Assistant to the Villain

“Bend over.”

Evie didn’t move. “Perhaps you could buy me dinner first.” Honestly, even a dinner at the nicest tavern wouldn’t entice her to bare her backside to the healer. Surely magic could work through the cloth of her skirt—if she said it in her head, perhaps she could will it to be true.

She sat on the exam table and held back a wince at the pain when she shifted, her gaze holding the healer’s in a game of chicken Evie had no intention of losing.

There wasn’t a day since Evie had known her that the healer did not wear at least some element of pink. Today, the dainty color made its usual appearance in the form of tiny bows pinned throughout her lovely hair, making her look younger than her twenty-seven years but no less tough an adversary. The healer raised one dark brow at Evie’s refusal to move.

“Come on, Tati,” Evie said with a pleading grin. “I’ve already met my humiliation quota today, and I’m afraid revealing my backside to you would break the meter.”

Eventually, Tatianna sighed and pushed a dark braid of hair behind her ear, her large brown eyes narrowing as her hands began to glow a warm yellow.

Oh, thank the gods.

The light drew Evie’s attention to the gauzy sleeves of yet another lavish gown hugging the woman’s generous curves. Evie usually felt too guilty to spend her wages on anything so frivolous as a new gown—but that didn’t mean she didn’t envy the healer’s lovely wardrobe.

Tatianna moved her hands toward Evie, hovering in front of her shoulders without actually touching her, and suddenly Evie’s backside felt like the time she had sat on the hot stones in the village square after a day of summer sun beating down on them.

“You’ve bruised your tailbone, little friend. Quite badly in fact.” Tatianna’s voice was like clear water, crisp and smooth, pulling her lightly from her panic. She exhaled a sigh of relief. A bruise she could afford.

“Of course I have.” Evie rubbed her forehead. “And how much is it going to cost me for you to heal it?”

A long stretch of a smile spread across Tatianna’s face, which to those who didn’t know her would set even the most anxious person at ease. But Evie did know her—and that smile was, for lack of a better word…scary.

“Hmm,” the healer said, tapping her chin in contemplation. “If you want it fully healed, I want two secrets.”

“Which means you’re getting two secrets, because in what world would I want to go about my day with a painful bruise on my backside?” Evie rubbed her temples and raised a brow. “How big of a secret are we talking?”

Walking toward her table of salves and potions, Tatianna chuckled as her dress swished back and forth. “Nothing blackmail-worthy but better than idle gossip you’d hear in the kitchen.”

Evie dug in her brain for something sufficient as Tatianna sifted through her tinctures and moved her glowing hands over a small bowl as she worked. Sharing secrets was hardly something Evie took issue with; she was an open book for the most part. She’d often had trouble keeping overly personal things in, especially with Tatianna.

If she could pay everyone with her private, ridiculous thoughts and habits, she’d never have to work again.

Hopping off the table with nervous energy, Evie wandered over to the shelf by the door and found a small bottle. It was a charming little thing. Evie thought it would make a good ornam—

“Don’t touch that!” Tatianna screeched, making Evie’s heart race.

“What? Why? What is it?” Evie frantically looked at the bottle and the hand that had almost touched it. “Does it turn people into frogs or something?”

“What?” Tatianna shook her head, confused. “No, it’s a slow-acting sedative. It’s very potent.”

Evie pulled her hand back as if burned, frowning as Tatianna smiled and said all too casually, “I keep my frog potions in a different cabinet.”

A choked noise left Evie’s throat, but before she could ask if the healer was kidding, she continued.

“A secret, if you please,” Tatianna said, turning back to her brewing potion.

Evie paused in contemplation and then grinned. “I had a dream about the boss last night.”

A series of crashes and a screech came from the direction Tatianna was standing, but it was so unlike her to lose composure that Evie wondered if there was some other figure in the room she could not see.

Tatianna whirled around then, knocking several more things over in her flurry to face Evie.

Evie’s mouth opened, her hand going to her face as if something was written there she couldn’t see. “What?”

There were not enough thieves in Rennedawn’s east-village slums to steal the wicked twinkle in Tatianna’s eyes. “Oh, and what did you and the boss do in this dream, you naughty little assistant?”

Evie huffed a laugh and attempted to bend over to pick up the discarded parchments but immediately straightened when she felt her injury protest. “You are very presumptuous to assume it was anything but innocent.”

Tatianna scoffed in indignation, sweeping the contents back onto the table with a slight wave of her hand. A rare gift for healers but a useful one for Tatianna, who sometimes needed to use her abilities to mind-bend objects out of a wound without touching them.

“Have you seen the man? As if anything associated with him could ever be innocent.” She paused for dramatic effect, hands coming up with a flourish. “He’s a walking vice.”

Evie circled her hand above her own head in the shape of a halo, but the healer merely laughed and began mixing contents back into the bowl, hands once again taking on their warm yellow glow.

“I adore you, Evangelina, but you are far from innocent.” Turning around and handing Evie a small brown bowl that smelled sickly sweet, she grinned. “You are corrupt by association, my dear. Now, rub this on your bum and put the gloves on first or it’ll warp the bones in your hands.”

Hastily tugging on the gloves, she grabbed the bowl and darted behind a cloth screen in the corner for some privacy. She yanked her skirt down a couple of inches and smoothed the salve between the fabric of her skirt and the bottom of her back. As she did, Evie contemplated her precarious position working here. She’d seen truly horrific things in her time thus far, all more jarring than the last. But she never once felt the need to stop anything, just the urge to offer help where she could and distance where she couldn’t.

That was neither here nor there, however. Even the most “stand-up citizens” were capable of terrifying cruelty. She would hardly feel guilty for taking money where it came. Especially from a place where she was never mistreated or looked at like a plaything.

Nausea overtook her as she began to feel the broken piece of bone melding back together, a sickly, unnatural feeling. The body wasn’t meant to heal at this pace, but she didn’t have time to waste on a broken bone.

After the last of the bone fragments slid into place like a puzzle piece, Evie straightened, then turned and bent from left to right to test her mobility. The sharp pain was gone like mist on the wind, replaced with a tight ache that was far preferable.

“It’ll be sore for the next couple of hours, but after that, it should feel normal.” Tossing the rest of the bowl’s contents into the fire of the stone hearth, Tatianna rolled her sleeves up. “Just be careful—the bones are still pliable. If you sit incorrectly, they could move.”

Evie wrinkled her nose, throwing her head from side to side to shake the image. “That is revolting.”

Handing Evie a small capped vial, pink in color, Tatianna said, “The next time someone asks me to describe my work, that’s exactly what I’ll tell them.”

Before Evie could ask about the vial’s contents, Tatianna interrupted, her tone taking on a concerned softness. “For your father.” She rolled her shoulders and looked out the window. “To manage his pain. I’m sorry I cannot do more for him.”

A hot burning began in the backs of Evie’s eyes, causing her to sniff lightly and clear her throat in an attempt to push it away. She carefully took the bottle and laid it in the pocket of her skirts. “So if I sit incorrectly…will my right ass cheek be bigger than my left?”

A startled laugh busted through Tatianna’s mouth as she shoved Evie lightly on the shoulder. “You are too gullible, little friend. My magic is strong, and all will be fine. Now, get back to work.”

Ignoring the lingering melancholy, Evie grinned wide and spun on her heel toward the door. “Oh!” she said, spinning back around. “The second secret!”

Tatianna raised a brow, her eyes flashing at Evie for just a moment. “The second?”

“Yes,” Evie said boldly. “That dream I had about the boss last night.” She leaned closer. “It was dirty.”

Giggling at the shock on Tatianna’s face, Evie spun back around only to halt immediately in her tracks.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, eyes wide as saucers, Evie said, “Hello, sir… Any chance you’d like to add my head to the entryway?”