Evie


    It was incredible what a little adrenaline could do for one’s confidence. And Evie certainly felt confident as she rode through Hickory Forest at a relentless pace, her curls streaming behind her with each gallop. The ck boning of her bodice was keeping her back straight, the tip of her de pointed outward in one hand.


    She wondered what sort of portrait she painted from a distance. A wild woman with wild hair, dressed in ck, riding straight for a monster at a warrior’s pace. The Wicked Woman, they’d whisper. She’s as evil as they say. Or…she would be.


    “Go on.” She urged the animal faster with just a few words, knowing words were far more powerful than any riding crop, that words of encouragement, in particr, meant far more than the threat of pain. “Hurry!”


    The path widened, and before Evie could say anything more, she was riding down cobblestone streets, straight for the quaint vige’s main square. People were screaming and running in all directions, but mostly away from the being she was riding toward. A rumble in the air was her only warning before arge ball of purple fire sailed over her head and right for a small house just off the square.


    Another, and the horse was on her hind legs. “Whoa. Whoa!” she soothed. “It’s okay!” When her hooves met the concrete, Evie leaped off and grabbed the reins, shushing the animal and quickly guiding her as far from the square as she could manage. “Don’t worry,” she whispered, “I’ll lead the animal away.” Evie swore the mare chuffed in response.


    Sprinting back to the square, she held her dagger tightly in her hand, ducking as arge purple feather-covered animal dipped low, but she’d ducked toote—its long, sharp ws sank into her leg as it dragged her up. Its beak was curved and as ck as onyx, its eyes empty. She screamed, jamming her de into the top of its foot, and it released her. Her heart fell to her feet as shended with a hard thud against a straw roof. “Ah.” Evie held tight to her bleeding wound, a violent sting searing along her skin as she pushed. Blood soaked through the pants beneath her skirts, ck opalescent fabric staining red. “Wonderful.”


    The phoenix continued to screech above, sending purple mes over three houses in a row. More running and more screaming from people hidden among those homes, including a child who could’ve been no more than a few months over three. Toddling, crying, and utterly alone.


    “Oh no,” Evie whispered. “Someone help her!” she yelled at the people below, but no one seemed to hear. Desperately searching for a safe ce to jump down without breaking something, Evie started to panic when she realized there was none.


    She was used to breaking things, so really, what did that matter?


    The little girl fell and cried out.


    “I’ming!” Evie yelled, scooching painfully down to the roof’s edge, in a fury by the time she got there as she watched countless adults run past the little girl. “Help her!” she screamed onest time.


    She knew she wouldn’t be much use to the girl with a broken leg, but if she fell just right, perhaps it would only be an arm. The girl looked thin; surely she would need only the one to carry her to safety.


    But before Evie could jump, the child was wrapped in someone’s arms. No, not someone—something. Something…dark and gray.


    “Sir?” Evie called, recognizing The Viin’s magic. The man appeared shortly after, his dark steed making him look every bit the terror the kingdom thought he was.


    But Evie knew who he was.


    He leaped off his horse and picked up the crying girl, murmuring words Evie couldn’t hear from where she sat but ones she knew wereforting, for the child quieted down in a moment, smiling shyly in his arms, and Evie’s heart began to make ufortablements to the rest of her.


    He rode in the other direction, toward the gathered crowd, handing the child to a crying mother who grabbed Trystan by both shoulders and pulled him into a hug.


    Good. He needs one. The rest of the vigers watched the interaction, exchanging shocked looks.


    “Uh. There, there.” Trystan patted the woman’s shoulders before nudging out of her hold to get back atop his horse.


    “Thank you, Mr. The Viin!” the little girl yelled, and the sound carried up to Evie, who watched the boss’s shoulders straighten at the gratitude.


    “I’m evil, little girl. I did that for…evil purposes you don’t know yet,” he deadpanned.


    “Like what?” one of the older men yelled, clearly skeptical.


    “I wouldn’t be a very good viin if I told you my ns,” Trystan replied in a sinister tone, turning his steed back toward where the dangerous phoenix hadnded.


    “That’s what gents say when they don’t know what they’re doing,” a matron whispered to one of the younger girls.


    “That’s not true!” Trystan called back, but his shoulders slumped some as he rode toward the house Evie sat atop.


    Evie chuckled, even though it made her woozy from the blood loss. “How does it feel to bepletely sorted by a group of strangers you only met two and a half minutes ago?”


    “How does it feel to be unemployed?” he grumbled.


    “How does it feel to be hit in the head with a rock?”


    “What?” Trystan asked, looking up, and Evie tossed a small, weightless pebble at his skull. “Ow!”


    “Not good, then?” Evie nodded, acting like she was writing down data for a scientific discovery.


    Her hand was caked in her blood, and she quickly returned it to her leg, noting that at least the bleeding had finally slowed to a less life-threatening degree.


    “Deands, Sage! Are you bleeding?” Trystan yelled.


    “Obviously not—I’m finger painting,” she said sarcastically.


    “Get down here!”


    She looked over the side of the roof and nodded. “You’re the boss.” She rolled over the side and was airborne for a second before arge body appeared below hers, breaking her fall.


    “I didn’t mean you should jump off!” he said, wheezing below her.


    “You didn’t specify, sir.” She flicked his nose.


    He red. “Are you trying to kill me?”


    “Not till next week.”


    He lifted them both to their feet, hauling her up like one would a knapsack. She enjoyed it more than was appropriate for someone with a smidgen of self-respect.


    And then she remembered how he’d cradled that little girl to his chest, imagining for the smallest of moments him holding a different little girl—one with dark, dangerous eyes and ck curls…


    Okay, less than a smidgen.


    “Holy gods,” he said, trying to stanch her blood flow even as he frantically searched the crowd. “Tatianna!”


    “It’s fine.” She batted his hands away.


    “There’s a hole in you!” he fumed.


    Another screech from the bird, and Evie had to bite her lip to keep fromughing. It took Trystan approximately three seconds to catch up to where her brain had traveled. “How is it that even now, you manage to find something crude in the conversation?”


    She winced. “A special talent?”


    He picked her up by the waist and swung her away when another ball of fire shot right for where she was standing. “Sage, there’s nothing we can do for these people. The bird’s magic is running out of control. Unless you’refortable killing it? In which case you should know it will only reanimate a few minutester. Angrier, I’d guess.”


    She held on to his shoulder to steady herself and stood firm. “I won’t leave these people.”


    “Why?” Trystan yelled. “You don’t know them, and they wouldn’t do this for you.”


    Evie held his gaze, trapping him with her eyes. “I’m not doing this because of what they’d do. I’m doing it because it’s what I do.”


    An impassible barrier erected behind his eyes as he processed her decision. As the words sank in, he gave her one stiff nod before gingerly helping her up onto his horse. Her mare had long since bolted in the other direction. “All right, Sage,” The Viin said as he swung into the saddle behind her. “If we’re to do a good deed, I suppose we have an edge that the Valiant Guards don’t.”


    She gave him a curious smile. “And what’s that?”


    He smiled back, dimple out in full force. Or was the blood loss merely giving her some pleasant hallucinations? But she knew it was real, as only Trystan Maverine would take this much pleasure in what he said next.


    “We don’t y fair.”


    The ck mist followed them as they galloped toward the creature. “Sir. Your magic. Should I get some distance?”


    “No,” he said resolutely, “it’s unpredictable with you, but it’s powerful. That’s the only thing that will help us in this situation.”


    Evie’s dagger glowed, and so did her scar as they neared the phoenix. Evie hardly noticed the pain in her leg anymore, which meant either the wound wasn’t as bad as she’d predicted or it was significantly worse.


    As an optimist, she pretended it was the former.


    “What’s the n?” Evie asked uneasily as their horse came to a sudden stop, therge bird having suddenlynded right in front of them. Menacing anger emanated from it in waves of fire. But to Evie, it mostly looked…sad.


    “To not die,” Trystan said dryly. “That’s all I’ve got at the moment, as this was an unexpected addition to our journey.”


    “Hasn’t the entirety of the journey been unexpected?” she grumbled, gripping his arm as he helped her dismount. She held up her dagger but didn’t release it. Phoenixes were peaceful animals; they weren’t known for destruction or wild temperaments. And though the purple kind was even rarer than most, they were also said to be the kindest. “They’re gentle animals. This is heartbreaking,” she whispered, watching it thrash in a possessed sort of anger.


    It screeched and flung another ball of me at her. She jolted into Trystan, and he huffed, “They’re as gentle as I am.”


    “Oh, sir! You’re a genius!” She jumped excitedly, grabbing his arm.


    He rubbed the back of his neck, flustered. “I wouldn’t say genius. I am a stickler for strategy and logic, but nothing more—”


    Evie didn’t have the time to hear the end of his sentence. She had to act fast before she lost her nerve. Or her life. She sprinted to the animal, arms open wide.


    She was going to give the fire-breathing bird…a godsforsaken hug.