Page 83 of Villain

“I’m so sorry.”

“You sound like you really mean that.”

“You’re pretty great at reading people,” Nix pointed out. “So you know that I do.”

Yes, he did, but for some reason that made him uncomfortable. Not talking about his parents, but this. Nix’s reaction. The way he was looking at him, not with pity, but something else. Something a lot like compassion.

“What about your cousin?” Lake needed to change the subject and get it off of him. “What was her name?”

“Branwen,” he hesitated, yet eventually answered.

“How did she die?”

Nix started picking at the comforter, but just before Lake could say never mind, he whispered, “She took her own life.”

That…was unexpected. He’d assumed sudden accident or illness. But that…Nix was so strong-willed. Lake had figured he’d learned that type of strength from his family. Perhaps not?

“Did she have a good reason?”

Nix’s gaze instantly darkened, his shoulders drawing back in clear insult. “Is there ever a good reason to kill yourself?”

“There are understandable ones,” he shrugged. “I’m not saying it’s forgivable.”

“She doesn’t need my forgiveness,” Nix snapped. “She was in pain. So much pain that she decided dying would be better than living.”

Lake searched his face. “And you’re not mad about that? That she gave up?”

“That’s a horrible way of putting it.”

“Maybe,” he agreed. “But I’m also not wrong.”

“That’s…” Nix dropped his head into his hand and rubbed at his forehead. “Someone bullied her. Someone pushed her to that point.”

“Ah,” one of the pieces clicked into place, “so you are angry, just not at her. You’ve chosen to place all of that blame and anguish on someone else. Were the two of you really that close? So much so that you can’t even stand the idea of her doing something wrong? Of making the wrong choice?”

“Stop.”

“Who was the bully?”

Nix wavered and then admitted, “I don’t know.”

Was that the secret? Lake needed to thread carefully from here on.

“Is that why you really upended your entire life, Nix?” he asked. “Is that really why you’re attending Foxglove Grove?” When he wasn’t met with denial, he pressed further. “Was she a student here?”

Lake stood after a moment of silence, but that seemed to be all it took to shake Nix out of it.

He lifted his head stubbornly and replied in a tight voice, “Yes.”

Chapter 23:

Lake ran through all of the information he already had.

According to Nix, his cousin only just recently passed, and it happened before he’d signed onto the app and created a false account. That meant Lake hadn’t been on planet, so it couldn’t have been him Nix was after.

Still, that left West and Yejun…

If it turned out Nix was here for revenge against them, Lake couldn’t allow him to stay. No matter how badly he wanted him, the Demons came first. Always. As far as he was aware, neither of his friends went out of their way to harm females, but that didn’t mean it never happened.

---