Page 1 of Adversary to the Villain

Prologue

Once upon a time…

It wasn’t often that one would find themselvesdreadingthe end of the work week, the last grueling day before the welcome reprieve of the week’s end. However, it also wasn’t often that an office was run by the kingdom’s most notorious villain…

And that villaindetestedthe week’s end.

Trystan Maverine was not certain what first brought upon such fast and efficient ire. Perhaps it was the aching quiet that awoke him with the Saturday-morning sun. Or how he’d begun actively avoiding the kitchen and Tatianna’s quarters for fear his old life would bleed into his new one, the only one he’d know until the day of his inevitable demise. It could have been that with the days off for his workers, he wouldn’t get to exercise his new life’s purpose—evil. But as of late, what he’d begun to hate most was the absence…the absence of her.

Evie Sage had not yet been in his employ for more than four weeks. Could it truly have only been a month? It felt like years. Taxing, confusing, mildly agonizing years. But in that time, his assistant had proven herself shockingly capable of catering to his every villainous whim, adapting to his evil ways with a smile so big and bright, he was surprised it hadn’t yet cracked her face in half.

It felt as if it had cracked his.

Melodic laughter filtered in through the open gap of his office door. He knew who the perpetrator was, though how could he not? If the sound itself did not give her away, the veryactof laughter would have. No one had dared laugh in The Villain’s office before her, at least not loudly enough for him to hear.

It was enough—on this dreary last day of the work week—to push him over the tyrannical edge.

“Sage!” he boomed, slamming the door all the way open.

The laughter ceased,thank the gods, but when his assistant turned toward him, her smile remained, making him feel a bit like she’d smacked him over the head with it. Surely that was why he felt so dizzy? He cleared his throat, hoping she didn’t notice the way he’d nearly stumbled over himself at the sight, only to realize that Sage was alone. What had made her laugh so? It was then he saw the papers in her hands. “You’re cataloging my torture session from this morning, correct?”

She nodded vigorously, a few curls that had broken loose from her pins bouncing up and down along with her head. “Yes, of course, sir. I will have it done in just a few minutes!”

“It is the one in which I cut out a man’s tongue and force him to swallow it?”

She blinked. “Yes, sir. Was there another incident you wish for me to catalog of the same”—she paused, her nose scrunching as she contemplated—“variety?”

If he were to ever, at any point in time, deign to snort? It would have been right then.

“No, Sage.” He took a beat, then continued. “Though I admit to feeling curious as to what about that endeavor you find so amusing.”

Her cheeks turned so pink he could practically feel the heat of her skin from where he stood—at a safe distance. “Oh, well. It’s very silly.”

He stared.

She began fidgeting with her braid, twirling the end of it around her finger. “Not the torture itself, of course! That isn’t silly at all. I was writing mindlessly of the details, and when I looked down, I realized I had written that the man had been…tongue-tied—” Another haphazard giggle burst out of her, and she clapped a hand over her mouth.

He stared again; this time, his lips parted on an exhale of disbelief. “Tongue…tied?”

“You know! The expression about when you cannot think of what to say and your tongue gets twisted around? And then I laughed because this man would not sayanythingbecause…you, uh—killed him,” she finished, sounding sheepish, though still battering him with that wide smile.

He could feel his own mouth tugging up at the corners so abruptly he had to turn away.

“I am sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to offend you with my musings.”

“You didn’t,” he replied roughly, hating that she had such an effect on him.

Thankfully, there were few witnesses. Only a couple of workers were lingering, all appearing to be gathering their things. Including Rebecka Erring, watching the two of them with eyes that noticed far more than was comfortable.

“Do you ever get tongue-tied, sir?”

Her unexpected question pulled him from the confines of his mind, floundering, as he couldn’t recall the last time anyone had asked him anything of a personal nature. Even more so when he realized it had been completely unmarred by any sense of fear. No, there was only curiosity in the blue eyes blinking back at him.

“What do you think, Sage?” he drawled, burying the eagerness for her answer so far beneath the earth, it would take splitting it in half to uncover.

She took him in, and he resisted the urge to straighten his shoulders, wondering what it was she saw. “I’m not sure,” she finally said. “To be honest,I’venever been tongue-tied a day in my life, but I think that’s due to speaking before my brain catches up to my mouth.”

He had come to know this about her. It had, in its own disgusting sort of way, become endearing—if anything could be so to a man born for evil. But her lack of pretense was refreshing…and so innocent he often wondered how she’d made it this far in life without disaster.