed. “That’s what you’re hoping, isn’t it. You’d rather I have acted foolishly and in anger than—”

He lifted a hand, stopping him. “We don’t know each other well enough for you to want anything more with me than what we already have.” And frankly, the idea that Lake could have been thinking this was more scared the shit out of Nix. “You won’t let me leave now? All right. Then I’ll stay until the contract is up, but come Demons Passing, I’m out of here, whether or not I’ve found the hacker.”

“You’ll just abandon your cousin like that? After everything you’ve already given up for her?”

“After finding out she played me just as easily as you have?” Nix growled. “Yeah. Yeah I will.”

A twist of guilt cinched around his heart but Nix played it off. This was all too much too soon and he needed time alone to think and sort through everything. He wanted to believe Branwen had her reasons, but there was no matching the version of her he’d carried all this time with the one he’d been presented with. Iris sounded nothing like the girl he’d grown up with.

“Branwen was always kind,” he said then. “She liked to daydream, sure, and sometimes she could be considered a bit naïve, but when we were kids, she’d cry if she accidentally stepped on a bug at the park.”

“You aren’t kids anymore, Songbird,” Lake pointed out. “More often than not, people are more than they seem. You should know this better than most. If I went to any of your ex-peers, I bet not a single one of them would be able to guess how submissive you are for me in the bedroom. How cute you lookwhen you strip, blushing. How mouthy you can still manage to be even with my fingers in your ass.”

Nix scowled, but Lake wasn’t finished.

“What about your parents, hm? If I called them right now and told them their son has been arrested for hacking into Essential? What do you think the first words out of their mouths would be?”

“That you were a liar,” he stated. “And you would be.”

“You might not have tried your luck with Essential, but that’s not the part that they’d find hard to believe. They don’t know what their perfect, straight-A student son gets up to. People see you as a loner because that’s what you’ve always wanted them to see. Your cousin had her own secrets, same as everyone else.”

“Are you forgetting you’re the one who was just yelling at me for caring about her?” He tugged on his collar. “That’s why you bit me even.”

“I’m protecting you,” he disagreed.

“From Yejun. Right.” Nix shook his head. “If you really wanted to protect me, you’d let me leave this place.”

“Is that what you really want?” Lake asked. “You find out Branwen tricked you and suddenly her death no longer matters to you?”

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