Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant and the Villain Book 3)

Evienoveldrama

“You have a lovely home,” Evie said, because honestly, everyone looked so somber, it was either give an out-of-place compliment or start dancing as strangely as possible.

The king and queen had aged into late adulthood with elegance and grace. Gray streaks were bound with jewels at Queen Brina’s hair, and there were soft lines in her cheeks and at the corners of her eyes. Places where the best and worst parts of your life left their mark.

“Yes,” Trystan added blandly. “My favorite room so far has been the one filled with people who want to kill us.”

Evie winced, shrugging at the soldiers with their weapons raised. “I know he sounds sarcastic, but he probably means that.”

A Lily Pad Knight ran right for Evie, causing her shoulder to tingle and her dagger to pulse underneath her skirt. She frowned. The dagger didn’t come right to her as it normally did. “Stop, if you please!” Evie held out her hand, and by some miracle—or perfectly executed delusion—the knight halted.

“Just hold on,” Evie ordered, hopping on one foot, trying to reach the harness at her thigh without pulling her skirt up too far. She’d ditched the pants that went below the skirt back at the barn because they’d been torn off and…ruined.

The entire room didn’t know what to do with the display. The dagger finally came free, and The Villain’s magic slithered away from it, like shadows receding in the light. “Got it!” Evie smiled brightly at the knight, who had lifted his helmet halfway up to stare at her, slack-jawed. Evie winced. “Sorry. You may run at me again. I’ll act surprised this time.”

The knight in question blew air out through his lips. “Uh, no. That’s all right.”

“Sage?”

“Yes, sir— Ahhh!” Evie yelped as the boss whipped out an arm, dragging her two inches closer as an arrow zipped past where she had just stood.

“Enough.” The king knocked his staff against the floor, and the ground rattled with it. “Bring in the enchantress.”

The enchantress?

“They’re helping us?” Evie asked, holding her dagger high when one of the knights came too close.

“No,” Winnie said hollowly. “No. They are not.”

Evie’s mother had told her many stories of enchantresses. Women who could cast spells and twine enchantments about the land, leaving joy and goodness in their wake. As she got older, the world’s opinion of them had not been as kind, but Evie never lost that vision in her mind.

Of a vibrant, beautiful woman bending the kingdom to her will.

This woman was beautiful but vibrant no longer. Her skin was an unnatural pale, cracked lips in a grimace, light eyes squinting into the small amount of sunset coming in through the large windows.

“Let me die now; if that is your command, I care no longer,” the enchantress Belinda rasped.

“You aren’t dying,” Queen Brina said with firm fairness. “Not yet.” The queen stood, and everyone straightened as she descended the small steps from her throne to the raised platform. “What was meant to be a day of justice for my late son has turned into a game of politics. I have missives squawking about a tip that The Villain and his accomplice are trying to save my son’s murderer from execution, and now I have you all spilling into my throne room from an entry point only the royal family has access to.”

Three knights surged forward, all holding Trystan in their clutches.

“Your Majesty, you don’t understand,” Evie reasoned. “The enchantress did not kill your son! He’s the one who brought us here!”

The king’s face turned red. “You— You dare to insinuate such a thing?”

The queen stopped just before Evie. Her crown was strange. It looked a little like a basket, wicker woven artfully throughout, adorned with lilies.

“Allow me to take them away, Your Majesty,” the leader of the Lily Pad Knights offered. “These traitors are fugitives of Rennedawn, and their crimes were committed there. It will be our responsibility to bring them before the law.”

“I committed crimes here, too,” Evie said under her breath, glaring when The Villain pinched her arm.

“You will not take anyone away until I have my answers.” Queen Brina seemed to possess this rare ability to make everyone feel warm around her—and scared.

Evie loved it, actually.

“My son was killed by this woman in an assassination plot against the crown, and it appears she had help. By those my son called his friends.”

“You’re wrong, Queen Brina.” Clare shut her eyes tight, like she was preparing herself for impact. She opened them once more, resolve replacing trepidation. “It was me. I wanted my brother to be anything but The Villain, so I enlisted Belinda’s help to save him from my mother. But there was an accident. Alexander arrived before my brother, and—”

“I find that interesting,” Queen Brina said, “considering your mother was the one who told us you were coming.”

Amara walked out of the shadows, and Arthur flinched, whispering pain-laced words. “No. Amara.”

Amara folded her arms. There was a small crack in her composure as she looked down upon the people she had so easily betrayed. “I had an obligation, Arthur. To save the king and queen from what my children had become.” The king nodded at Amara with admiration.

“You will be rewarded for your service to our kingdom, Mistress Maverine.”

Amara smiled like that was exactly what she was hoping for, and the group watched as Arthur’s heart broke at the betrayal.

Trystan moved, placing a hand on his father’s shoulder. Arthur’s eyes gleamed into his as he nodded an acknowledgment of the gesture.

There was a way to fix all this.

“He’s a frog,” Evie blurted. Finding Kingsley in the corner, she hurried over to him, but she was stopped by a very tall Lily Pad Knight. “Can you scooch a little to the left, please?”

The knight did, causing a wave of murmurs among them at the sign of deference. “Gotcha!” Evie put both hands around Kingsley and held him up for the entire room to see. “Behold! Prince Alexander Kingsley.”

“That is a frog,” one of the Lily Pad Knights whispered, before getting elbowed in the gut by the bigger one.

“How foolish do you think we are, Ms. Sage?” The king descended to stand next to the queen. His eyes were tired, his posture that of a man who’d been beaten down more than once over the years. “That we would believe such a farce?”

“It’s true,” Evie pleaded. “Look into his eyes. Can’t you tell? The enchantment Belinda conjured was an entrapment. He’s been stuck like this for ten years, and only she can undo it. Belinda?” Evie asked the enchantress. “Show them. Undo his curse. Give her the wand, Winnifred.”

Belinda was frightened, flinching, but stared up at her daughter with wide, searching eyes. “Winnie?” She took three steps away, and one of the knights pressed an electric rod against her back. She cried out, sinking to the floor.

“Mother!” Winnie rushed to her, handing her the wand. “Do it. Change him.”

Her mother shook her head. “I cannot, Winnie. You don’t understand.”

“You must,” Trystan gritted out. “There is no alternative.”

“Trystan Maverine,” Queen Brina called, then folded her lips inward. “It’s hard to believe that such a sweet, quiet boy would grow up to become one of the most feared men in Rennedawn. In all the continent.”

“It shouldn’t be. I won Most Likely to Do Bad Things at the village school’s graduation,” Trystan said frankly. Evie couldn’t tell if he was joking.

Queen Brina contemplated them all, then the frog in Evie’s grasp. “Prove that this is my son trapped in the body of a frog. Prove it, and I’ll allow the enchantress to go free—after she reverts him into a man.”

Evie smiled, feeling hope. “I have just the way. Sir, a sign?” One was already in her hand before she finished her request. She removed a vase from a pillar, then placed Kingsley atop the marble pedestal so he could be eye level with his parents. “Go on, Kingsley. Show them—show your parents that it’s you.”

There was a surge of sweeping anticipation, the entire room quieting, everyone waiting with bated breath.

But Kingsley did nothing.

“Alexander,” Trystan called, but there was no answer. Just a wide-eyed frog staring back at them, through them. He was blank, no gold left in his eyes—only black. “No,” Trystan bellowed. “No. Alexander, come back. Come back now.”

But there was no answer. No blinking to awareness, no sudden startled awakening from the magic that had faded in him. There was no Kingsley; there was no prince.

There was only a frog.

“Is he gone?” Clare’s eyes welled with tears. “Is that it? He’s not going to come back this time?”

“I’ve had enough of this farce!” the king cried. “This was a brutality. Dangling the possibility of our son before us and then taking it away. Let it be over.”

“Gavin,” Queen Brina said hesitantly. “Please calm.”

The king looked to the Valiant Guards and the Lily Pad Knights, ignoring the queen’s request. “Kill the enchantress. It is done.”

It was only a second after the order was given, with no time for protests. No time to react. No time to beg or scream or ask kindly that they don’t.

Because in one moment, the enchantress was thrown to the ground, and in the next, she was turned…to stone.

Winnie screamed, and Tatianna wrapped her arms around her, dragging her away. “Don’t look.” This was worse than death. Her mother frozen forever on her knees, with the fear of her final moments displayed for the entire room.

The queen shook her head, like the whole scene was distasteful to her. “Take them away to the dungeons and send missives to King Benedict that we have his Villain in custody.”

One of the Lily Pad Knights ran for the large open doors, but he only made it three feet—

Before the windows above the throne room shattered and a large creature came hurtling through.

Glass flew everywhere. Trystan’s arms fell over Evie’s head, guarding her with his body. A familiar creature landed right in the middle of the room as the Lily Pad Knights scattered, several of them ushering the king and queen to safety.

“I said to go through the front door, Fluffy!” Blade scolded, and Evie was so relieved to hear his voice, she clutched at Trystan’s shirt and cried.

“Evie!” Lyssa was on Fluffy’s back, too, along with Becky, who was looking at the damages like she was going to lose it. Lyssa slid down Fluffy’s wing and ran for Evie, and Evie ran for Lyssa.

When they finally had their arms around each other, Evie squeezed her sister tight. “You saved us, Lyssa.”

There was so much loss in the room, so much they would never get back, but there’d always be this. Her sister, her family—and if Evie had her, there was still a reason to continue.

Lyssa pulled away and tugged a crinkled piece of paper from her pocket. “Second Rule of Villainy. Protect what you love most. No matter the cost.”

Evie spied the list and gave Trystan a shrewd look. “Interesting teatime discussions?”

Trystan crossed his arms, unamused. “Little villain. What is the sixth rule?”

Lyssa scanned the paper, eyes widening when she found it. “Don’t tell anyone about the Rules of Villainy… Oh. Oops.” She clasped her small hands behind her back, her braid moving over her shoulder.

“Wicked Woman!” Evie turned her head just in time for a Lily Pad Knight to throw a blade right for her chest. She gasped. And then Arthur was in front of her, eyes wide as the sword struck.

No.

Evie’s eyes burned as shock settled into her bones. Arthur’s brows furrowed as he looked down and saw that the sword had gone right through his stomach.

Blood trickled out of his mouth.

And then he fell.

“Arthur,” Amara rasped, showing her first signs of humanity, outside of her self-serving actions. She lurched toward her husband, fingers closing around her lips.

“Get away!” Clare screamed at Amara. “Stay away from all of us. You awful bitch,” Clare said with more disdain toward her mother then Evie had ever seen. Amara stumbled back, stunned. Clare yelled, “Oh, gods. The blood. Tatianna.”

“Get him on Fluffy. Quick!” Tatianna’s hand was over her mouth when she saw the sword, how deep it was.

“I can’t. Ugh.” Arthur fell into Evie as they helped him atop the dragon. “I can’t feel my legs.”

All sounds became muffled, like they were underwater.

“Time to go!” Trystan said hollowly, picking up Evie in one arm and Lyssa in the other, tossing them toward the dragon in a siege of flying arrows. “Blade!”

“Ready, boss!” Blade saluted as they climbed atop Fluffy’s back. The throne room was in chaos as they shot for the skylight.

They were getting away. And Evie didn’t understand, didn’t know why it felt like the blood was seeping from her. She looked down at Arthur as Tatianna worked, lit hands moving over the wound.

But, for the first time since Evie met her, Tatianna did not look confident. She looked like she was already in mourning.

“Why did you do that?” Evie asked Arthur. “Why would you— I don’t understand.”

Arthur smiled, coughing, blood coating his lips. Then he looked at Trystan, who gripped his hand, face hard. “I was a bad father to you.”

Trystan shook his head. “Arthur—”

“No, I was. I married your mother because I thought it was the right thing, and I spent the most vital years of your life absent. I should’ve been there for you.” Arthur groaned in pain when Tatianna removed the sword. He squeezed Trystan’s hand tighter. “I should never have done that. I think I was afraid of what would happen if you found out the truth, but that was my burden. I never should’ve made it yours.”

“What? What truth?” Trystan asked.

Arthur coughed, blood vessels bursting in his eyes. “When I married your mother. She was already pregnant…with you.”

Trystan paled, releasing Arthur’s hand. “What are you saying?”

“I wasn’t your sire. But I was your father, Trystan. I was.” Arthur reached for him, and Trystan stared into the distance, looking queasy. Evie felt her face flush, and she was terribly unsure of what to do, all the words she could say catching in her throat as Arthur found his. “I should have been better, should’ve protected you from your mother’s resentment. But despite all our failings, nothing could stop you from becoming what you were always meant to be.”

Trystan blinked back into awareness, staring down at Arthur as his father finished with a smile.

“Remarkable.”

A slow tear spilled down Trystan’s cheek, and he swiped at it, nostrils flaring. “Thank you for saving her,” he whispered.

“A life without love is an empty one, Trystan. You can live your years without me, but not without her. Don’t leave behind regrets. I have three children who grew into fine adults. I can go happy.”

“No,” Clare argued, pushing damp strands back from Arthur’s forehead. “No. Tatianna’s going to heal you, and you’re going to be fine. Right, Tati?”

Tatianna sniffed, rubbing a hand at the tears spilling down her cheeks. “The blade was tipped with poison. There’s too much damage, love. He’s going now—I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“No! You can! You’re a healer!” Clare screamed. “Please, Tati, I know I’m a terrible person and a terrible sister, but Arthur is good. Arthur is good, and he deserves to live. Please!”

“Clarissa.” Tatianna reached for her, and Clare fought her, slamming her hands against Tatianna’s chest until she fell headfirst into it, sobbing.

When Evie looked back at Arthur, his eyes were closed, his chest not moving.

The core healer was gone.

And it was all Evie’s fault.