Page 41 of Accomplice to the Villain

Fuck. You.

Staring into her eyes, searching for it, trying to find the lie, desperately. But there was no lie—only the bare, honest truth of her words, her feelings. And then she said it again. “I love you, Trystan, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

He grabbed both her cheeks in his hands and crushed his lips back to hers. He shut his eyes tight, the way he did when he was in pain. Trying to show her with everything he had that he loved her, too. The destiny monster may have decided their fate, but it couldn’t have his mind, his thoughts, his kiss. And Trystan used all of them in that moment to show Evie he loved her more than life, more than breath…more than death. Kissing her more deeply, like he was defying the gods, defying destiny, defying everything that had ever told him he didn’t deserve the precious thing he held in his hands.

He didn’t need to deserve her. He was The Villain. He could take her, and she could take him—

A loud animal screech wrenched them apart, both breathless as the archway above—the very same one that had been rebuilt perhaps a dozen times since Trystan had taken over the manor—collapsed in a swarm of dark-gray mist.

They separated as quickly as they had come together, every part of his body screaming to rejoin hers, but that wasn’t possible.

Because in the short moments they had been lost in each other…the entire courtyard had been overrun. By Trystan’s magic.

“What did you do?” Sage asked, her lush mouth swollen from his kiss, lips forming a little O.

He sputtered, looking at her, trying fruitlessly to call his magic back. “I didn’t do anything, you menace! You kissed me first!”

She shoved his shoulder, and her touch burned. “You didn’t have to kiss me back!”

“Yes! I did!” he yelled, and that—miraculously—knocked her silent.

His magic retreated, and Fluffy, who’d been sleeping peacefully under one of the awnings, whined. The grate covering the male guvre’s enclosure shook and rattled with a loud groan.

Blade bolted out the back doors, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. “What happened?”

The mist of Trystan’s magic began to dissipate slowly, coming back to him in waves. And he could tell that Blade saw his magic in all its glory. Along with Sage and Trystan looking red-faced, guilty, and…unkempt.

Standing next to two violently unsettled animals.

Gushiken squinted, tossing the rest of the sandwich in Fluffy’s direction and brushing his hand against his red-and-violet sleep shirt. “I’m not sure I’m supposed to ask?”

“If you do, I will ram that sandwich down your throat,” Trystan growled.

Blade opened his mouth with a suggestive grin that made Trystan’s blood boil. “Funny. Was your tongue just down Evie’s—”

But he didn’t finish, because Sage dove around Trystan to close her hand over the dragon trainer’s lips. Hands that had been around Trystan’s neck moments prior. Until his magic and reality interceded and ruined everything.

It’s not the magic, his conscience argued.It’s you.

His mother’s ugly words the day he left with Alexander’s cursed frog body in tow reared their head for the first time in years.

You’ve always had the habit of ruining everything and everyone, haven’t you?

“Settle Fluffy, Gushiken. I’ll see to the guvre,” Trystan said gruffly, striding toward the guvre’s grate, a sting burning behind his eyes that made him feel weak and foolish.

“Trystan,” Sage called after him.

“Not now, Sage,” he said, emotionless, not looking back.

Not ever again.

Chapter 21

Kingsley

Alexander Kingsley found Trystan exactly where he thought he would. In a puddle of his own regrets.

A metaphorical puddle, of course. Alexander was the one sitting in an actual puddle adjacent to the guvre’s cage. Trystan had one hand on the bar of the enclosure and one clutched to his chest. “I know you’re in pain. I know. I’m sorry for it,” Trystan rasped at the moaning animal.