Page 78 of Villain

He stood again, head swimming. How absolutely foolish he’d been to think he was the type of person who could come all this way and enact revenge like some storybook character. Mentally, he could hold his own, but physically…He’d never so much as harmed a fly before. How the hell had he believed he could harm another person?

Sure, he’d wanted answers, but deep down he’d known that wasn’t all he was coming here for. That wasn’t everything he was going to demand of whoever had dragged Branwen down to that pit of despair. Did he know exactly what kind of punishment he would mete out? No. But the plan for punishment had always been there.

How could he stand here and scold Yejun and West when he’d had half a mind to torture someone himself?

“It’s late,” Lake said, waiting until Nix had lifted his head before adding, “You’ll stay the night.”

“Here?” He couldn’t do that. The last thing he wanted right now was to be coerced into sex with one or more of them. “No. I can walk back. My dorm isn’t far.”

“Someone threatened you today,” Yejun reminded, coming over to rest a hand on his shoulder.

“So then,” Nix latched onto the first compromise he could think of, “walk me there. That’ll be fine, right?”

“You’re staying,” Lake stated before Yejun could answer. In a few steps, he was at Nix’s other side, latching onto his wrist. He ignored it when Nix made a pained sound as he was tugged and half dragged across the room toward the stairs.

“Dude,” Yejun called after them.

“Be careful with him,” West urged.

Lake merely lifted a hand and flipped them the bird, stomping up the steps two at a time as he pulled Nix behind him.

He almost stumbled on the stairs but righted himself just in time, fear and irritation only taking a backseat once they’d made it to the second level. It had the same cozy, mysterious vibe as the main floor, but the hallway branched off in two directions, encircling a center room with the door closed.

Lake led him to the left and down the hall before taking a right and selecting the first door. As soon as he had it open, he shoved Nix through and secured it, the flick of a lock drowned out by the sound of rain hitting the domed skylight.

It took up most of the ceiling, casting moonlight down on the king-sized bed and the crisp white sheets that covered it for a second before Lake flicked the lights on. Six orbs hovering around the room blared to life all at once, and Nix got a good look at the rest of the space Lake called his own.

“The Roost is built around the mountain,” Lake said, still standing by the closed door, watching Nix explore with his gaze. “The structure is unique because of that. Some of the rooms are circular, like this one. Others are more angular or standard rectangles.”

“You like to read?” Nix dared to run his fingers over a low bookshelf, noting it was one of many cluttering the walls. All of the furniture was made of the same dark and polished wood, but the accents, things like his bedding, the throw rug, and the blanket tossed over the leather chair by the window, were all white.

It was so…normal. Everything about it screamed cozy and relaxed, the very opposite of where his mind went whenever he thought about the man at his back.

That ease was shattered fairly quickly though.

“Get undressed.”

Nix startled and spun to face him. “What?”

“You heard me, Songbird.” Lake took a single step away from the door. “Take off your clothes.”

Chapter 22:

Lake watched a wide range of emotions play across Nix’s face before he settled on reservation. His mouth was good at lying, but he tended to give himself away with his expression, even someone as self-absorbed as West had to have picked up on it.

“Why do you want me to do that?” Nix asked, then threw up a hand to stop him from answering. “Look, it’s been a really long day, and honestly? That whole dead thing, fake or not, totally freaked me out, so if we could just—”

“The bathroom is that way.” He motioned with his chin to his right at the door that had been left ajar this morning.

Nix stared at it and frowned.

“I’m telling you to wash up, Songbird,” he said.

“Like…” he swallowed, “alone?”

“Is that an invitation?” Lake knew it wasn’t. The other guy wasn’t lying right now. He really was spooked and out of sorts, the real question was why? When Lake had first arrived, West had seemed more uncomfortable than Nix—most likely due to his fear of luk, not that he would have shared that information. It wasn’t until after they’d started discussing what could potentially be done to the hacker that Nix started acting strangely.

Which put Lake on edge.

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