Page 155 of Adversary to the Villain

And yet not a single knight could be seen ambling down the dirt path.

“What happened to my Valiant Guards?” he demanded with every ounce of royal domineering in him.

“Oh, they’re around,” she said airily, unaffected by his harshness. She looked amused. Trystan was unsure if he was dealing with a true perpetrator of evil until she finished with, “Hanging around, to be exact.”

His blood chilled.

With a cold sweat starting at the back of his neck, a block of lead dropping into his stomach, he turned on his heel, walking—no, running—back up the path that led to his men. And there they hung. By their toenails.

All alive.

And yelling like they’d been skinned.

(They hadn’t.)

His first question should’ve been where she found her never-ending audacity. Instead, what spilled out was, “How did you get them up there?” He stared, incredulous.

“Oh, it was nothing.” She sounded bashful, and he found her cheeks flushed with red. “An old parlor trick, really.”

“I wasn’tcomplimentingyou,” he bit out. Until he realized…he wasn’tnotcomplimenting her, either. But he wasn’t quite so far gone that he’d allow himself to admit that. Aloud. “I was asking so I can ensure you never do it again.”

She gasped, her eyes glassy when she looked away. A small sniffle escaped her nose that made him feel like a caged animal. “You’re not crying.” He willed it because she couldn’t be. He refused to dispatch The Villainess when said villainess was overwrought. “You cannot be crying.”

Another small sob escaped her, and then that horrible, delightful laughter got sprinkled in again, her false emotions slipping away to reveal her genuine, blinding joy. “My goodness. Are you always this easy, Your Highness?”

“Are you always this difficult?” he volleyed, his eyes catching on the red flush at her chest, the way it went lower and lower until it dipped somewhere beneath her bodice.

“Most definitely,” she answered gleefully, then twirled a finger around one of her curls, and he found himself transfixed.

This woman is a villainess indeed.

I have to get the fuck out of here.

“Sire! A little help?”

The call was from one of the Valiant Guards, still hanging upside down. “Yes, yes, man, give me a moment.” But when he turned back to The Villainess, she was gone, racing in the other direction. “Hey!” he bellowed, feeling more frantic than was likely necessary. He didn’t need frantic energy right now; he needed anger. He needed motivation to catch and destroy her. Instead, he found himself running at top speed, launching his large body atop hers until they both tumbled to the ground. He rolled, trying to take the brunt of the hit when they landed, the pain against his shoulder enough to rob him of breath.

“Hello.” She blinked up at him, her eyes so wide that he swore he saw a reflection of his soul in them. He had to look away. “Is there something you wanted? I really have a lot to do today, so I needed to be off posthaste.”

“I arrested you. You can’t leave.”

“Oh, apologies.” She tried to look chastised, but he saw right through her. “I’d forgotten. Is tackling people to the ground part of the arresting process? Or perhaps you’re just the sort to take advantage of your position to accost women?”

He shoved himself up onto his hands. “No! How dare you.”

“Or perhaps your desire is to accost me specifically? Humiliation is always a worthy punishment.”

“Certainly not,” he growled, shoving off her so fast he nearly fell backward. “I would never— How dare you insinuate—”

“I’m sorry.” It was amazing how she could go from mocking cruelty to genuine softness within seconds. “I shouldn’t have said that; it was unkind. I don’t even know you. I react poorly when I feel overpowered.”

The statement did unconscionable things to his heart, as did the cry out of her mouth when she was suddenly dragged up by her hair and clamped in iron chains. “Got her! I have her, Your Highness!” One of the Valiant Guard captains, Meenka, shoved his hand over The Wicked Woman’s throat and pulled her to his chest with a smarmy, pleased laugh.

They’d captured her.

It was confusing to Trystan why this achievement felt very much like a horrible failure.

Chapter 82