Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Evie

Night had fallen on Massacre Manor once again. The Malevolent Guards were all recovering, as was the office—the damage from the fire and the battle was being repaired to restore the manor’s former glory.

“Maybe we should go in there,” Tatianna said warily, kicking out a stiletto boot, arms folded across her chest as she cocked an ear toward the door.

“Give him a chance! It sounds like it’s going well,” Blade said with an optimistic gleam in his eye.

Crash.

Gideon and Evie shared a glance before Gideon nodded toward the room and gave her a look that said, Get in there.

Evie grimaced and lightly pushed against the door. “Perhaps I’ll just make sure everything—”

The door slammed open, nearly knocking into her head.

And what they saw on the other side— Blade gripped her arm to keep himself from falling over. “How quickly do you think we could get a portrait artist in here?” he asked.

No artist could ever do the scene justice; there was simply too much to capture.

Standing in the doorway of Evie and Lyssa’s chambers was The Villain, face reddened with anger. The color was a contrast to the large pink hat that sat atop his head, feathers coming out of it from every direction. He looked like a deranged pink chicken. Kingsley sat upon his shoulder, crown still perched on his small green brow, but it was now paired with a tiny handkerchief fastened into a dress.

Evie bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. “That’s, uh…a good look for you, sir,” she said, sounding strangled, stepping forward and reaching up to pluck a fallen feather from his shoulder.

He gave her a warning glance as he loomed over her, pointing what was meant to be a threatening finger in her face. “Be careful, Sage.” He seemed to remember himself and moved away as quickly as possible. It stung.

“Lord Trystan! The tea is almost ready. Please return to the table at once!” Lyssa ordered from inside the room.

Edwin came around the corner of the corridor. His new glasses were a perfect fit against his nose, and Evie thought he stood a little prouder for it as he handed Trystan a tray of artfully decorated pastries.

“Thank you, Edwin,” Trystan said quietly.

Edwin’s smile stretched wide as he tipped a blue hand in salute. “Only the best for Lady Lyssa and Lord Trystan’s tea party. Is this enough?”

Trystan nodded, inspecting each one with careful attention and focus that made Evie feel like the butterflies in her stomach were trying to make their way up her throat. “These will do nicely.”

He took the tray from Edwin’s hands and returned to the room. Edwin made to leave, and Evie called after him. “Edwin, I’m sorry, I never thanked you for making up a plate for me when I slept through dinner. It was delicious.” She grinned. “Some of your best work. I meant to tell you sooner.”

Edwin turned, face softened, glancing at where Trystan had been standing. He spoke slowly, as if he were trying to make her understand something. “I didn’t make any plates, Miss Evie.”

She shut her eyes tight, sucking in a breath as his meaning struck her. Her smile was sad, she knew, because her eyes burned.

Shaking the thoughts away—all of them—she entered the room, giving Blade a look of amused censure when he tried to follow before she shut the door. Lyssa sat in the middle of the bedchambers at a small table with even smaller chairs. She had no idea where Trystan would’ve scrounged up such a thing, or if he’d had someone go out and retrieve it specifically for this purpose, and she wasn’t certain which would defeat her heart more.

Everything he did now was dangerous. But he was pulling away from her; she felt it.

Don’t give your heart to the boss, Evie!

Too fucking late.

What an ill-fated pair the two of them were. She was so lost in that bittersweet ache, she was jarred when Lyssa screeched at Trystan, who had his teacup halfway to his lips. “No, Lord Trystan! You must pour for Miss Halliway first!”

He furrowed his brow adorably in confusion, his face such a comfort to her. It took all of Evie’s will not to lean forward and kiss him. “Who is Miss Halliway?” he asked. It was Kingsley who lifted a foot and pointed to the doll seated in the chair with a rather frightening expression plastered on her porcelain face.

“Oh.”

This was it. This was the line he’d draw; Evie was sure of it. He’d humored Lyssa this long—she’d give him the credit. The pain of betrayal and loss might never be gone, but at least her sister had been thoroughly assured that she was safe, treasured, and loved. Evie started to move toward the table to give her own attention to Miss Halliway, both to protect Lyssa’s feelings and to spare her boss the painful awkwardness, but she was stopped…

As Trystan Maverine, Evil Overlord, in his large, ridiculously frilly hat, picked up the flowery teapot and poured the tea, saying with a sternness that made her heart twist all over again, “My sincerest apologies, Miss Halliway. I usually have better manners.”

By the gods, she loved him.

She loved his smile and his rare laughter. She loved that in one moment he could be fiercely protective and in the next he could be soft and unsure. She loved that he understood her, perhaps better than anyone she’d ever known, that he made her importance known without placation. That he’d given her a reason to wake up in the morning, a reason to rush to get ready—not only to get to work (though she loved her work) but to get to him. There could never be another person in the whole of the world she could feel this way about.

And then she remembered his words.

We should keep our distance.

And as if he heard her thoughts, he turned to look at her with a grim expression. “Sage, I’ve been meaning to tell you. Along with your promotion, I took the liberty of having your desk moved to the alcove with all the windows, until we can have a proper office built for you.”

She gaped. The alcove was lovely, airy and spacious, and possibly as far away from his office as one could get. It had begun already, the distance. It would’ve hurt more if she didn’t notice that for someone getting their way, her boss looked like he’d just swallowed a thousand tiny shards of glass.

Something had happened. Something with the destiny monster—something he wasn’t telling her. She’d find out what it was, though, because if there was one good thing that she could wrench from all the pain, it was this. It was them.

And she was through not fighting for what she wanted.

She looked to him with pity. “You will regret that choice, I think.”

He speared her with a glare before turning to pour himself more tea from the pot. “I never regret anything.”

“Hmm,” she said, smiling wickedly. “Then I suppose I’ll just have to make you.”

He looked so startled, he nearly dropped the teapot as he returned it to the table with a clatter.

Lyssa didn’t notice. She was too busy tipping a teacup to Miss Halliway’s lips.

His dark eyes found Evie’s. He wet his lips before speaking, causing heat to spike in her blood. “You— I must have misheard you. What?”

It wasn’t a game; the confusion was genuine. But he’d heard her. Just was discomfited by the words. He wanted to run from her so fast that she’d see smoke coming out of his heels.

She didn’t repeat her declaration, just looked at him with disgruntled fondness. This was her first crack in his defenses. The first of many, she knew. “You heard me fine.”

His whisper back sounded painful, his eyes struck by surprise, befuddlement, and heart-stopping fear. “Do not start this, Sage.”

She laid a gentle hand over his, and a shock blazed up her arm at the contact. He flinched under her fingers but didn’t move away as he normally would—just sucked in a breath, his eyes intensely on her face as she said, “Worry not, Your Evilness. It’s already begun.”

He’s petrified.

She recalled a wish she’d made on a star not long ago and how it had come true. How the star had answered her… The words struck something, something nagging in her mind.

“I love this plate! It’s such a funny shape,” Lyssa said innocently.

Evie had allowed Lyssa to have the odd, dark crystal slab her mother had left behind for her. All signs of magic from it were gone, if there ever were any. Except perhaps the joy it gave to her younger sister. The shape was funny, Evie had to admit—and somehow familiar.

Lyssa dropped the plate and frowned down at the sugar bowl. “We are out of sugar!”

The Villain’s face was panicked for just a second before he checked himself into a neutral expression. Clearing his throat, he said, “I think we’ve already added a sufficient amount to our tea in any case.”

Lyssa pouted. “But the table doesn’t look as cute!” Her brown eyes widened as she snapped her fingers and pulled the vial of her mother’s stardust from her pocket. “We’ll use this!”

“Lyssa, don’t!” Evie called, frantic at the prospect of losing that last bit of her mother. But it was too late—in her haste to stop her sister, Evie had startled her instead; Lyssa dropped the vial, and it smashed right onto the oddly shaped crystal.

And then the room went startlingly bright.

Lyssa screamed, and so did Evie as they were both yanked to the ground and tucked beneath Trystan’s arms. “What happened!” he yelled as the light simmered out.

Evie was the first to peek her eyes open, scrambling up to look at the table and the slab of crystal, too. It glowed so brightly—but not brightly enough. “Sir, do we still have that bit of stardust left from the caves?”

He nodded, gently helping Lyssa to her feet before pulling the small vial out of his shirt from a thread around his neck. “There’s barely a thimbleful left.” He uncapped it and tapped the rest of the dust onto the jagged slab, and it glowed, complete and vibrant, changing from a dark, opaque nothingness to—

Midnight, with one bright glimmering star in the dead center.

Lyssa squinted over it. “It looks like a piece of sky.”

A piece of sky. And it struck Evie all at once. Every clue along their journey to find her mother. It had been written plainly in front of her the whole time.

The daughter of wishing stars.

She wanted to be swallowed by midnight.

Your mother’s starlight enveloped her.

Oh gods.

I have no name…by natural law, I can take none.

Wanting to be no one.

Harvested from the stars themselves.

The words and pieces filtered in all at once. Goose bumps rose on Evie’s bare arms as she knocked a small chair over, pacing the floor as one more defying sentence clattered in her mind.

I hope you will return to see them.

She knew why the shape of the slab was so familiar.

A large hand closed over her shoulder, and she turned to see Trystan’s face. “The daughter of wishing stars,” she whispered. “We have to go to the caves. I’ll explain on the way.”

Trystan’s eyes widened, shock and questions in his own fathomless gaze. “All right. Let’s go,” he said urgently, removing his tea party attire and carefully placing it on the table by Lyssa, and Evie’s heart warmed at his immediate trust.

Lyssa was incredulous, of course. “Why are you taking my plate? And what about our party?”

Evie knelt to be level with her sister. Kingsley hopped up beside them, holding up a sign that had a question mark on it. She placed a hand on her little sister’s cheek. “Lyssa, I promise Lord Trystan will have a tea party with you at least once a week from now until the end of time, but I’m afraid we need to end it early today. And I need to take this.”

Lyssa was confused but seemed satisfied with the bargain, since with a bite of a teacake she said, “Okay!”

When Evie finally looked up at her boss, he wasn’t moving with urgency any longer, just staring at her with a strange expression she couldn’t figure out. He cleared his throat, unreadable emotion on his face. “I’m following you, Sage.”

She nodded, and they both bounded into the hallway, where the others still loitered, waiting to get another look at the boss in all his finery. “Blade, how soon can you have Fluffy ready to go?” Evie asked.

Blade looked startled, but only for a second before his face set in a look of resolve. “Ten minutes, maybe fifteen? Why? Where are we going?”

Gideon’s eyes were searching her face. “Eve?”

“Ready him now, Gushiken,” Trystan boomed, looking ready to do battle on her behalf while lifting Kingsley onto his shoulder.

Blade was gone in a flash.

Gideon gripped her arm as Evie made to follow. “Evie, please. What’s happened?”

She held both of her brother’s hands before saying with as much gentleness as she could manage, “I know where our mother is.”