Page 130 of Adversary to the Villain

“Or just a gift for being evil.”

“I’d mark them the same.” Trystan shrugged, his smile falling when he found a tear running down her cheek. Damn it. “Hey.” He turned her face gently toward him, and that made the tears come faster, leaving hot, angry streaks down her face. “What is it?”

“It just feels too terrible to be real. That I can love you and you can love me and yet it’ll still end terribly. I know everything out of my father’s mouth is a strategy, an attempt to do damage. But it doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

His hand cupped the back of her neck, slowly moving her toward the table pushed up against the wall. “It’s not true. What did he say to you?”

She smiled sadly. “Oh, the usual. We’re doomed to become enemies. Any efforts to the contrary will be in vain. I leave a trail of destruction in my wake, and one day, just like everyone else, you will grow tired of it, and you will leave.”

He released her, his face twisted in anger when he walked to the porthole, looking out at the thrashing waves. “I can’t wait to be off this fucking boat.”

“So you can leave me?” she joked, laughing through the words, her mind trying to test the waters of them. Her heart repelled the notion, but not as much as Trystan, who spun around so fast and angrily, she stumbled back.

“Is that really what you think?” He stalked closer, face darkening with each step, and not for the first time, Evie felt a sick thrill. The sort that overtakes you when facing off with an adversary. “That we’re leading to an end in which…I abandon you?”

“It was just a joke.” She chuckled nervously, fiddling with the ends of her curls.

“No. It wasn’t.” He stared deeply into her eyes, like her soul was bared before him and there was not a corner of it that he could not see. She couldn’t handle it for long, her gaze falling down to the light-pink floorboards. “Look at me,” he ordered.

“No.”

“Look at me.” He was angry, but it was soft. She’d seen his anger volatile, but this wasn’t that. This was a quiet rage. “Evangelina.”

“What?” She landed her gaze upon his face, throwing her hands in the air. “What? You want me to say I’m scared? Fine, I’m scared! I’m trying to be this new version of myself, and I don’t know how. I have dark magic and I have a destiny I never knew about, but I’m still who I’ve always been! I don’t know how to reconcile them, and I don’t know how to reconcile that a man I had to fight tooth and nail to acknowledge his own feelings hasn’t already given up on me.”

He smiled, and it was terrifying. “You’re afraid because you know the truth.”

Evie swallowed, a small sound coming from the back of her throat when he gripped her cheeks and pulled her closer to his mouth, hovering just above her lips. “What—What truth?” she whispered.

“You know,” he rumbled. “Say it.”

The command was firm, calm, grounding her where she stood.

“That no matter what I do, no matter where I go, whatever heinous acts I commit or pain I turn to humor, you will never care if I’m the worst person in the world.” Her heart pinched as his dark stare bore into hers. “You won’t leave.”

The realization settled in, and she let herself believe it, ignoring the shields to protect herself, to protect her heart. It was useless anyway; he was already there, holding it.

But then he released her, the flame in her blood cooling to confusion. “You just said— Where are you going? We’re not going to…”

He gave her a crooked grin, grabbing one of the blankets she’d placed on the bed. “We’re not going to what?”

Her face heated, and her skin prickled with embarrassment. “Play…checkers?”

“I don’t think I can in good conscience succumb to my extreme desire to”—he paused thoughtfully, and the boyish, playful look upon his face made her feel lighter—“playcheckers.” He walked toward the door with composure that annoyed her.

Mostly because she was coming undone like a poorly tied ribbon.

“There are Valiant Guards crawling all over this ship,” Trystan continued, “and these cabin doors do not lock. I intend to remain posted outside in case any of them forget there is to be no violence on board.”

“You can guard me from in here,” she protested.

His gaze was a caress, from her legs to her chest until he settled on her face. “If I remain in here, I won’t be guarding you.”

He didn’t need to say what he’d be doing instead; she could see it in the heat of his gaze. “Meet me on the ship deck just before sunrise,” Trystan requested, opening the door and stepping into the hall.

Evie frowned. “Why?”

“We need to strategize how we’ll get to the Garden of Rennedawn before the rest of them.”