Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant and the Villain, #3)(95)

Good. He needs one. 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?”

He picked her up by the waist and swung her away when another ball of fire shot right for where she was standing. “Sage, there’s nothing we can do for these people. The bird’s magic is running out of control. Unless you’re comfortable killing it? In which case you should know it will only reanimate a few minutes later. Angrier, I’d guess.”

She held on to his shoulder to steady herself and stood firm. “I won’t leave these people.”

“Why?” Trystan yelled. “You don’t know them, and they wouldn’t do this for you.”

Evie held his gaze, trapping him with her eyes. “I’m not doing this because of what they’d do. I’m doing it because it’s what I do.”

An impassible barrier erected behind his eyes as he processed her decision. As the words sank in, he gave her one stiff nod before gingerly helping her up onto his horse. Her mare had long since bolted in the other direction. “All right, Sage,” The Villain said as he swung into the saddle behind her. “If we’re to do a good deed, I suppose we have an edge that the Valiant Guards don’t.”

She gave him a curious smile. “And what’s that?”

He smiled back, dimple out in full force. Or was the blood loss merely giving her some pleasant hallucinations? But she knew it was real, as only Trystan Maverine would take this much pleasure in what he said next.

“We don’t play fair.”

The black mist followed them as they galloped toward the creature. “Sir. Your magic. Should I get some distance?”

“No,” he said resolutely, “it’s unpredictable with you, but it’s powerful. That’s the only thing that will help us in this situation.”

Evie’s dagger glowed, and so did her scar as they neared the phoenix. Evie hardly noticed the pain in her leg anymore, which meant either the wound wasn’t as bad as she’d predicted or it was significantly worse.

As an optimist, she pretended it was the former.

“What’s the plan?” Evie asked uneasily as their horse came to a sudden stop, the large bird having suddenly landed right in front of them. Menacing anger emanated from it in waves of fire. But to Evie, it mostly looked…sad.