Page 20 of Saint

Both of these people were his friends, but they’d managed to scare him. At least he knew Grady’s antics came from a good place. He’d never get the chance to learn Dew’s reasoning. Clearly, Nix had done something close to the gallery showing that had pissed the other man off. But what? What had he done to earn such a harsh punishment?

“Yes,” West answered his question, pulling Nix back to the present. “But don’t worry. We’ve already made a deal with the Order. Your initiation will be handled by the three of us and no one else. We won’t parade you in front of an audience like this.”

That was why he wasn’t up there as well. He’d heard that all of the students who’d managed to make it into the King tier were meant to attend the Night of the Nightshade and be read into the Club, yet no one had asked Nix to do anything otherthan accompany West. Sure, he’d been getting looks all night, people obviously knew who he was, but not a single person had dared to approach and ask if he was going to participate.

Had West and Lake taken care of that was well? When had they found the opportunity to talk to the Order about all of this?

Admittedly, Nix didn’t really get it. Sure, the thought of everyone’s eyes on him like they currently were on Juri made him uncomfortable, but that discomfort was pretty low on the list at this point. They’d been through worse, after all. Had put him through worse. Why go through the trouble of talking to the Order about doing it privately?

Juri made it to the landing and bowed to Lake before turning to face the older man. He clasped his hands in front of him and kept his gaze lowered to the ground, only moving once he was ordered to place his left hand flat on the holo-pad.

The older man started to talk about the history of Club Essential, rattling off dates and important founding members. Nix was interested—mostly just because he wanted to be prepared—but he only caught the first couple of sentences before it became a struggle to process the words coming out of the man’s mouth.

Yejun had shifted closer to him, angled his body ever so slightly. It was a move meant to keep the person next to him, a woman, from taking peeks at Nix, which she’d been doing for a while now.

The problem was, Nix felt a rush of panic not dissimilar from the one he’d felt in the car, and this so wasn’t the place for vomiting or losing his cool. They needed to provide a united front. Even if there were cracks in their relationship, no one outside of their circle could know that. It would put them all at risk.

Something told Nix, if he puked because of Yejun’s nearness, it would give things away.

He tried to focus on West’s arm pressed against his on the other side, of the heat wafting off him and the comfort of his familiar scent.

And he tried to recall how things had been with Yejun before. The Demon had been careful with him, caring. While Nix now understood there were two very different versions of him, he needed to remember the “good” one. Not because he wanted to forgive Yejun because he deserved it—he didn’t, even though Nix understood his reaction—but because they all needed to survive.

If Nix was going to spend the rest of his life with these three, he couldn’t fixate on the negative. But he also couldn’t allow anything like that to ever happen again. West had asked him once if he wanted a relationship with turmoil and animosity. He did not.

He’d never thought very much about his future mate, but Nix had always imagined they’d get along if nothing else.

Digging his nails into his palms, he slowly inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, concentrating on leveling his breathing and calming his anxious nerves. Logically, he knew Yejun wouldn’t hurt him—especially not here—he just needed to convince his subconscious to chill and take that information in.

“I won’t touch you,” Yejun’s voice in Nix’s ear came then.

Nix felt his warm breath waft against the side of his neck and he shivered involuntarily.

“I’m sorry,” he sounded every bit as wounded as Nix felt. “Forgive me, Firebird. I’ll never put you through anything like that again, I swear it.”

Nix risked a glance at him, gaze darkening as a swirl of anger spun through him. “Don’t make me promises you can’tkeep. You lost yourself, Yejun. Who’s to say that won’t happen again in the heat of the moment?”

“It won’t,” he insisted. “Please, Nix. I’ll do anything. Anything to make this right. To bring you back to me. I…” he licked his lips and confessed, “I miss you. I’ve never missed anyone before.”

“Lucky me.” It was cruel, but Nix turned away just as Yejun flinched.

Okay, so maybe he didn’t want to be petty and spiteful, but giving back a little bit of what he’d been given was his right, right?

West placed a hand at the back of Nix’s neck, a silent reassurance that he was there. It also meant that he’d most likely heard everything that was just said between him and Yejun, despite the whispers.

And a reminder of where they were. If West could hear, there was always the chance someone else could as well. Nix wasn’t naïve enough to believe that there wasn’t a single person around them curious about the Demons and their fourth. They’d suck this information up and spin it into something it wasn’t, the same way that rumor had started that Nix had cheated on them when his cousin had shown up unannounced.

“Will you be completing the initiation?” the old man asked Lake, drawing Nix’s attention back to the ceremony.

Was it almost over? Had he really just missed the whole thing?

“No,” Lake motioned toward Nix. “I’m mated.”

The old man leading things nodded. “Yes, yes. One of the other Demons then? This is your sacrifice.”

“They’ve also taken to our fourth,” Lake said without skipping a beat. “Juri Ferd is our sacrifice, but that’s where our responsibility ends. We won’t be taking part in the final test.”

“The final test?” Nix frowned up at West. “What’s that?”

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