Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)

by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Villain was almost certain that if there had been an attempt made at conceiving with Sage, he would remember. Vividly.

He was in love with her.

Evangelina Celia Sage was woven into his being;

She was everything he never deserved but longed for anyway.

That he’d never tell her.

“I’m afraid this will hurt, my dear.” And then it did.

This was Tatianna—there was no way that she was any sort of traitor.

“When you use ink from the same vial, with one drop, any word that was written with that inkpot can be made to appear on the page before you.”

It was a letter—a long one. Signed “with love” at the bottom…from the last person she’d expected. Nura Sage. Her mother.

“You should tell her what the gold mark is, Trystan,” Clare murmured quietly. Tarnished indeed. “It’s not right to have her agree to something like that without understanding what it is.”

So instead of the green ink used in employment bargains, he’d used the gold, because unbeknownst to the public, its main purpose was protection. It warded against the strongest of evils, and when she’d face them, he’d know.

“The knight who bought the blue ink, who bought the timepiece from Malcolm…”

“The knight, Lark Moray, perished a day after purchasing your ink. He couldn’t have been the one to get the clock from Malcolm. He was already gone at that point.”

“East Marigold.”

“His name was Griffin Sage,” she said finally.

Sorry. Please. I miss them.

But they were her papers, her handwriting, from her notebook.

What happens to you now, while devastating, is out of my hands.”

“I was never sick!” he screamed back, his eyes bloodshot.

“I never had the Mystic Illness. I lied.”

“The healer was paid to tell you and the rest of the village that I had the illness so I could have an alibi.”

When he stood back up, he was holding a helmet. A knight’s helmet. One that gleamed of silver. “Is that—” “I was, and still am, one of King Benedict’s Valiant Guard.”

“There is no cure.” She exhaled. Her father paused and smiled. “Not yet.”

and you became the key to The Villain’s downfall.”

“But I knew I wasn’t the moment I heard that name.” His chest started moving up and down at a rapid pace, and he was opening his mouth but holding his throat. Like his words were trapped.

it tasted different because it was a slow-acting sedative.”

“He offered me a position with him at his summer home, as his personal apprentice.”

There were theories that the venom of a baby guvre acted as a sort of cure-all.

“I vowed then that if the king believed me a villain…that was exactly what I would become.”

Like it had been waiting for her,

Forever, he thought.

Because women like Evie Sage didn’t end up with The Villain.

The carriage rattled away, and Evie said a quiet goodbye to the man who had become the focal point of her heart.

Warsen’s head dangled there, eyes frozen forever in an expression of fear and surprise.

Quietly vowing to herself that she would save The Villain… Or become one trying.