Page 27 of Martyr

Manipulated him.

Shared him with his friends.

Although…Nix stared at himself in the mirror, as though daring himself to deny what he was thinking.

That maybe being shared around between the three of them wasn’t such a bad thing after all…At least as far as the sex went. Nothing more. Yes, Yejun had been kind to him, and West…Well, last night he hadn’t been all that bad either. But Nix wasn’t deluding himself. He knew this wasn’t some fairytale and he was no prince waiting to be swept off his feet.

Hell, if this were a story, the Demons were more likely to be the monsters slain by the knights, as opposed to being the knights themselves.

Shaking his head at himself, Nix stepped out of the bathroom and paused when his eyes landed on the large setup practically in the center of West’s room. He hadn’t checked when he’d gotten up, what were the odds that they’d been left on?

There was no way West could be that sloppy, right?

Slowly, he made his way toward them, glancing over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door. A part of him was worried he’d be walked in on, but the other was screaming this was his chance. Maybe his one and only chance at that.

He couldn’t trust Lake to keep his word, which meant he needed to find answers himself. Starting with granting himself access to Branwen’s old Enigma account. If he could just find out who’d influenced her, he was certain he could finally take a step in the right direction. After, after that tiny bit of progress, he could reevaluate and decide if it was worth sticking around.

If he really wanted to drag himself through the mud for a cousin who probably didn’t deserve it.

Sure, there was no proof that Branwen had sent him that letter knowing full well what he’d do after reading it, but his gut was telling him she had. From what little bit he was still positive he knew of her, she had to have known. Which meant this was all a ploy to get him to do one of two things.

Either finish what she started.

Or find the King who’d betrayed her like she’d claimed in the letter.

The likelihood of anyone using their dying wish to mislead a person seemed low, so for now, Nix was going to operate under the assumption that it was the latter. That at the end of the day, no matter how she’d gotten him here, the reason was still the same as it had always been.

Someone had hurt Branwen, had pushed her so close to the edge her only option left had been to jump. Nix might be angry and bitter right now, but that was because the betrayal was still fresh. Making a rash decision like leaving would be a mistake.

He’d continue to look into things for now, starting with her account, and then he’d go about his day as per usual. After, once he’d had more time to sit on things, then he’d make a choice, and if running ended up being the right choice for him after all…Well, then he’d figure out the best way to do it without getting caught by Lake or the other Demons.

Nix rounded the setup and exhaled.

The on light for the center screen was still flashing. They’d gone to bed so quickly last night, perhaps that was a mere oversight by West. Willing to take the risk, he slipped into the comfy chair and ran his fingers over the keys of the holo-pad, gaze darting between the screen and the door on and off as he waited for it to wake up.

There was no password protection, and that momentarily had him faltering, but then he figured he was overreacting. This was West’s private room, after all, in the Roost, a building no one other than the Demons had access to. Why would he bother with extra steps if they weren’t necessary. Still…

It could be a waste of time, but Nix reached over and flicked on the screen to the left, which was attached to a differentsystem. Sure enough, as soon as that one came on, there was a prompt for a retina scan and a keyed in passcode. That was either a really good thing, or a bad thing.

He shut it back off.

Either West didn’t bother protecting the middle system because there was nothing of importance on it, or he simply kept the highly classified stuff separate. Hoping for the latter, Nix typed away, running a quick search for keywords like King and Chat.

A separate hidden folder popped up and a list of names and mini photo icons flashed in rows. Some of them had red X’s by them, others were completely crossed off. The green ones appeared to be active members, and the small icons helped Nix identify who was in which tier. He clicked on one at random, nibbling on his lower lip when a new window opened and a slew of seemingly random information filled the screen.

Including a link for chat logs.

“He can spy on all of us,” Nix mumbled to himself, noting that he had to be more careful if he ever said anything in the King chat, or chats on the Enigma app in general.

Fortunately, he’d mostly spoken with Lake, and he doubted West would bother reading through his logs. They might not have any respect for others, but the three of them respected one another, and he didn’t see West crossing that line.

Nix undid his multi-slate from his wrist and opened up the program he’d secretly installed himself, setting it next to the system as he ran a search for Iris Cherith. When it appeared, it was tempting to sit there and read through it, but he knew his time was limited. West could return at any minute, and if he was caught…He already had to worry about Yejun and Lake. West was still vicious, but right now he was the least troublesome of the three. Nix didn’t want to alienate himself further.

If he didn’t have at least one ally in his corner at any given moment, he wouldn’t survive this.

He wouldn’t survive them.

He shuddered as he started the mirroring program, downloading the information directly to his device. It took longer than he would have liked since there was so much data, and his nerves started to fray, sweat droplets sliding down the back of his neck uncomfortably.

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