Apprentice to the Villain

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Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

The Villain, Trystan Maverine, but don’t let that get around, is realizing that making hiring decisions whilst bleeding out in the Hickory Forest because you’ve been shot by the king’s magical guard after going in search of your once-human Prince now frog in a tiny crown friend, Kingsley, who likes to take walks may be called hasty. Especially when said hasty hire with a sunshine disposition, Evie Sage, lives rent free in your head. Evie swishes around The Villain’s castle in her flowery skirt, humming and smiling, and making everyone feel better about themselves, and wishes on stars, and sees the best in people including you, The Villain! Gah! Well, she is a good assistant and productivity is up and he can’t take anymore of her smiles as it’s doing something to him so he tells Evie to head home early. Trystan calls his guard and makes sure Evie is followed home because the Hickory Forest is dangerous and what good is having an assistant if they are dead? 

Evie Sage is dead. At least that is what The Knight professes to King Benedict who is very happy at this announcement. King Benedict has plans to use Evie Sage’s body to unmask The Villain at the end of the week and usher in a new era for Renndedawn in the image of a fairy tale, Rennedawn’s Story. He’ll also need Nura Sage’s letters to her eldest, Evie, and sends the Knight to retrieve them. The younger Sage daughter has already been captured by The Villain’s terrible horde so no worries there. As for the other ingredient necessary to King Benedict’s plan, the venom of one of the guvres, the King has someone who can help with that, The Villain, who was captured at the end of book one by King Benedict. 

The Villain is imprisoned in darkness, but its color he misses. As he’s thinking about the events leading up to his capture, King Benedict comes to taunt him. However, civil discourse really isn’t on the cards, Trystan is angry at the King for multiple reasons including but not limited to sending thugs after Evie Sage, capturing Trystan’s father and his own imprisonment (who’s the real Villain here?) and now Trystan adds wanting the guvres to the long list. Well, Trystan isn’t going to help him. As Benedict leaves the cell with Trystan’s promises to ruin him ringing in his ears, the king throws back a little tidbit. Evie Sage is dead. 

Seven days later, Trystan has moved cells. He’s spent the last week telling himself Evie is not dead, relying on the gold ink bargain tattoo to know she’s alive. Trystan notices a doorway at the end of the hall from his cell and thinks it is a stairwell and his way to freedom. As one of the guards, a Knight with green eyes (the same Knight from earlier with the king), opens his cell to take Trystan to the ballroom for his unmasking, The Villain uses the opportunity to rush the man and go through the door. The Knight shouts for him not to go that way because inside is not the way out, but a small room and Evie Sage lying in state in a glass coffin. This breaks Trystan. He commands then begs Evie to wake up but she does not. Adding salt to the wounds, Benedict is there watching him. As Trystan is taken back to his cell, the green-eyed Knight mouths hope. 

Meanwhile, in the ballroom, the Villain’s HR rep Becky and his dragon trainer Blade are in disguise. Becky is very put out that the king cannot keep to schedule. Blade on the other hand is wary that his father, an advisor to the king, is also at The Villain’s unmasking and he does not want to be spotted. The flirting between them as they wait is obvious and nerdy. Finally, King Benedict makes his entrance with the masked Villain in tow. He gives a little speech and unveils The Villain’s last victim, daughter of a beloved knight (the fact he is an asshole, a narcissist, selfish, and a bad parent is unsaid, see book 1) Evangelina Sage. Becky sees Evie in her glass coffin and thinks that something is wrong, she also sees the smirk on Benedict’s stupid face. 

As Benedict is making another speech, Arthur, Trystan’s father, tries to talk to his son. Trystan has lost all hope but wishes the gentry would stop wasting desserts on him as projectiles. Catching his attention, Benedict accuses Trystan of being the creator of the Mystic Illness that has been a plague on Rennedawn for the last ten years, but Trystan calls Benedict the real villain. As they’re spitting venom at each other, the crowd starts screaming. Evie Sage’s coffin is empty and she is standing across the hall, demanding to know where her invitation is. 

Evie’s entrance is a little more dramatic than she wanted, but now that she has the king’s attention, she uses it to her advantage and moves closer to him. King Benedict makes a show of belittling Evie, but Evie is having none of it and demands the return of The Villain and Arthur Maverine and insists that they be allowed to leave and that everyone in attendance will be allowed to leave as well. As the king laughs, Evie points out that he clearly doesn’t know all his Valiant Guard because he can’t see the Malevolent Guard in his midst. At her signal, Tatianna steps out, pulls a flare, and at its spark, the Malevolent Guard disabuse themselves of their costumes. All are women. All went unnoticed and underestimated. Before chaos descends, Evie says to King Benedict, “I hope you remember that whatever happens next, I did so try to warn you.”

Trystan’s sister makes her way to him and their father and pulls out orange ink to dissolve their bonds as Tatianna arrives. On the floor, the Malevolent Guard are kicking the Valiant Guards’ butts! Once free, Trystan’s magic comes flooding back. Across the room, Trystan spots Evie and she waves her tattooed pinky at him, but he notices that Evie is holding a rope. Tied to the chandler. She’s totally going to drop the chandelier. The Villain stomps across the now glass covered room to his Assistant. He can’t take his eyes off her while shouting at her about her foolish actions that should have stayed in the books she is so fond of reading (there’s a comment about bending like a pretzel here that does make The Villain miss a beat), and insists that if she is unmasked he should be too and she should be the one to do it. Of course King Benedict, looking worse for wear, interrupts the moment taunting them with his hostage, Kingsley. 

The Villain sends out his magic to the king and it swirls around him like a grey mist and freezes the monarch. Evie cries out because, shockingly, she can see Trystan’s magic. This is a first. Adding to the new skills on display, Kingsley bites down on the hand holding him and Benedict throws the frog to the floor where Trystan is able to scoop him up. As they leave to Benedict’s threats, Trystan spots letters from Nura Sage tucked in Evie’s skirt, and is again astounded by this woman. They escape to the beautiful sounds of a frustrated king. 

Evie and The Villain are running through the forest evading the guards toward the ravine which is in the opposite direction of Massacre Manor. Evie tells Trystan to trust her, and he does, demonstrated when the guards are chasing them and they’re running hell for leather at the ravine, without question he takes her hand and jumps with her over the edge… where they land safely on Fluffy the giant dragon's back. This is when Evie knows she is in love with Trystan Maverine. Already on Fluffy’s back is Blade, Tatianna, Clare, Arthur and Becky. There is no rest for the wicked, however, because King Benedict wants the guvres and they could be the cause of the Mystic Illness because it may be a natural consequence of keeping them contained. Since they've been confined together, it's a good thing the female isn’t pregnant. Yeah, about that, Boss…

The next day The Villain and Blade are watching the guvres. Trystan explains that King Benedict really does what to fulfill the prophecy in the fairytale Rennedawn’s Story, so they must make sure the guvres are safe. After some gentle niggling at the boss over his obvious feelings for Evie, Tatianna arrives with a letter from Arthur who left early that morning, confirming his sister is staying on at the Manor but she’d be happy to kick out her ex at his say-so, the Malevolent Guard have returned from their exploits the day before, and that there is a mob assembling but it’s okay, Evie is dealing with it. Damnit. 

Evie is threatening the mob with a Scatter Day, but when The Villain arrives, his employees run off, no more threats needed. In his office, Lyssa, Evie’s little sister, is sitting in his chair, bored. Once she’s passed to Edwin the Ogre cook to learn how to make lemon tarts, Trystan and Evie talk about the papers reclaimed from the king. One is a page from the Rennedawn’s Story book with the prophecy. They decide the only way to stop King Benedict is to fulfil the prophecy themselves. The rest of the papers are Evie’s mothers letters, however they’re in pieces and mostly illegible so they make little sense. One however has a rhyme, which in Evie’s mind is dirty because it mentions kissing and caves, but it is in fact, according to Trystan, directions to stardust. It’s a start, but they really need to find Evie’s mother and her starlight magic to truly fulfill the prophecy. They make plans to follow the directions first thing in the morning. Her emotions awhirl, Evie goes to write in her journal but it’s gone! (GASP!)

The next day, before she goes to meet The Villain, Evie begs Becky to help look for her journal. It has a… bawdy picture she’s drawn of her and the boss kissing! and she'd rather it not get passed around. Becky agrees to look, but she does not agree to the hug Evie tries to give her for her help. Meanwhile, The Villain is waiting and has found the new decorative addition to the foyer, Otto Warsen’s head (see book 1). The Villain questions Evie about it, but he’s not mad, he’s impressed by all the things Evie accomplished while he was imprisoned. What he is mad about is that he thinks he’s corrupting her. 

Joining Trystan and Evie on their search of the caves is Tatianna, and for some reason, Clare, and of course Blade since they’re riding Fluffy. It takes a couple of hours for them to reach the entrance which is guarded by a Sentry, who The Villain explains are vessels made by the gods to keep people out of sacred sites and require careful trickery and mastery of the mind to get past. Evie says “please” and the Sentry lets her pass. As Evie is encouraging The Villain to follow, she suddenly lets out a scream and falls, The Villain dashes forward. Meanwhile, back at the manor, Lyssa is helping Becky alphabetize when one of the Malevolent Guards comes running into her office. The wards surrounding the manor and keeping it hidden have broken, Massacre Manor is visible! 

When she stopped screaming, Evie found she had landed on something as soft as a cloud, and The Villain joins her a few moments later. As he’s essentially telling her off for risking her life and throwing herself into situations first and asking questions later, the tension between them builds and builds and Evie and The Villain are millimetres away from kissing each other when a giant creature interrupts them. The creature, a giant, is leftover from when the gods painted the world, and it was his idea to make trees which Evie thanks it for. The giant knows who Evie and Trystan are and though he can’t intervene directly, he does gift the daughter of wishing stars a vial of stardust and invites her back to see the stars at night which form the roof of his cave, though there is a part missing. When Evie and Trystan emerge from the cave, Tatianna and Clare are waiting, but Evie spots something in the trees… a Valiant Guard with a knife to Blade’s throat!

More Valiant Guards emerge, and though Evie starts to charm one, The Villain’s magic isn’t responding correctly and he is subdued. Evie takes her dagger out and tries to fight, but strangely, the dagger starts attacking and killing by itself. Kingsley, because of course he stowed himself away, and Clare wade into the fight and soon there are only two guards left. The Captain calls for The Villain’s death, but the guard holding him declines and releases The Villain who runs a sword through the Captain. The remaining guard, who has very familiar green eyes, lifts his helmet, revealing himself to be Evie’s informant and her older brother, Gideon Sage. He’d come back into Evie’s life two weeks ago after she believed him dead for ten years. He had amnesia, but he got better. 

When they get back to Massacre Manor, Becky and Lyssa report that they still haven’t found Evie’s journal. The Villain has though, it was on his desk, and he’s reading it at the exact kissing page she didn’t want him to see. The Villain can make out Evie but not who she’s kissing. Gideon wanders in and gives some random name pretending it’s a boy from their village but is soon dragged back to his cell by Keely, the Captain of the Malevolent Guard and Damien an asshat Malevolent Guard who mutters insults about Evie under his breath. Once alone, Evie and The Villain settle in to figure out what to do with the vial of stardust.

After an intense brainstorming session, Evie goes for a nap and is woken by Lyssa several hours later. Lyssa asks Evie if their father was really sick and died and Evie gives her sister an honest answer for an honest question: no, he pretended to be sick and no, he isn’t dead. Turns out Lyssa suspected all along as she would see him apply white makeup to look sick and leave the house during the day. Evie explains that not all families are ones you're born into, some are ones you find and create. Still tired, she goes back to sleep but wakes with a start, the stardust is gone. 

Anxieties spiraling and stomach growling, Evie goes off in search of food and the stardust vial. She finds the vial moving by itself down a corridor toward The Villain who manages to catch it. Because Trystan is so villainous, he fetches Evie a plate of food while she holds the constantly vibrating vial, it clearly wants to be used, so when The Villain returns they decide to put some on Nura Sage’s letters that are currently in The Villain’s bedchamber. 

As The Villain tries to ignore the fact that Evie’s nightclothes are sheer, ordering her to eat the meal, he pours a little stardust on the letters and the entire room erupts in shakes and furniture crashes. The stardust has turned the letters into a glass map and a five-pointed star shows them where they are going: Heart Village. Blade, who is still up at this hour to look after the pregnant guvre, crashes into The Villain’s room to check he’s okay after hearing the crash. Seeing the boss with Evie, Blade makes assumptions, then double-entendres, and lastly impertinent comments before leaving them alone. Evie does not stay the night though. 

Before they depart on their journey to Heart Village with Kingsley, Tatiannia and Clare, Gideon meets Lyssa, though technically he met her as a baby. Lyssa is direct with her questions and Gideon answers, feeling guilty for leaving Evie alone to deal with everything and Lyssa isn’t happy about it either. Becky and Blade are left in charge, while the others go looking for clues to Nura Sage. 

They travel to Heart Village on horseback and it’s not a comfortable journey for Evie who has had little time in the saddle and not much core strength. The group banters as they travel and Evie plucks a magical flower and smells it, causing her to totally miss the conversation that she’ll be bait for the bridge creatures they must pass in order to enter the village. This isn’t good because the flower in her hand is an intoxicant. Evie’s drunk and one of the bridge creatures is right there. Then two more bridge creatures join the first.

The creatures will give a riddle and if Evie and only Evie, who is as drunk as a pirate, can answer correctly, they will allow them all in. The female creature gives Evie the riddle and though Trystan calls them out for setting Evie up to fail, his assistant tells him off for underestimating her and easily answers the riddle. The group is allowed to pass, but Trystan must leave his magic behind whilst in Heart Village. He looks at Evie, dancing and tripping and looking to the sky, and agrees. Once inside, Evie and Trystan split up from Tatianna, Clare, and Kingsley and The Villain buys, actually legitimately purchases, sweet bread for Evie because she has a drunken need. As they’re talking about her eating the sleeping-death fruit to help save him and their next steps, a troupe of performers grab Trystan declaring they’ve caught The Villain as they hold up a wanted poster with an accurate drawing and his real name. 

Evie and The Villain are tied up and taken to a ship. When Evie says The Villain can pay them double what the king is offering, the troupe leader shows Evie her wanted poster too. That's so exciting! Eventually, they disembark and are put inside a water cellar until morning. Meanwhile, back at the manor, Becky is babysitting Gideon while Keely takes some of the guards to check the woods and they learn that more of the security wards are failing. Speaking of, the interns are fighting and being cheered on by the other employees, apparently a solution to the Ward situation has been found and they’re fighting for the right to present it. Becky picks up her letter opener and goes down to deal with them. 

Evie asks The Villain to put his hand up her skirt, no not for that (this time!) but to retrieve her dagger strapped to her thigh which causes Trystan to have mild palpitations. The dagger is the one that has been moving of its own accord, the same one Otto stabbed her with causing the scars on her back. While it burns Trystan as he frees them, to Evie, it just feels warm. After they cut their bonds, they need to tackle the bars, and while Evie attacks it with her dagger, something happens, causing Evie to end up on the floor with Trystan on top of her. They’re so close to finally kissing when they’re interrupted by Helena, the kidnapper troupe boss and Evie’s cousin. She confirms Nura Sage was in Heart Village a few years ago, but she was like a ghost and kept saying how she wanted to disappear into midnight. Despite their familial relationship, Cousin Helena will not free them.

In a bid to escape, Evie orders Trystan to take off his shirt and she takes off her dress… to make a rope not for sexy fun times! Get your mind out of the gutter. Tying a shoe to one end and tossing their “rope,” Evie can’t reach the keys on the table, and Trystan is “too strong” and misses, twice hitting a window cracking it which allows water to pour in. Great. Meanwhile, back at the manor, Becky deals with the fighting interns. First with a strict command and when that doesn’t work, an asskicking. Blade is astounded and must know where she learned to fight like that. Gideon Sage, however, thinks Becky looks familiar and her skills have just proven that Erring isn’t her real name. He’ll keep her secret, though.

The water is rising. Trystan caught the keys eventually but they sank like a stone in the water. Sure they’re about to die, Evie asks Trystan to kiss her. He wants, he really, really wants to but isn’t sure she still isn’t drunk from the flower so tells her he can't. Suddenly another window breaks and Kingsley hops down and Tatianna then Clare's faces fill the window. Kingsley retrieves the keys, Trystan pushes the prison door open then helps Evie through the broken window. Trystan, however, is escorted out by the kidnapper troupe, Evie’s dagger at his throat. Evie becomes VERY possessive over Trystan and her scar glows bright causing a distraction for The Villain to break free. Cousin Helena says she wasn’t going to sell them to the king because she hates the king and blames him for her failing business and the loss of magic, but they had bets on what would happen between the two while locked up. She’s just won ten gold for clothes being removed! Cousin Helena gives Evie a pouch and a note her mother left for “the right time.”

They head back to the manor in silence and all end up converging in the kitchen where Edwin has made pies and has Lyssa helping make cinnamon rolls. As they’re discussing next steps, the stardust map having dissipated, Evie looks in the pouch Cousin Helena gave her. Inside is a corner of a picture frame that says Property of the Sage Family and Gideon recognizes it, so they decide to head to the framemaker in Evie’s village. The Villain stops Evie from coming along, saying she is recognizable from her wanted poster. Evie pleads, but The Villain tells her pleading is beneath her, which makes Evie think he’s mocking her about asking to be kissed back in the cell. Evie then goes super professional with Mr. Maverine, and for three days, she says nothing to him. She also doesn’t hum, eat candy or smile, and is utterly, boringly professional and everyone hates it and looks at The Villain for causing it. 

Later, as Trystan is wandering along the road in Evie’s village, watching the festivities, he overhears Evie’s ex making disparaging remarks about her and saying how good a man Otto was. Nah, dog. The Villain reaches out with his magic and snaps at the ex’s damaged knee, hehehe. Trystan is then accosted by an old woman offering to paint his face, and as it would offer an additional disguise and Trystan has a soft heart deep, deep down, he agrees and she does a magnificent job making him into a wolf. As she leaves with thirty gold pieces instead of the copper she charges, the old woman turns with a wink and rips his wanted poster off the wall. Finding the portrait frame maker, Trystan finds an attractive woman with a rabbit face paint disguise already talking to him. Of course it’s Evie.

Trystan pulls Evie away from the cart and she explains that the seller didn’t know her mother so they need to check her childhood home even though they’re both still mad at each other. As they head to the cottage, Trystan gives Evie’s ex another pinch with his magic. Once they arrive at her childhood home, Trystan takes the opportunity to dash upstairs shouting that he’s going to check out her childhood bedroom as revenge for her looking in his at the manor. Evie chases him up and realizes the mistake. They’re in a room. With a bed. Alone. With no chance of interruption. 

Obviously one thing turns to another, they both antagonize each other and end up kissing. Just after Trystan lifts Evie to sit on her desk, a voice shouts up demanding to know who is there. It’s Malcolm Maverine, Trystan’s brother. His tavern was burned down by some retired Valiant Guards and he’d heard the Sage Family cottage was empty, so he's been using it as a good place to hunker down and regroup. Evie asks if he’s seen the picture which matches the corner piece she has and Malcolm fetches it. Two girls are playing in a bright and vivid garden, one is Nura but the other is unfamiliar. Evie knows the only person who may be able to tell them about the painting is her father.

Evie, surrounded by her friends, goes into her father’s cell. Griffin Sage is uncooperative so Evie draws her dagger and holds it to his throat, but then he starts antagonizing, so Evie stabs him in the thigh. Griffin tells her the other girl in the picture is Renna Fortis of the legendary Fortis family who are known as warriors of valor and whose fortress is said to be magically touched where even the plants come alive. Griffin also admits to nearly destroying Nura though he didn’t mean to, but if Evie wants more information about what he and Benedict did to Nura’s magic, she should ask her brother. 

Despite orders to go back to work, everyone seems to have congregated outside Griffin Sage’s cell concerned about Evie. Evie slams open the cell door, covered in blood, with a murderous look on her face and her dagger in hand. She stalks toward Gideon who, in self-preservation, runs for it, but he's soon caught and Evie questions him. When he was young, Gideon nearly died from an illness, but when he recovered, his magic, to suppress the magic of others, had been unlocked. Griffin told Gideon not to tell anyone about it, not even Nura who was pregnant at the time with Lyssa. After Lyssa’s birth, Nura’s own power came in stronger, and by this time, the king had visited Gideon and asked for his help to keep his mother safe and suppress her power. He did this every night until one night he fell asleep and Nura woke up and her power came full force. His suppression nearly destroyed their mother.

Later, Evie interrupts Trystan exercising without his shirt on in his bedroom because Lyssa is missing. Trystan calls everyone to action to find the wayward child who has to be somewhere in the manor. Not really worried about Lyssa, of course talk turns to The Kiss but they agree to revisit once they’ve found Nura. In the meantime, they need to check with the Fortis family, which Trystan says could be complicated. As Evie is sitting on his many-pillowed bed, a guard runs in. There’s a fire in the courtyard and they suspect the Valiant Guard is responsible. 

It wasn’t a Valiant Guard, it was Lyssa Sage who got Fluffy to breathe fire. Lyssa has been “helping” around the manor, like locking Tatianna and Clare in a closet to promote kissing fun times, helping build Fluffy’s confidence, “misplacing” Evie’s journal on The Villain’s desk, and trying to force something between Becky and Blade, but she’s not sure about them… Anyway, back to business and finding a way to Fortis Fortress. Becky, who is amongst all the people now congregated in the slightly-singed courtyard, reveals she can help because Renna Fortis is her mother. GASP!

Evie, The Villain, Becky, Tatianna, Clare and Blade fly on Fluffy to the Fortis Fortress. On the way, Clare shows Trystan and Evie their new wanted posters. The Villain’s reward has increased to three times the previous amount and the artist has made his head smaller, but Evie’s is a beautiful, dramatic depiction, includes more charges and they have promoted her to Apprentice to The Villain (they said the title!!) so of course Evie is overjoyed. At last they land in a clearing and Becky pulls out a golden key. With Evie bolstering her confidence, Becky opens the way to Fortis Fortress with its living lands and sentient plants greeting Becky as she walks toward the residence. At the door, Archibald the butler greets Lady Rebecka, welcoming her home and ushering everyone inside. The plants continue to reach out to Becky, waving and touching her and Kingsley tries to nab a fly because of course he’s stowed away again. From the hallway they can hear the loud hoots of Becky’s brothers, though it's only two of them, Roland, slightly older and Randy around Lyssa’s age, the others are still training in the Trench. After some banter and Evie flirting with Roland much to Trystan’s annoyance, Roland realizes Trystan is The Villain and the house plants attack, tying him up and dragging him through a secret passage to the Trench. 

Trystan is on the verge of passing out, trying to stay awake thinking of revenge and Evie. Eventually he reaches for his magic and uses it to cut himself free only to find himself in a high walled arena, Becky’s other two brothers Raphael and Reid looking down at him. They tell The Villain he should not have come with his death magic and now he will be tested by the world's oldest magic in the Trench of Anguish. 

Back in the residence, Evie is beside herself when Becky’s parents and grandmother come in. Eventually Renna Fortis admits that Nura Sage was with them for a time but she wasn’t herself, almost a ghost, so they sent her to another of their properties at the Lilac Sea with access to the country's greatest healers. Renna will send word and Nura will be with them in a couple of days. Renna tries to persuade Becky to stay longer but Becky still hasn’t forgiven her mother for trying to sell her power, then steal her power to give to King Benedict who professed to have a cure for the mystic illness her grandmother has and wanted Becky’s powers as payment. Reid interrupts then with word that The Villain appears to be dying. 

Another of Becky’s brothers, Raphael, starts giving Evie shit at the Trench. The Villain is in the center, surrounded by a faceless creature of light. Evie ignores Raphael’s opinions about The Villain’s chances of survival and throws herself into the arena. Trystan is being shown memory after memory of different traumatic events in his life and sees himself in the office and facing King Benedict who has a knife to Evie’s throat. He promises Benedict anything in exchange for Evie and he accepts, pushing Evie at him. Evie presses herself to The Villain and tells him to destroy the entire Fortis family. Trystan already knows this isn’t Evie, she is a poor imitation, and pushes her away. The real Evie arrives and the creature of destiny appears and tells The Villain he has lost, but Evie starts bargaining using her dagger as collateral. They start bickering and eventually the creature admits that Trystan has already passed his trial, but then whispers something into his ear and ejects them both from this not-reality. They wake in the Trench, Evie feeling terrible, but Trystan is ill and begs Evie to stay with him. 

Evie sits at Trystan’s bedside in the sickroom for hours. Renna comes in and makes some remarks about her daughter which Evie corrects her on, she clearly doesn't know Becky was listening from the hall. They talk and understand each other so much better now and it’s like their friendship clicks in place. When Blade enters, Evie steps out, giving the two flirts a moment and runs into Becky’s brothers who are sparring. They invite her to join them, pointing out it would be beneficial if she learned how to defend herself. Evie agrees and she works her way through the brothers with varying degrees of success. Just as she’s in what looks like a precarious life or death position, Trystan finds them, his fever having broken. Not understanding the situation, Trystan instantly becomes protective and he insists they address Evie with her proper title, Apprentice. The brothers poke fun at Trystan’s protectiveness of Evie saying he must fight hard for who he loves but Trystan denies he is capable of love. Evie, however, whispers that she finds him easy to love and everything basically stops. Evie tells everyone to leave, magically takes hold of her dagger and insists The Villain teach her to fight like him since she is his Apprentice. 

Of course it’s raining as Evie and Trystan spar, and of course the sexual tension between them builds, and of course Evie breaks one of Trystan’s holds with a kiss. Which is when, of course, they’re interrupted by the Valiant Guard. Meanwhile, back at the manor, as Gideon, Lyssa, Edwin and Keely are eating Lyssa’s latest batch of cookies, a Malevolent Guard runs in. The manor’s wards are completely down and the Valiant Guard is here.

Six Valiant Guards surround Evie and The Villain who lets his death magic out, some coiling around Evie like a pet, the rest looking for the weakness in the guards. Trystan’s magic hasn’t been responding well since Evie started to be able to see it. Evie tries to shoo the misty coils away and recalls her magical dagger to her hand. One guard nocks an arrow, aiming for Trystan, but instinctively Evie dives in its way, the magic in the dagger and her scar shielding her and splitting the arrow in two before it hits her. The last two guards run off as Trystan checks on Evie, but she's fine and tells him to deal with the remaining intruders. He reaches out with his death magic and does as his lady bids. On their way back into the Fortis residence, they hear a woman screaming. It’s Nura Sage.

Actually, it's not Nura Sage. Renna Fortis has been cultivating hybrid plants that siphon magic and store memories. She’s been working for King Benedict and helping him fulfill the Rennedawn Story prophecy the entire time. Renna confesses that Nura came to them for aid, her magic was too much and Renna tried to siphon it to give Nura relief but her magic had been abused too much already. One moment she was screaming for mercy, the next only stardust was left of her. She died. 

Meanwhile, back at the manor, they are under siege. The Malevolent Guards are fighting the vast number of Valiant Guards and Gideon has to make a decision as to which side he is on. He looks at the head of the Malevolent Guard, Keely, who is running to protect the guvres. He’s been appreciating Keely more and more, and makes his decision.

Renna begs Becky to understand that she did what she thought best to keep her family together and had plans to tell Evie that her mother was traveling and needed more time to arrive, giving her time to soften the blow of her death. Renna doesn’t see how villainous her actions really are, the irony. Renna gives Evie a black slab Nura left for her before everyone leaves, but just then Raphael comes in and tells them a battalion of Valiant Guards is on their way. Back home at Massacre Manor, they find it in chaos. The Valiant Guard have gassed the male guvre to sedate him and are loading the female into a cart. Trystan fights the remaining guards but his magic is weak and not responding to him. He watches the female being taken away as a giant catapult is readied to take down the male. Gideon stops it from making the killing blow, but is knocked down by a guard. Before he himself is killed by his former colleague, mocking him that no villain can help the traitor, Evie’s dagger slams into the Valiant Guard’s back. 

Once the Valiant Guard are subdued, Edwin comes running to Evie. Lyssa has been locked in her father’s cell and her father has escaped. Back in their rooms, Lyssa confesses to having visited their father every day at midday when the guards change shifts. Someone slipped a note under their door and she stole the key from Becky’s desk. It isn’t until the middle of the night Evie realizes what Lyssa said… who gave her the note?! Evie heads straight to The Villain who couldn’t sleep so decided to do some Valiant Guard torturing. Evie tells Trystan what happened. While they’re confessing, Trystan finally tells Evie that Kingsley is actually a human prince turned into a frog by a sorceress. Kingsley, or Alexander, wasn’t the intended victim, his mother gave the order and it was meant to kill. 

Later, Lyssa is having a tea party with Trystan. Evie joins and her heart keeps doing flop-flops because it’s so adorable and Trystan is wearing a huge floppy hat and even Kingsley has an adorable dress on. Realizing they’re out of sugar, Lyssa pulls the vial of stardust from Fortis Fortress Evie gave her to use instead and drops it on the slab also gifted to her she is using as a plate. At Evie’s startled cry that her baby sister is essentially playing with their mother’s ashes, Lyssa drops the vial and it smashes on the plate. A large bright explosion occurs and the image left on the plate is familiar. Evie picks it up, Trystan following, and they ask Blade to ready Fluffy. 

Soon they are back at the cave with the giant, but it looks different, the magic is leaving from the land. Evie and Trystan go down into the cave and Evie hands the slab which now has a bright star in its center to the giant. The slab is the missing piece of his night sky. The giant puts it back and there is a magic spark as it fixes in place, the wishing star is back. The giant offers Evie anything, and she asks for her mother. With an explosion of multicolored brilliance, Nura Sage appears. They don’t have long to talk as the magic in the cave starts to disappear and the cave begins to crumble. The giant helps them escape on a cloud, refusing to leave himself. 

Gideon and Nura’s reunion is warm, but Lyssa, who never knew their mother, is understandably wary. As Nura is being checked by Tatianna, she mentions that there are four parts to the prophecy needed to fulfill Rennedawn’s Story, but Trystan’s power, the star and the female guvre are only three. Unfortunately Nura can’t remember what the fourth is yet. When they have a moment alone, Gideon gives Evie the antidote to the sleeping-death plant he failed to give her at the very beginning. She didn’t need it. It seems the other known antidote seemed to have worked just fine. Memories of Trystan begging her to live and kissing her hand when he found her lying “dead” flash through her mind. Later, when Gideon is looking at the page he tore from Rennedawn’s Story he realizes The Villain wasn’t the only person unmasked the night of the ball, and sees the text: beware the unmasked Villain and their malevolent dark, for nothing is more dangerous than a blackened good heart...