Page 35 of Villain

“The screening process was intense,” he cocked his head, “not that you would know.”

“I had my reasons.”

“Right,” Lake said. “You wanted to change your life. That’s what I’m offering. Get in the car.”

“It’s not an offer if you force someone to do what you want.”

“It’s still an offer,” he corrected. “You’re the one who gets to decide what happens next, Nix. Do you come willingly, or do you force my hand?”

What happens next...Hadn’t he just been thinking that same thing?

Seven Kings, including himself?

That accounted the three Demons and left three unknown on the board.

“Who are the other Kings?”

“That’s confidential,” Lake replied, “and you haven’t signed the NDA yet.”

Is that where they were going?

“You’ll explain it all, right?” Nix set his hand on the handle but didn’t open the car door. “This isn’t just some trap to get me alone again?”

“I don’t need to trick you to get you alone, Songbird,” Lake said confidently. “All I have to do is ask you to come and you will.”

He snorted. “That so?”

“Yeah,” Lake nodded. “That’s exactly how it is. Deny it all you want. We both know you can’t keep up the lie forever.”

“The lie?”

“That you don’t want me.” He set his arms over the roof of the car and let loose some of that hidden chaos Nix had only caught glimpses of in the sound of his voice through the speakers of his computer. “You want me just as much as you did when I was a faceless stranger on the other side of your monitor. Maybe even more.”

“Cocky?” Nix’s voice came out too breathless for either of them to believe he wasn’t affected, but he stood his ground anyway.

“I’m attractive. That’s a fact.”

Nix kept his mouth shut, because what was there to say to that?

“It’s also a fact that you’re going to be mine, Songbird.”

“That so?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I—”

“Because,” Lake cut him off. “I’m going to give you what you want in return.”

Nix felt his chest seize and barely kept his composure. “And what is it that you think I want?”

“You were thriving at your old university,” he said. “You didn’t come all the way here for our curriculum. You came here for a King.”

Was that all he knew? Nix tried to search his eyes to see if there were any hidden meanings behind those green orbs, but he couldn’t find anything. In the short time they’d known one another, he’d already learned that Lake only ever showed the face that he wanted you to see, nothing more and nothing less.

Could Nix trust a person like that?

Had Branwen?

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