Page 70 of Saint

Nightingale:We’ll see. Maybe you’re all talk.

Hellhound:Challenge accepted.

“Who are you texting?” Lake sounded annoyed. He must have heard the clicking as Nix had typed.

“West.” He stopped outside of Juri’s room and knocked. “I’m here. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Remember—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nix made a big show of pointing to his earbud and rolling his eyes when Juri opened the door and saw him, “I got it. Don’t go anywhere. Don’t gossip with Juri about how big your dick is.”

“I’m coming to get you right now.”

“Wait,” he laughed. “I’m joking, I’m joking. And I’m hanging up.”

“Nix.”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

“You too.” He ended the call and slipped the earbud out, clicking it back into place in the device at his wrist as he stepped into the room. “Sorry about that.”

“One of them?” Juri asked, shutting the door behind him before moving toward the bed. He motioned for Nix to make himself comfortable, and then sat on his desk chair nearby.

“Yeah.” He glanced around the small space. “This a single?”

“Decided I wanted privacy.” Juri shrugged. “Grady has asked me to move into your dorm though, since you’re no longer using it.”

He wouldn’t be returning either, not with Demons Passing right around the corner. Nix should really make a point of collecting his things and filing his move with the school, that way Grady could apply for a new roommate.

“I can—”

Juri shook his head. “I don’t plan on taking him up on the offer, I was only saying.”

“Oh.”

They settled into an uncomfortable silence for a moment that honestly threw Nix off. Conversation had always been easy with the other guy in the past. The only reason he could see for this awkwardness was…

“Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?” Nix asked. “Did something happen?”

Nervously, Juri rubbed the palms of his hands on his thighs. “I thought I had this all planned out in my head, but now that it’s actually happening, I’m finding it more difficult. I don’t know where to start.”

This seemed serious, way more so than the lighthearted conversation he’d thought they’d be having about a potential crush on Briant.

“Is everything okay?” Nix’s brow furrowed. “Is it about the club? Do you regret rejoining?” Maybe he could talk to Lake about getting Juri let off the hook if that were the case. Surely as the emperor, he’d be able to do something like that. “If that’s it—”

“It’s not,” Juri said. “But thank you. You’re always putting other people first, Nix, which is why this is so difficult to do. It’s too late to turn back though, I really need you to understand that. I did try. I went over every other possible scenario in my head a dozen times, but there’s just no way around this I’m afraid.”

“Going to be honest here, you’re starting to freak me out. What is it?”

“I’ve never told anyone this before.”

Oh, was this about a personal secret? He understood what carrying those felt like. In fact, it’d been Juri who had helped unburden Nix in the beginning when he’d been trying to piece together who Iris and Branwen were. As soon as he’d made that discovery, he’d run into the other guy on campus, and he’d sat with Nix, a relative stranger at the time, and listened to him talk in riddles.

The idea of getting to return that favor and be a shoulder for Juri swept away any discomfort he’d been feeling. Nix resituated himself on the edge of the bed so he could be a bit closer. “You can confide in me, Juri. We’re friends.”

“It happened a couple of months before you enrolled here,” Juri began, clearly struggling with formulating his thoughts. “It was an accidental discovery, really, not something I went looking for or even had a clue about. My brother—you remember I’ve mentioned him before?”

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