Page 142 of Adversary to the Villain

Alexander Kingsley stared at the large pieces of glass in disbelief. “You— It’s perfect.”

Evie saw something flash in Kingsley’s eyes. But her mind drifted from it when Trystan leaped from the hole with a laugh, spinning Evie about, and she squealed her delight. “Trystan! What’s gotten into you?” She laughed, and he put her down, kissing her soundly, his joy infectious.

“Whatever it is, you should hide it, because the funeral party is going to be here any minute,” she added soberly, and he let her down, cheeks red, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Right. Yes. Of course. I’m going to just— Alexander, would you hand it to me?”

Kingsley reached down, staring at the window with a shuttered expression, then slowly passed it off to Trystan. He immediately grabbed a shovel to fill the hole back in.

“Go meet the others,” Evie encouraged Trystan. “I’ll help him.”

Trystan gave her another firm kiss, a promise in it. “It’s going to happen, Sage.”

“What is?” she asked, endeared by how excitement seemed to completely overtake him.

“Our girls,” he whispered with a sly smile. “Two of them.”

Evie wondered if too much joy was dangerous for her health, because her heart thundered and she felt a little like she might die from it. As Trystan disappeared into the greenery, Evie grabbed the second shovel and assisted in replacing the dirt.

Kingsley seemed to take a moment, hunched over his shovel with his back to her.

“You don’t seem happy?” she observed sympathetically. Of course he didn’t; the poor man was still half cursed with no hope of being any different. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

As he turned to her, Alexander’s dark golden eyes had a kindness in them, one she knew was intrinsic to his person, as much a part of him as the color. “You’re a very caring person. Trystan is lucky to have you. The office is, too.”

“And to think I almost took a different job,” she huffed in amused disbelief. With that one choice, she’d altered the entire course of her life.

Alexander kept digging, growing entranced by the motions. “No, you never would have taken it over that mother. And I think you were far more suited to being The Villain’s assistant than a maid on a quiet estate.”

It was true. Evie never would’ve survived there; her restlessness would have cropped up eventually, and her life would’ve changed anyway—

She froze, her smile fading, her heart falling toward her toes. “Kingsley, how did— I’ve never told anyone…that I gave that job to someone else.”

Kingsley faltered but kept to his task. “You must have,” he murmured quietly, but Evie heard it differently.

Like a warning.

“No. I didn’t.” She stepped away. “How do you know about that?”

“Evie, please.” He looked up at her, and his eyes were pleading and sad.

And in that moment, she felt something beautiful die.

“Evie!” Clare’s voice was an echo of her pain, as Evie turned to see her sprinting toward them with Tatianna at her heels. In that moment, she could sense what was coming, didn’t even need to hear the words. She just…knew. “It’s Kingsley! He wrote the notes! It was him!”

In the time it took her to blink, it seemed, Alexander had dropped the shovel and grabbed Evie by the collar, a lethally sharp blade at her throat. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered in her ear as he started to back them both away from Clare and Tatianna. “I’m so sorry.”

Trystan burst through the trees next, and when his eyes found hers, his mouth flattened. “Well, Alexander. Are you ready to tell the truth?” Trystan walked forward, hands in the air, but his next words shocked them all:

“Took you long enough.”

Chapter 74

Blade

“Your grandmother is well?” Blade asked Roland, walking him and Marv at a rapid clip out to the courtyard, where Lyssa stood with the guvres.

“Sicker by the day, but always in good spirits,” Roland replied. “Where’s my sister?”