Page 88 of Adversary to the Villain

Chapter 43

Evie

“Run it back from the beginning, boys! We’re on in three days! I’m going to need you to get your shit together or get the deadlands off my stage!”

Evie’s cousin Helena was, in a word, terrifying. The actors scurried about like worker ants across the wide stage at even the hint of her displeasure, all jumping at her barking orders except the men playing security at the back entrance.

“I should’ve just remained at your house. This feels risky,” Evie pressed, shame and guilt pressing in, too, pushing on her lungs until no air remained.

Oh my gods, she’d fucked up.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Helena flipped her thick, dark hair behind her shoulders, fiddling with the sapphire dangling from her neck. “The Heart Village is in public opposition to King Benedict. We border two kingdoms, he cannot make any orders on our soil, and nobody here would report you.”

Helena slapped her forehead when Fritz, Evie’s former kidnapper from her first visit to the Heart Village, stumbled over his lines on the stage. It was outlandish to think, but her memories of that jaunt, of nearly dying with Trystan in the theater’s dungeon, now felt like a happier, simpler time.

Trystan.He’d survived what she’d done to him—physically, at least. Her heart spoke gently to her that he’d forgive her, that he’d understand. He’d stood by her through every ounce of hardship. What was one more? They’d finally agreed to move forward together.

And I nearly stabbed him in the heart.

There was no need to take a match to her life. It was already burning.

As was the disastrous play she was witnessing.

Two more men she recognized were dressed for some sort of horror spectacle, the gory makeup taking a back seat to their beaming grins. “Hello, Ms. Sage!” It was one of the larger goons; she tilted her head, certain it was the same man who had gagged her during her first visit.

She made to greet him in her usual friendly manner, because really, that was hardly the worst thing that’d been done to her in the past few weeks. But before she could, one of the other actor/kidnappers elbowed him in the gut.

“Oi! No one’s supposed to know she’s here, dunderhead.”

“I know that! That’s why I didn’t say her first name!”

“I’m surrounded by buffoons.” Helena groaned into her hands, not moving a single muscle when the men broke into fisticuffs.

“Should we stop them?”

“The men in this play are meant to be torn from battle. We’re really just saving the makeup department time.” Her cousin sighed, her eyes going to the gray corners of her theater, moving over the walls. Color remained, magic still present, but it was growing fainter by the day. Evie had yet to be there a full seven days and had already watched that gray patch grow farther on the wall like a spider’s web.

You fucked up, Evie.

“I ran, Helena,” Evie said quietly, feeling her heart seize and her stomach fill with rocks. The cool air coming in through the open windows blew against the sweat at her neck, chilling her. “I’m no better than my mother.”

“Evie.” Helena looked at her, unamused. “You sent a detailed note to Gideon with instructions for every possible situation after the missive arrived with Trystan’s status of life, and then exchanged several more with him to check in. You’ve been gone seven days. Aunt Nura left fortenyears.”

Evie flinched, feeling the dark magic rising in her chest, but it was almost instantly pushed down, blocked by the bridge trolls’ magic ever since she’d entered the village. “I was still a coward,” she whispered, because she had been. She’d given up.

“I think you’ve earned a few days of cowardice, cousin.” Helena began to roam the theater, ticking things off on her clipboard, inspecting safety equipment. Evie followed her like she did when they were little girls. “You’re undergoing quite the career change. Assistant to Villain in a matter of months? You’ll make movers and shakers inFairy Tale Weekly.” Helena laughed.

Evie squinted her eyes and scrunched her nose. “No. Don’t be alarmed. I’m laughing on the inside,” she muttered dryly, bumping her cousin with her shoulder when she heard her answering snort.

“So you’re being labeled the kingdom’s doom. Who cares? You’re a woman in possession of great power being torn down by some insecure men. I know you’re traumatized and all, but that doesn’t actually make you special. That happens all the time.”

“Oh, sure.” Evie waved a hand. “A casual Friday.”

Helena snapped, grinning. “Now you’ve got it. Oh. I meant to ask—how attached are you to your fingers?”

Evie looked left to right. “Is this leading to a dirty joke? Where’s Douglas and his notebook?” The glaring man was nowhere to be found, nor was his tiny book he was constantly writing in. A shame—she was on a roll.

“No, I just figured with the bounty on your head, they might give us half the reward money for a body part you wouldn’t miss.”