Page 37 of Villain

“My friends and I.”

“The Demons.” He hummed in understanding. “Why?”

“Do you pay attention to the news, Songbird?”

“Not really. But if you’re asking if I’m aware of your situation with the throne, yeah. I don’t think there’s a person alive on this planet who isn’t.” He paused and then. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Don’t be.” Lake had barely spoken to the Emperor and Royal Consort, better known as his aunt and her lover. They’d never been close, even when his parents had been alive, and while the Emperor had shipped him off to Vitality with the excuse that it was to create ties between their two worlds, another part of him had always suspected there’d been more to it than that.

She’d always known that he was a threat.

She hadn’t been wrong.

“I’m aware of other things, too,” Nix told him then. “Like, for instance, that this car can go the regular speed limit.”

“Know a lot about cars, do you?”

“Yes, actually,” he surprised him by saying.

The problem with hacking into his personal files was that they’d only been able to uncover information about his studies and living situation. There’d been a basic family tree of his immediate family, but aside from that, the only glimpse at hobbies Nix may have had came from his Inspire social media account.

Which was filled with random photos of plants and steaming mugs of hot beverages. There hadn’t even been a single selfie. Not one.

At the end of the day, there was more about Nix Monroe that they didn’t know than things they did. But Lake wasn’t stupid enough to tell him that. He needed Nix to sign these documents, not because he wouldn’t proceed with his plans if he didn’t—Lake would—but because it made the others more comfortable knowing there was a layer of legality between them and what they were doing.

“This is a JF-897,” Nix said. “There were only five shipped to the planet, so to call it expensive would be a massive understatement.”

“Do you like it?” Lake could already tell the answer to that, but he wanted to hear it anyway.

“Not even a little.” He sneered at the controls. “It’s so pretentious.”

Lake chuckled. “I’ll let West know you don’t approve.”

Nix sent him a look that was a mixture of wariness and confusion.

“He bought it for me as a welcome home gift,” he explained, laughing when that caused Nix to pale. “I’m curious, are you afraid of him because he almost choked you on his dick, or are you—”

“Like you mentioned already,” he interrupted. “I’m not an idiot. I know you guys are scary. I knew it before I even stepped foot into the Roost that night.”

“But you came anyway.”

“Yeah.” Nix turned to stare out the window as trees whipped by.

“Do you regret it?”

“What do you think?”

Lake considered. “You’re hiding something. Only someone confident or desperate would willingly walk headfirst into danger. You’ve done it more than once by my count. I would have said it was the latter without hesitation before but now…”

He’d expected Nix to cower away from them when they’d entered the cafeteria earlier—and he sort of had, but not near the extent that Lake had presumed. And even though he’d been anxious and on edge, that hadn’t stopped him from talking back. During their private chats on the app, Nix had been soft and warm, but in reality, he was a jagged mystery.

“I don’t like when there’s something I can’t see through,” he confessed. “I don’t like that there are things about you I don’t know. West would say that’s half the fun, but—”

“The two of you are very different,” Nix surmised. “So, what? Is this the part where you threaten to hurt me if I don’t tell you all of my secrets?”

“You don’t even sound scared of that possibility.”

“You aren’t the only one who has things to do, Lake.”

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