Page 46 of Sinner
This was a new side to him Nix hadn’t seen before, and he found himself lowering his guard even more. Something about West being vulnerable called to his instincts to protect and understand.
“Yeah, sure thing.” He smiled at him reassuringly. “Just promise it’s nothing bad or dangerous? You aren’t in any trouble or anything like that, right?”
“No,” West said. “Nothing like that.”
“Okay.” Not really sure what else to do, Nix stood. “I’ll leave you to it then.”
“You don’t have to go.”
“I think Lake just got home.” It wasn’t required of him to go and greet Lake, but it was a good enough excuse, and he didn’t want to hover when West was clearly dealing with something personal.
When Nix had needed to keep his secrets close, West had been the only one who respected that. He deserved that same courtesy, no matter how curious Nix was to know what’d happened between this morning and this afternoon.
“Hey, Nixie,” he called to him just as he reached the door, waiting until Nix turned back to meet his gaze. “You know I’m crazy about you, yeah?”
He pursed his lips. Was this because of the sex with Yejun? “We don’t have to do anything like that again if you’re not comfortable with it.”
“This has nothing to do with June. I just…I want to make sure you know, that’s all.”
Nix smiled at him. “Trust me, I know.”
“And you trust me too, right?”
“West—”
He shook his head, stopping Nix when he was about to walk back over to him. “It’s nothing. Seriously. I just need to sleep it off and think on things with a clearer head in the morning.”
“Okay.”
West was the type of person who was loyal above all else. If he said it was nothing Nix had to worry about, he believed him.
Chapter 15:
Nix exhaled slowly and gathered his courage before knocking on the door. Technically, this was his room too, so he could just walk in, but—
Grady pulled the door open and then paused when he spotted Nix standing in the hallway. They stared at each other for a while before he finally retreated and walked back into the dorm room the two of them had only shared for around a month or so.
“Hey.” Nix cleared his throat and came in, closing the door behind him so they could have some privacy.
While some of the student body had gone home for the first four days of the holiday, they were already returning, what with the big festival the day after tomorrow. With no classes, many of them were lingering in the hallways and hanging out in the common spaces. Nix knew he’d already been spotted by a few people on his walk over here, and once he’d entered the building.
His status as Royal Consort had painted an even bigger target for gossip on his back, and he’d rather avoid dragging Grady down with him.
At least he could walk about freely. The Demons had agreed, so long as he went straight to the dorm and back, he could go on his own now that Hendrix had been located. Technically, the threat should be done and over with, but he understood their lingering concern. After everything that had happened with Dew and Juri, Nix even agreed with them that being cautious was the smart play.
But he didn’t want to leave this thing with Grady longer than necessary, and at this point, if another one of his very tiny friend group did intend to turn on him and reveal themselves as pawn in Hendrix’s misguided attempt at the throne, Nix would rather they just go and get it over with.
Some of that numbness that had settled over him after Juri’s betrayal still lingered in his system, but that was yet another reason to force himself to come here and confront his friendship with Grady.
Nix was putting himself in uncomfortable situations on purpose to try to shake this melancholy state. He needed to prove to himself that not everyone was out to get him. That there were still people who could be trusted. Letting Yejun screw him in a rainstorm out on the back porch had worked wonders, and Nix wanted to repeat that process here.
He wanted to show both himself and Grady that, no matter what, they didn’t have to doubt each other.
“Hey.” Grady returned to what he’d seemingly been up to before Nix’s interruption and went to his bed, where his open travel bag was. He must have gone home these past few days.
“Can we…talk?”
“We’re talking right now.”
