Page 127 of Assistant to the Villain

She looked at him finally, her beautiful eyes glassed over with pain and cynicism. “He didn’t succeed in whatever he’d been planning to do, since I got away. But I still feel little moments of fear.”

She brought out the papers and the inkpot her father had used to trick her, the letters from King Benedict that showed how he’d played her father and her as his pawns, how desperate he’d been. Trystan nodded through it all, taking the information with a calm gentleness he scarcely knew he was capable of.

“And now I’ve imprisoned him. My own father.” She stalked back toward the kitchen, a manic look in her eyes as she took another large gulp of wine. “Does that mean I’m evil now?”

Trystan shook his head, unable to keep up, but Sage continued. “Oh my— My father is a monster, and my mother’s abandoned me. Of course I’m evil now! That’s, like, every villain’s origin story, right?”

He shook his head, wanting only to reassure her. “You’re not evil, Sage,” he said flatly. “You made a difficult choice.”

Another swig.

“Er,” he interrupted. “Should I take that—”

“Would you like some?” A bit of the sadness was sweeping off her face, and her eyes even looked brighter…but he should still probably try to—

“Evie!” he said, bewildered as she appeared to have downed half the bottle.

She stopped, frozen in shock or disbelief, at his use of her name.

“Sage.” Trystan cleared his throat uncomfortably, loosening his collar, trying to get more air into his body. “I realize this situation has been…stressful.”

She looked up at him like he had three heads, and why wouldn’t she? He’d just referred to her knocking out her father and his betrayal like a heavy paperwork day, or perhaps how Trystan felt after a bad haircut.

“More than stressful,” he rushed out. “What you’re experiencing must be devastating and confusing and…” Gods, he was horrible at being comforting, and she knew it, too, sensed that fundamental weakness in him.

But she smiled, and he thought,I can’t be that bad, then.

But then the smile disappeared, and a pinched look of accusation fell upon her face. “I asked him, but he wouldn’t tell me. Do you know?”

“Know what?” he asked, feeling in that moment that he’d give her anything, confess to anything, if only it would put that smile back on her face.

“What the king wants with the mated guvres?”

Fuck.

Chapter 56

Evie

They both sat down on the worn sofa, Evie fidgeting with her hands, squeezing then releasing, squeezing then releasing.

Silence permeated the air, the only noise the creaking of the old foundation.

She wasn’t sure why her heart was beating so fast, but she felt like something big was going to happen.

Her boss looked like he was in great pain, the pinched look of his mouth making her chest hurt. He crossed his arms, then uncrossed them, finally settling them on his thighs. Evie wouldn’t mind having her hands there as well.

Focus,you absolute nincompoop.

But instead of speaking, he froze, turning in a flash and grabbing something over Evie’s shoulder. She gasped at the nearness of him, the heat and scent of him, but his body left hers quickly, returning to his side of the couch with something in his hand.

“Kingsley?” She had no idea the little frog had come, too.

The animal’s only response was to ribbit as he looked to both of them with a blank expression.

“Little stowaway,” The Villain growled. “He must have slipped into my saddlebag when I wasn’t looking. You could’ve gotten yourself killed, you fool.”

Evie leaned over and straightened the crown that by some miracle never seemed to leave the frog’s head. “He was worried about us, you little darling.” She fawned over Kingsley, and her boss’s eye twitched.