Page 29 of Assistant to the Villain

They hadn’t spoken since.

It usually took Evie about an hour each morning and each evening to take every hidden shortcut off the regular pathways to the hidden veil of The Villain’s castle. But they were taking the long way, down the dirt path, and Evie wanted desperately to fill the uncomfortable silence.

She hated quiet.

It was quiet the last time she saw her brother. It was quiet the day her mother left. It was quiet when her father got sick. The quiet had brought her so much pain. An instinctual part of Evie shrank from it, waiting for the next blow.

She distracted herself with the pull of the leather reins in his black gloved hands. He handled the vehicle with grim determination, his face focused on the road before them and the fast-setting sun.

Evie pulled her eyes away to look at Kingsley, who sat perched on a small stand that she was certain had been put there solely for the frog’s use. “Do you bring Kingsley for carriage rides often?” she asked.

Her boss didn’t look at her or their web-toed friend as he said, “Even I am not so evil that I won’t allow him a little…sunlight.” He paused, almost choking on the last word. “Anyhow, the more freedoms I give him, the fewer escape attempts the little nuisance makes.” There was a pointed look between The Villain and the frog. Kingsley broke first, turning his tiny body back to the scenery.

“Thank you for doing this, but my ankle is fine now; I could’ve walked.” Her braid was nearly undone, loose wisps of her black hair tickling her neck.

“I didn’t realize you don’t ride.” He didn’t look at her, and his grip on the reins tightened.

“I have. Once or twice, but there’s no way my family could afford a mount. Let alone a place to house the poor creature. Besides, I like to walk.”

He nodded, seemingly to himself. “Of course. Who doesn’t enjoy a two-hour jaunt every day.”

Evie couldn’t think of an appropriate response to that, or even an inappropriate one, which meant the situation was truly dire.

But he seemed to find the silence as intolerable as she did, because he spoke before she could blunder through another sentence. “Do you still keep that dagger in your boot?”

It took her a moment to process what he was asking and how he could possibly know about her one and only weapon, but then she remembered all those months ago. “Yes…I do, though not the same one. I never picked it up after—”

He was nodding before she finished. “Good. You shouldn’t be walking these woods alone, unprotected.” The Villain finally turned his head in her direction, a sly smile on his lips. “You never know what kind of menacing characters you’ll find.”

She’d meant to make a lighthearted joke, but the words came out far more serious than she’d intended. “Oh, I don’t know. It worked out well for me the first time.”

It was the wrong thing to say.

The smile slipped from his lips, and any levity between them was suddenly weighted with the events of the day. “I would hardly call nearly dying ‘well,’ Sage.”

With a light clicking from his lips, the horses trotted into a canter. He was eager to be rid of her.

“Ah, but I didn’t die, so it worked out as well as one could hope—well, given the new job requirement and all. Good thing I was looking for employ, now wasn’t it?”Shut up, Evie.

He seemed to contemplate his next words very carefully, tilting his head to the side as if trying to make sense of them.

“If you would like to resign… It would be anextremeinconvenience for me. However, given your work performance and the dedication you’ve given the company, I would accommodate you.”

A roaring panic began low in her gut and bloomed up through her chest like a poisonous weed.

“I don’t want to resign!” In her rush to get the words out, she stood suddenly, nearly tipping over the edge when the carriage hit a large dip in the road. Kingsley made a gurgled sound of outrage as Evie wobbled.

Swiftly, The Villain grabbed both reins with one hand, reaching for her arm and pulling her down. “I didn’t mean to cause an upset. I was merely giving you the option.”

“Well, you did cause an upset! Ineedthis job, you selfish bastard.” His eyebrows shot high at her words, but she didn’t care; she was too upset, her heart racing at the idea of not being able to feed her family or afford medicine for her father.

“I would of course set you up with a fair amount of severance pay. Enough to keep you and your family comfortable for the next couple of years while you find other employment.” He said the words too casually, like they were something he’d practiced.

Which only made her angrier.

“I am not a charity case,” she said flatly.

“What did I do that gave you the impression that I am in the habit of charity?” He looked as offended as she felt. “I was giving you an option because you’ve done good work and have been loyal. You also saved my office and staff from a bomb today. It is not personal, so do not take it as such.”