Page 112 of Accomplice to the Villain

Good. Heneedsone.The rest of the villagers watched the interaction, exchanging shocked looks.

“Uh. There, there.” Trystan patted the woman’s shoulders before nudging out of her hold to get back atop his horse.

“Thank you, Mr. The Villain!” the little girl yelled, and the sound carried up to Evie, who watched the boss’s shoulders straighten at the gratitude.

“I’m evil, little girl. I did that for…evil purposes you don’t know yet,” he deadpanned.

“Like what?” one of the older men yelled, clearly skeptical.

“I wouldn’t be a very good villain if I told you my plans,” Trystan replied in a sinister tone, turning his steed back toward where the dangerous phoenix had landed.

“That’s what gents say when they don’t know what they’re doing,” a matron whispered to one of the younger girls.

“That’s not true!” Trystan called back, but his shoulders slumped some as he rode toward the house Evie sat atop.

Evie chuckled, even though it made her woozy from the blood loss. “How does it feel to be completely sorted by a group of strangers you only met two and a half minutes ago?”

“How does it feel to be unemployed?” he grumbled.

“How does it feel to be hit in the head with a rock?”

“What?” Trystan asked, looking up, and Evie tossed a small, weightless pebble at his skull. “Ow!”

“Not good, then?” Evie nodded, acting like she was writing down data for a scientific discovery.

Her hand was caked in her blood, and she quickly returned it to her leg, noting that at least the bleeding had finally slowed to a less life-threatening degree.

“Deadlands, Sage! Are you bleeding?” Trystan yelled.

“Obviously not—I’m finger painting,” she said sarcastically.

“Get down here!”

She looked over the side of the roof and nodded. “You’re the boss.” She rolled over the side and was airborne for a second before a large body appeared below hers, breaking her fall.

“I didn’t mean you should jump off!” he said, wheezing below her.

“You didn’t specify, sir.” She flicked his nose.

He glared. “Are you trying to kill me?”

“Not till next week.”

He lifted them both to their feet, hauling her up like one would a knapsack. She enjoyed it more than was appropriate for someone with a smidgen of self-respect.

And then she remembered how he’d cradled that little girl to his chest, imagining for the smallest of moments him holding a different little girl—one with dark, dangerous eyes and black curls…

Okay, less than a smidgen.

“Holy gods,” he said, trying to stanch her blood flow even as he frantically searched the crowd. “Tatianna!”

“It’s fine.” She batted his hands away.

“There’s a hole in you!” he fumed.

Another screech from the bird, and Evie had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. It took Trystan approximately three seconds to catch up to where her brain had traveled. “How is it that even now, you manage to find something crude in the conversation?”

She winced. “A special talent?”