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August 6 - August 6, 2024
The Villain didn’t miss light. He missed color.
“My assistant is of great value to my business. If anything has befallen her, if she’s been harmed in any capacity…I will ruin you. And I will be sure to do it in broad daylight for all to see.”
He wished to find Sage. He wished to tell her he was sorry. He wished to be better about revealing how he felt, bit by bit. And perhaps, most importantly—he wished to have a godsforsaken tea party with her little sister, Lyssa.
There was only the merest hint of hesitation in his voice as he said, “Are we going over, then?” He would follow her off a cliff without question. And Evie knew she was in love with him. Right then, right there.
“There is nothing written in any text, gods-created or not, that says we cannot be more than one thing. You’ve been told for a very long time that you are made for destruction, but there is nothing that says you cannot be more. You can be capable of bad and do good. You can do good things and still be bad. Nothing is set in stone, and if it helps, I’ll stand by you no matter who you choose to be.”
“Do I hate you for protecting me instead of putting ink on my body that will kill me? Oh, yes. To the gallows with you, you deviant monster.”
Every barricade she’d begun to build around her heart to keep him out, to protect herself, collapsed. She could deal with the grumpy villain, the murderous villain, the torturous villain, but the charming villain? That was simply unreasonable.
“You think I do not care? As if thoughts of you and your well-being don’t plague me daily. Nightly. Every second we are apart! I watched you die! I thought I’d never see you again! I have never known such darkness, and I never wish to again. If you think that makes me overbearing, so be it. But do not ever claim I do not care about you. You are wiser than that, Evie. Do not be a fucking fool.”
“Do you think”—he spoke quietly against the warmth of her lips—“that I would fall for such an obvious, vile trick? That this farce could ever compare to the real thing?” He pushed her away, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“I would sooner take the scraps she lay at my feet,” he stated, “than commit myself to a cheap imitation.”
and just to clear any remaining doubt…” Evie leaned closer as Becky said in a hushed tone, “There was no villain’s assistant position…until he met you.”
When Evie turned back to Blade, the dragon trainer was focused on Becky in wonder and then possessiveness, like he’d fashion himself a thief just for the excuse to have that smile for himself.
“Apprentice,” Trystan corrected coldly. “If you’re going to address her like she isn’t here, I caution you to at least do it with her proper title.”
He was going to die young, and it would be all her fault.
Grains of truth could usually carry you through a lie of omission.
You were always supposed to meet Evie Sage, Trystan Maverine. Just as Evie Sage is meant to be your downfall, and you her undoing.
As Trystan Maverine, Evil Overlord, in his large, ridiculously frilly hat, picked up the flowery teapot and poured the tea, saying with a sternness that made her heart twist all over again, “My sincerest apologies, Miss Halliway. I usually have better manners.”
By the gods, she loved him. She loved his smile and his rare laughter. She loved that in one moment he could be fiercely protective and in the next he could be soft and unsure. She loved that he understood her, perhaps better than anyone she’d ever known, that he made her importance known without placation. That he’d given her a reason to wake up in the morning, a reason to rush to get ready—not only to get to work (though she loved her work) but to get to him. There could never be another person in the whole of the world she could feel this way about.
Beware the wrath of a kind heart.
