Page 70 of Sinner
“So he spent that time coming up with his half assed plan to try and overthrow Lake and take the throne himself.” West frowned. “Why’d he wait so long though? He could have gone straight to the Order at the beginning of the semester. Hendrix was fighting tooth and nail to prove Lake was too young for the position. Do you think that’s why?”
“He could have been waiting to see if the age issue made any waves,” Lake hummed in agreement, “but I think it’s a bit more obvious why he held himself back.” When they all gave him a silent look, telling him to elaborate, he did. “It’s because of Nix. He befriended him and must have felt bad about what he did to Branwen.”
“You think he was legitimately his friend?” Yejun asked.
“What? You think he was using him the entire time?”
“I think there’s a very real possibility. Look what he did to Briant. No matter how guilty he felt about Branwen, that clearlydidn’t stop him from locking up her brother or threatening her cousin.”
“Can we not?” Nix stopped them. “This isn’t important right now.”
His feelings toward Juri were personal, and he needed the time and space to sort through them on his own terms.
“Okay, let’s continue then.” Lake turned back to the screens. “Branwen gets caught poisoning West. Yejun locks her up. West falls into a coma. It’s all kept secret, so Juri must have lost contact with her, but flown off to see his brother around the same time. Dew clearly knows something is up, because he mentions it to Beck later, after Branwen has been released.”
“He makes it sound like she was caught for the sedatives and nothing more,” Yejun said.
Further proof of Beck’s innocence. Although…
“Beck still knew she was messing with you and didn’t do anything to stop it,” Nix stated. “Ifhe’dwarned you, this could have also been prevented.”
“He was enjoying his free time with West too much.” He glowered. “Trust me, I’m not planning on forgiving him so easily. But confronting him, at least in my opinion, can wait until after the coronation. If anything, these chats prove his obsession with West would have made it impossible for him to ever risk West’s life.”
Very true. If he’d known what Hendrix was up to, Beck would have put a stop to it for sure.
“Next, Branwen is expelled,” Lake continued, “and the semester ends for the summer. Dew returns home and doesn’t hear from Beck. Eventually, he gets fed up and returns for an impromptu visit that must have gone in his favor. But as soon as the semester starts up, Beck clearly isn’t paying him as much attention as he used to. So Dew decides to torment Nix as some twisted gift to try and sway him.”
Beck had been there the day Nix had been shoved into the waif stall. That must have been a coincidence, since no one knew Nix had planned to go there, not even Nix himself. Dew must have been following him, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Pushing him into the stall and locking the door behind him had been mean, but could still be considered a harmless prank to some.
But swapping out Yejun’s paintings and exposing Nix drawn naked to the entire school?
That had been cruel.
It’d also been Dew’s downfall, because if he’d never done that, pushed things that far, they never would have caught him.
“Things escalate after I bite Nix.” Lake tapped his fingers on his knee.
“It triggered Dew’s insecurities and jealousy,” Yejun said. “That must be when he started to actually dislike you, Nix. There had to be some serious negative emotions at play for him to risk pissing me off. He saw what happened with Branwen.”
“Yeah, as far as he knows, you gave her a slap on the wrist and had her expelled,” West drawled. “That’s nowhere near as extreme as, say, stabbing someone's eye out with a fork.”
“Admittedly, not my finest hour.”
“We weren’t on good terms either,” Nix reminded. “Rumors that I was caught cheating and you flipped out were still circulating.”
“Beck helped by leading us to Dew’s dorm.” West grimaced. “But it looks like his secret conversation with Dew while we were headed there is what pushed the guy to jump. He was really that obsessed with him.”
“He must have known Beck wasn’t going to help him after this,” Yejun said. “He was there when it happened and saw your reaction. You weren’t going to let this go, which meant Beckcouldn’t try and defend Dew, or risk you finding out that they were sleeping together.”
“Dew knew Beck well enough to figure that out on his own.” Nix felt sorry for him. No one should feel the need to sacrifice themselves because they couldn’t earn someone else’s affection. Though as nice as it was, making him out to be some tragic romantic, there was more to the story than that. “He must have also realized we’d catch him. His involvement with Hendrix? As soon as that got out, it wasn’t just Beck he needed to be afraid of.”
“You’re right. His entire family might have been implicated. Rase’s didn’t fare too well after he was exposed for sexual assault.”
“Still kind of ironic to me,” Nix confessed. “Isn’t that sort of the Essential’s whole modus operandi?”
“Wecan get away with something like that,” Lake said. “But not anyone else. Not common members, that’s for sure. Sex is a weapon, yes, but the whole reason the Essentials pour so much funding into parties like the Night of the Nightshade and Demons Passing is because there are still laws.”
Nix grunted. “Could have fooled me.”
