Page 8 of Sinner
“I don’t,” Briant replied. “But I know other things.”
Nix frowned. “Like what?”
“Juri told me stuff.” Briant glanced away. “I think he was trying to clear his conscience, but it was also apparent he didn’t have anyone else to talk to. He used me to get some things off his chest.”
“He confessed to you?” Nix held his breath, almost afraid to get his hopes up.
He’d been close and wrong before.
Many times.
There hadn’t been enough on Juri’s laptop or multi-slate. Nix was still sorting through the tiny bits he had learned, but if Juri had told things to Briant…confessed things he hadn’t leftevidence of behind…Knowing had to be better than not knowing, right?
Would it help rid him of this sticky feeling in his chest?
“I know what he did to Branwen, Nix.” Briant closed his eyes, seemingly in pain. “He used her to…”
“To what?” As bad as he felt pushing him, it couldn’t be helped.
Juri had been his friend. The closest one he’d made here, even closer to him than Grady. There’d been a comfort in that, in having someone with no ulterior motive Nix felt like he could rely on. There’d never really been someone fully in his corner before, and he’d thought…
But it’d all been a lie. Another to add to the very, exhaustingly long list.
“The people here can’t be trusted,” Briant said. “Growing up this close to Club Essential, they’re raised in the art of manipulation. Getting a leg up on the people around them is a survival instinct. It’s not like back home.”
Nix didn’t really have much to compare it to. He’d always been a loner.
“Was I naive to think I could make friends here?” Nix asked before he could help it, smiling derisively at his own foolishness, before his cousin surprised him with his response.
“No. Branwen was the naive one.”
“What do you mean?”
“Juri used her.” Briant got up and went to set his cup down next to the untouched one, turning to sit on the bed afterward. He dropped his head into his hands. “She changed her first name because she wanted a fresh start. That’s also why she chose this school, so far from home. According to Juri, she’d already begun to befriend Yejun by the time the two of them met.”
“And you believe that?”
“Yes, because Juri admitted the only reason he approached her initially was for that connection.”
“How’d he do it?”
“He borrowed a friend's account, one that had been jailbroken and set to the King tier. He’d learned her Enigma account name and found her. They began talking under the guise of it being a coincidence, but really, he chose her on purpose.”
King-tier members had access to all known accounts. Others needed to scan a code or meet in a chat room and exchange info, but not the Kings. With a user ID, they could find and contact anyone.
Nix hadn’t been able to figure out how Juri had gotten his hands on the Serendipity account, one set to the King tier. That whole account had been a thorn in their side this whole time, first believed to have belonged to Rase, then later Dew. If what Briant was saying now was true, it sounded like Juri had borrowed it from the latter, meaning Dew had a connection to it after all.
Even if those first messages had been included in the files Juri had kept, anything that took place in an open chatroom was automatically deleted. How had Juri approached Branwen before they’d started chatting one-on-one? Had he lied and said he’d spotted her on campus and was smitten? Or had he entered a chat room he knew she’d be in and attracted her there? Lured her in, made her let her guard down, the same way he’d done with Nix?
They may never know, not with both Juri and Branwen gone, but Nix could easily see how Juri had tricked her into buying that he was a good guy. The entire campus already thought he was.
A son from a high-standing family in the club, refusing his rights to be a Legacy? Unheard of. It also had the added benefit of making him seem relatable to the majority of thestudent body. He’d given up his privileges to hang around with them, after all. To be normal.
Nix had believed that was something they had in common, had fallen for the ruse himself.
It turned out, Juri had no intention of ever being normal. He’d always wanted more.
And, in true Essential fashion, he wasn’t above harming and using others to achieve that goal.
