Page 9 of Saint

They descended the wooden stairwell, entering the living space of the Roost, Yejun allowing West to lead him all the while.

“He doesn’t want me near him,” Yejun pointed out solemnly.

“Do you blame him?”

“No.”

“Everyone is high-strung at the moment,” West said. “We all just need a minute to breathe. Give it time. He’ll come around.”

Yejun propped his elbows on the kitchen island, watching as West rounded it and reached for the center cabinet over the stove. “And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we’re going to have a shitty next sixty or so years?” He snorted when that earned him a dark look and brought two empty glasses over, along with a full bottle of June’s favorite liquor. “I’m joking.”

“What if you aren’t?”

“What if Mount Pia erupts tomorrow and we all die?” West poured the maroon liquid into both glasses and slid one over to his friend. “Cut the shit. This is no different than any other obstacle we’ve faced. You just keep going until you get through it, man.”

“Easy for you to say.” Yejun gulped down half the contents. “You’re not the one he hates.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Mine.” He slammed the glass down and then groaned, dropping his head into his hands. “I fucked up. I get that.”

“You weren’t thinking clearly.” Understatement, but kicking the guy when he was down wasn’t beneficial for any of them. “Suffocating our fourth was taking things too far though. If you ever pull a stunt like that again—”

“I won’t.” He exhaled slowly. “I don’t want to hurt him. I was just so angry. I’m still so angry.”

“He didn’t know about Iris.”

Yejun glanced up at him. “You believe that?”

“Yes.”

“One hundred percent?”

“Yes,” he repeated more firmly. “You didn’t see how messed up he’s been over that discovery. He feels guilty and betrayed, probably more so than you even.”

Yejun snorted, clearly not believing him.

“No, seriously. Think about it. Nix has told us time and time again he’s only ever been close to one person his entire life. Then he comes all the way here in order to seek out justice for that person, only to discover their final act alive was figuring out a way to use him? Iris didn’t just manipulate you, June. She knew exactly what to say, how to phrase things, to get Nix to drop everything and enroll in Foxglove.”

Yejun’s brow furrowed. “Are you certain? Why would she do that?”

“Revenge?” West shrugged and sipped his drink. “Because the bitch was crazy? Who knows.”

“Don’t you want to?”

“Not especially.” It didn’t matter to him why she’d done any of it. All West cared about was that her actions had harmed Nix, possibly beyond repair. “He’s hurting. It’s our job to make it better, not worse.”

Yejun nodded and then something seemed to occur to him. “Since when did you become such a romantic?”

West winked and blew him a kiss over the rim of his glass before downing the rest of its contents. He refilled his and then did the same to Yejun’s. “It turns out taking care of people isn’t so hard. I actually seem to be fairly good at it.”

“Bragging because Nix likes you the most right now?”

“Obviously.”

“Have you said any of this to Lake?”

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