Accomplice to the Villain
- its.brittanyb
- 5 days ago
- 20 min read
“The first to defy him was naturally the fucking frog.”
REVIEW
Would I read this again? Yes No Maybe
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SUMMARY
Book 3 opens up with a new POV - Kingsley. We learn that Kingsley is having periods of time where he is not himself - he is simply a frog. He starts to lose bits of time and tries to escape.
Trystan is having some difficulty with his newly acknowledged feelings for Evie. He was told by Destiny, “You were always supposed to meet Evie Sage, Trystan Maverine. Just as Evie Sage is meant to be your downfall, and you her undoing.” And he refuses to be her undoing.
Evie isn’t really sure why Trystan is being standoffish but if he’s going to ignore her, she will ignore him right back.
Trystan is trying to figure out the Rennedawn’s prophecy because it not being complete is what is making his magic go wonky and could be affecting Kingsley.
A few things happen that lead them to believe that there is a traitor in their midst but they aren’t sure who it could be. From the previous book someone was sending Lyssa letters and that led to her helping her father escape the dungeons. Someone unscrewed some bolts and Evie almost got smashed with a light fixture. King Benedict turns up and says he knows Nura Sage is alive and he wants her. Then he makes a comment about something Sage had said the previous day about there being a ghost in the castle. How would he have known that?
Nura’s magic explodes out of her and almost hits Lyssa but Keeley, the head of the Villain’s guard, jumps in front of it and takes the hit. This affects Gideon in a surprising way and we find out he’s got a little crush on her. But she doesn’t know that because I think Gideon is a little afraid of her at the same time. Gideon notices Evie glaring at Trystan and thinks again that maybe the prophecy is about her and not Trystan and he hopes he’s not right.
Evie walks into the kitchen and notices some dude she doesn’t know fucking with her favorite stained glass window. She yells at him to stop and then he charges her. It happens to be her old boss, Otto Warsen's son. They fight and he ends up pinning her down but Trystan shows up. He has his guards take the dude to the dungeons so they can question him later. Trystan tells her that the tattoo they share warned him she was in trouble. She inquires that she thought he was ignoring it and he said he would never ignore her, he will find her and save her always. Then she passes out from a concussion.
Trystan calls his entourage together - Evie, Gideon, Blade, Keeley, Tatiana, Clare, and Rebecka - and tells them that he thinks the stained glass window has the missing piece of the prophecy. He believes it only shows when the light hits it just right but he doesn’t want to draw attention to it so he wants everyone to just be cool.
Rebecka discovers Edwin, the cook, tied up and gagged in the corner of the pantry later that day. He says after Trystan had taken the prisoner to the dungeon and taken Evie to see Tatiana, he was cleaning up after the fight, and was attacked from behind. Which finally makes Trystan say out loud that he thinks there’s a traitor in their midst.
Trystan and Evie (because she insists) goes to question (and torture) the prisoner. He won’t tell them anything but Evie remembers that he was messing with the stained glass window when she approached him. Trystan promises to return for more fun - after breaking an ankle, his nose, and his kneecap.
Trystan doesn’t want to wait for the sun to hit the window just right so he takes it apart, after promising to put it back since it's Evie’s favorite and they take the pieces outside so the sun can hit them when it rises. Trystan lays out a blanket with food and when Evie questions that he made a picnic for them he scoffs that he absolutely did not. After flustering him a bit more, Evie finally kisses him. Then she tells him she loves him. His magic ends up knocking down an archway. Again, he blames himself for not having control over it and pushes Evie away … again.
Gideon suspects Keeley of hiding something. He is afraid that she might be the traitor but really desperately hopes he’s wrong about that too.
Trystan notices that something is wrong with Kingsley. Kingsley was trying to hide it but Trystan found him hanging from a chandelier completely out of it. Trystan takes him to Tatiana and we learn that his mother had hired an enchantress to curse Trystan but Kingsley got it with it instead and Trystan has been spending the last 10 years trying to fix it.
The light finally hits the stained glass window and we get the full prophecy.
“At the start of the world, the magical gods knew that color would bleed and all would undo. So to save this place they knew humans would break, they enlisted the tools of Destiny and Fate. The beauty of stars that gleam at night, the children of Fate, created in light. And the magic that balances all dreamed of is the key to saving the world in true love. The person who rescues the magical lands will take this Fate’s youngling well in hand. When luck and starlight must fall together, the land will belong to you forever. But beware the unmasked Villain and their Malevolent dark - for nothing is more dangerous than a blackened good heart. And when the tides turn all will be as it was. The heart of the true prince will save his fated love. Where sunlight beams unvarnished Rennedawn’s magic will begin mending. Evil will fall, kingdoms will rise. Heed this prophecy and all of Rennedawn will have its happy ending.”
They already knew some of this - starlight magic is Nura. Fate’s youngling is the Guvre baby that Benedict now has since he kidnapped the mother. The unmasked villain is Trystan. Now the fourth piece is the heart of the true prince saving his fated love. So Kingsley? But who is his fated love? Also, he needs to be turned back into a man.
But they’ve tried and failed many times. Trystan believes the only way to break the curse is for the original enchantress to undo it but she is imprisoned in the southern kingdom (Kingsley’s kingdom). Trystan has a plan - to go see his “friend” the Curse Consultant.
So Trystan, Evie, Kingsley, Tatiana, and Clare head to see this dude. They meet up with him in the forest and Lionel (the curse guy) says he wasn’t sure which curse they wanted his help on - the frog or the curse on Trystan?
This is news to Evie but not to Trystan. He believes Benedict put a curse on his magic years ago. Which is why it acts weird. Then they have to skedaddle because King Benedict's men are on the way.
Back at the manor, Rebecka’s brother, Roland, has shown up to help with their hedge around the property to prevent people from getting in unwelcomed. He says he can tell someone has been sneaking in, going around the magic.
Trystan has another meeting, except Roland has joined too. Roland finds out that Nura is alive and Trystan says Lionel says there might be a way to get around the wards of the southern kingdom and that's to get their hands on a magic wand. Who has a magic wand? A real powerful lord who happens to be a friend of Trystans.
Evie wants to go and of course Trystan doesn’t want her to go. He agrees she can go, like he could stop her anyways.
Rebecka admits to Evie and Tatiana that she has feelings for Blade but she doesn’t know how to act on them.
On the way to Lord Fowler's manor, Trystan doesn’t want to stop because he doesn’t want to slow down and he doesn’t want to risk running into Benedict's guys. But he agrees to stop because Evie looks exhausted. Then they get ambushed and taken hostage. But by Lord Fowler. In a friendly way….kinda.
Clare, Tatiana, and Kingsley wake up in a library while Evie and Trystan wake up in a hot air balloon. Trystan is annoyed at his “friend” and hurls him out of the balloon. But luckily (for him), he can fly. Fowler says he will hand over the magic wand but Trystan needs to attend a dinner party first. Trystan is going to decline but Evie agrees for them both. It's a costume party and Evie loves that idea. She tells Fowler to dress Trystan up like a demon and give him 2 horns, meanwhile, she looks breathtaking. Kingsley has one of his episodes and escapes. They are trying to find him but are worried one of the other dinner attendees will and they’ll lose him forever. Evie announces a game. She says she has set loose her pet frog, and whoever finds him and returns him to her will get a grand prize. When someone asks her what the prize is, she gets flustered and says, “A night with The Wicked Woman!” Which is what they’ve been calling her on her Wanted posters.
Trystan is like WTF are you doing now he has to make sure he is the one to find Kingsley for sure. He ends up finding Kingsley, on a branch, about to fall to his death. Evie goes out on the branch to get him, he jumps back to safety, the branch breaks, and she falls. Luckily, she grabs a vine and doesn’t fall far. Trystan helps her back up just to hear someone behind him say that he found the frog. So Trystan punches him and steals Kingsley and was like well…you had him and now I have him. Lord Fowler quickly announces that Trystan is the winner and he gets the night with The Wicked Woman.
Trystan is extremely uncomfortable. Of course, he wants to spend the night with Evie but yet he can’t, because of Destiny’s prophecy or whatever. He refuses to be her undoing. But, like Evie is so good at doing, she wears him down and he admits that he wants her, and they start making out. She is the one who stops them this time and tells him that until he can forget what Destiny said and admit that he wants a future with her, then he can just dream about her.
Back at the manor - Blade finds Becky and Roland at the hedge line fortifying the thorns. He finally gets up the nerve to ask Becky to dinner, she accepts, and kisses his cheek. Just then Marv comes out, saying that he found a memory plant in Roland’s bedroom. The same memory plant that Becky’s mom tried to use on her to suck her magic out. Roland tells her it isn’t what it seems but she has Marv escort him to the dungeons.
Keeley and the Valiant Guard are on their way to do recon in some abandoned tunnels that should lead to where Benedict is holding the pregnant Gurve. Gideon sneaks off and follows them. Keeley catches him and they flirt. Gideon is sad though, because he thinks Keeley might be the traitor. Keeley asks Gideon to go in the tunnel with her, which makes him even more suspicious. He confronts her and she says she knows he suspects her. Gideon says he found some letters taped underneath her desk signed “Leader of All”. It seems like she’s been communicating with the king. She says no, they are from my father.
So while Trystan is being “tortured” with having to share a room with Evie, Gideon and Keeley are discussing her father, and Becky is finding out that Roland snuck the Memory Plant in - Clare, Kingsley, and Tatiana are in the library again at Lord Fowlers. Clare’s magic involves using ink. She can use ink to create bonds, curses, to hide messages, to reveal hidden messages. She brought with her some of the notes that Lyssa had received from whoever was tricking her last book. She puts yellow ink on the notes and finds weird markings on the corners, they aren’t fingerprints but they are something. She also notices that the handwriting looks “deliberate, with strange diagonal dashes over the T’s” (this might be important later).
The yellow ink is starting to show weird yellow blobs when Kingsley chooses that moment to have an episode and spilled black ink all over the letters. Clare discovers a hidden panel and a door opens, they go through it and find themselves in Lord Fowler’s study. Where the wand is just sticking out of a unicorn head mounted on the wall. Kinsgley knocks it loose and then the walls start closing in on them. They escape and end up bursting into Trystan and Evie’s room. Now that they have the wand, Trystan decides it's time to leave. Just as they get out of the manor, Lord Fowler is waiting for them. Fowler tells them that the wand isn’t totally functional. It was broken in two and so he had one half melted down into slippers and gave them away. The wand will only work once the two parts are reunited. But good news! He knows who has them now … Trystan’s mom.
As they are getting ready to leave, they hear lots of roaring. It's a phoenix, an angry one, who is attacking a nearby village. Lord Fowler isn’t going to do anything about it but of course, Evie can’t just leave. They rush into the village and Trystan ends up saving a little girl - which totally ruins his bad boy reputation. In pure Evie-ness she manages to stop the phoenix from attacking by …. hugging it. And Trystan tells the phoenix that it can go to his manor and have a home there. And now - it's on to his mothers house.
Trystan gets a hold of an old friend who has a boat who can help them arrive quietly to her village. The friend is Jellyfish Jones - Tatiana’s father. He takes them on board his giant, pink, ship (pink for Tatiana). Trystan finds out that it's Evie’s birthday and he is so upset that he didn’t know and this is how she’s spending her birthday and he didn’t even get her anything. He ends up locking her in the barracks. He goes to speak with Jellyfish about something but then a cannonball comes ripping through the ship - bloody pirates have arrived. Luckily, Evie is fine - it missed her. Fighting commences and the pirates are beaten. Trystan makes everyone on board, including the pirate prisoners, wish Evie a happy birthday. Which is just further ruining his bad boy reputation. One of the pirates gets pushed overboard by Trystan for grabbing his crotch and saying he has a birthday present for Evie. Before he goes overboard, Trystan whispers, “She is mine.” He then announces that everyone will be singing happy birthday to her later and if they have anything to say about it, they can go overboard too.
Back to Gideon - Keeley told him that her father claims to be a king but that she is sure he wasn’t. She never knew her father, he knocked up her mom and left them. Her mom never wanted children and wasn’t nice to Keeley. She started receiving letters from “her father” and Keeley thinks they were just her mother’s way of making sure Keeley didn’t run away. Gideon and Keeley head into one of the King’s tunnels and end up finding the Gurve’s cage. It's being guarded by some drunk guards who they convince easily that they are here to relieve them. But they just medicated the Gurve so they can’t free her yet. They stand watch over her until some guards show up and realize that they aren’t who they said they are. They manage to get the Gurve out of her cage and make her chase them out of the tunnels where she flies off. Somehow the guards knew they were coming, it was another trap.
Keeley says she’ll have to get in touch with Trystan and tell him his plan didn’t go as planned, and she pulls a ruby out of her pocket (a communication tool). Gideon said oh I thought this was your idea? Keeley says no, I would never do anything this big without his direct orders. Gideon says did he tell you directly? Because wasn’t he already gone? Keeley said he sent an order by raven to his second-in-command and he’s the one who told her. Marv. Gideon and Keeley realize at the same moment that Marv is the traitor.
Back at Becky - Blade finds her physically fighting with the Memory Plant. It got a hold of her finger and won’t let go. Blade tries to help. He accidentally causes a petal to fall off, it releases Becky and starts shaking which causes the ground to shake. A bright light comes out of the plant and shatters a window. Blade throws himself on top of Becky to protect her and she kisses him and tells him she thinks she loves him. Then freaks out, jumps up, grabs the plant, and runs away. Becky believes that the plant somehow has some of Nura’s starlight magic in it but it didn’t go back to her as it should have. Blade comes around the corner, Becky gets startled, and drops the plant, another petal breaks off, another blast of light comes out and hits Blade in the head. Before he passes out he says, “I think I love you.” Becky gets Blade to the healers and Nura stays with him. Becky goes to confront her brother and he says their mother thought Evie should have the plant since it's all that's left of her mother (since their mother still thinks Nura is dead). But when Roland arrived and found out that Nura was alive, he just kept the plant and was trying to figure out how to tell Becky he had it. She lets Roland out and Marv runs up asking her if she is freeing him. Roland starts flirting with Marv. Marv tells Becky that Fluffy (the dragon) is acting up and since Blade is out of commission, no one knows what to do. She ends up breaking down and crying while Lyssa tries to comfort her. Then she gets out her ruby stone and calls Trystan, who has just thrown the pirate overboard. She catches him up on what is going on and asks how their mission is going. She tells him she wishes he hadn’t sent away the rest of the Guard because she could use some help with Fluffy. Trystan is like …. What are you talking about?
Later that night, Evie asks for her birthday present - she wants Trystan to dance with her. He tells her that he read the letter his dad wrote him (forever ago) but it wasn’t anything big. Just that he loves him and is proud of him and blah blah blah. Evie says that's not news to her, Trystan is easy to love. Then tells him to shut up that she wants to tell this story in the future and she doesn’t want his negativity ruining it. He tells her the real reason he told her that he read it is because “the first person he wants to tell anything has always been you”. Then asks her who she is telling this story to in the future anyways. She said oh, our children, duh, two girls obviously. And just leaves him with his flabbers gasted as she goes to check on her cake.
The next morning they arrive at port and Trystan and Clare’s dad, Arthur, is waiting for them. Jelly notified him ahead of time because they are also good friends and Jelly figured they might need some help. At that moment, Kingsley loses himself again, and escapes. They follow him and he goes straight to Trystan’s parents house.
Kingsley hops into the kitchen and scares the maid, Winnifred, to death. Then she gets scared again when Trystan and Evie burst into the house. This is the first time Evie is meeting Trystan's mom, Amara, and she ends up slapping her across the face (much deserved). Amara said she would be willing to give the glass slippers to them but they have to do something for her. Then she drops the bomb that Clare has been writing her letters. Clare said that she has been writing to their mother in hopes that she would help them. Trystan doesn’t seem upset with her but Tatianna does. Amara says that she hired the enchantress to kill Trystan but Clare went behind her back and hired the same enchantress to just pretend to kill Trystan, so her mom would think he was dead, but Kingsley got in the way. Amara also says she saved the enchantress' daughter and now the only way they can get into the southern kingdom, across the wards, is to have an enchantress wear the slippers and use the wand. She calls Winnifred out. This is the enchantress's daughter. Use her to save the other one but bring her to Amara. Winnifred runs crying out of the room. Arthur says they can’t leave anytime soon because it's raining so hard and the roads are too flooded. Amara spends some time taking some verbal hits at Trystan basically implying that he can never care for anyone and he's a horrible person and finally Trystan loses it and screams, “I LOVE HER!” Kingsley has a sign ready - “Finally”. Trystan freaks out and leaves the house but is stopped with a dagger to the throat. Evie’s like where the fuck do you think you’re going? They end up (FINALLY) having sex in his parents barn. When they leave the barn, Kingsley is there waiting, with another sign - “Finally.”
Back at Becky - Lyssa brings her Evie’s journal. I believe they are searching for something about the starlight. A note falls out, Lyssa tells her it's a note from Trystan to Evie, but Becky doesn’t recognize the handwriting. The cross on the T’s are slanted. Becky asked Lyssa to go get the notes that she had received in the last book but before she can, they hear a commotion, the Gurve is escaping. Lyssa runs at it and it opens its mouth and shoots purple mist at her. Instead of hurting her, it made her glow, like a star. The Gurve then leans down and gestures with his head for Lyssa to climb on his back, which she does. Becky freaks out, and climbs up with her. Becky tries to get the Gurve to land, it looks back at her like it understands, and then rolls over, so they end up falling. Luckily, right onto Fluffy's back. Blade is riding him and Becky is so glad to see him awake and okay. Blade says the beam of starlight magic woke him up and he took off after them. They land and Lyssa notices Gurve eggs. Blade doesn’t think they are viable anymore but Lyssa wants to keep them safe so he calls for the Guards to come watch over them.
Back to everyone else - they head into the southern kingdom in hopes of saving the enchantress and having her reverse Kinglseys curse. Winnifred is with them and we learn that part of her magic is “intuition” , her just knowing things about people without knowing how she knows. She starts throwing comments around at everyone and she looks at Kingsley and says, “You are not all that you appear.” He thinks, “no, she’ll ruin everything”. (WHAT ARE YOU HIDING YOU ADORABLE LITTLE FROG!)
Arthur helps them get into the castle grounds and then Kinglsey takes off … again. And hops right into the throne room. Where the King and Queen are. They bring in the enchantress and Evie is confused thinking maybe they are helping them? Nope…They have been tipped off that they were coming by Amara (such a bitch). But the King and Queen have no idea that their son, Alexander Kingsley, isn’t dead. But a frog. Evie tries to stop them from executing the enchantress by telling them that the frog is their son. The Queen says if they can prove that Kinglsey is their son, then they will hear them out and not kill the enchantress. Of course, Kingsley has an episode, and forgets who he is. The King orders the enchantress killed and it happens immediately. They turn her to stone. The Queen orders her knights to take everyone into custody when all of a sudden, a dragon comes flying through a window. Fluffy! A knight makes a run at Evie with a sword, but Arthur jumps in front of it. Clare, Tatiana, Kingsley, Evie, Trystan, and Arthur get onboard Fluffy and take off. Tatiana is trying to heal Arthur but it's no use. Evie’s like why did you do that! He says he couldn’t let Evie be taken from Trystan. Then tells Trystan that when he married his mother, she was already pregnant with Trystan. He might not be his blood father but he is his dad and he’s proud of him. Taitana keeps working but Arthur doesn’t make it.
It takes several hours to get home on Fluffy and when they arrive they see what Gideon and Keeley have been dealing with.
Gideon and Keely had rushed home, now that they know Marv is the traitor, they gotta get there quickly. When they arrive, Benedict's guards have taken over. There are a bunch of workers from the offices, beheaded, with TRAITORS written on their foreheads. Gideon, Keeley, and the Malevolent Guards fight the Valiant (Benedict’s) guards. Gideon runs to check on his mother. He runs into her room and she knocks him over the head with a book. She tells him she’s sorry and that she did it all for her, everything will be okay. Gideon is like wtf is going on as he passes out.
He wakes up tied to a chair and his father, Griffin, is there. Griffin also has Nura tied up. Griffin says he needs Nura and he’ll be taking her. Nura says she hopes her starlight magic burns him to ash, “for all you’ve done to me, to our daughter.” Griffin replies, “What about what you did to Evie?” Gideon is super confused and they aren’t elaborating.
Griffin throws Nura to the floor and grabs the Memory Plant, the plant beams and swallows Nura as Gideon yells and Nura screams. Griffin escapes and Gideon gets untied. Nura is still there but barely breathing. Keeley arrives, says they have Marv cornered. Gideon and Keeley go to question him.
If we all remember from the first book, Trystan gets everyone tattooed, so that if they betray him, the ink kills them. But Marv still has his and he isn’t dead.
Marv says he would never do anything to hurt the Villain, no one understands, he didn’t have a choice. He says he “had to do it - for her!”. That this isn’t what they think, everyone is in danger. Keeley is like you better start explaining. So he does…except we don’t get to know.
Back to Trystans POV - Kingsley still isn’t Kingsley. After they arrive back at the Manor, Winnifred says she can try to turn him back into a human. Trystan says he couldn’t ask her of that because she’s been through a lot today, she is free to stay or leave, whichever she wants to do. Winnifred does try, but nothing happens. Kingsley stays a frog - just a frog. Then he hops away…right into King Benedict’s (how did he get in?) hands. Benedict admits that Marv has been his spy, that time is running out and he needs the final piece of the prophecy - as he is holding Kingsley. But he drops him and lets him hop away. Benedict pulls a memory plant out of his pocket, a new one. A bright light shines and Trystan falls to the floor. The light fades and Trystan is in severe pain, he feels like all of his magic has been depleted.
Nura runs in, yelling at Benedict to not touch “her”.
Benedict says it's time to let Evie live the life that Nura and Griffin tried to keep from her. Benedict says “let it be with her, Nura. It's been cursed to the wrong man for too long.”
Trystan's magic spills out of the flower and rushes towards Evie. Trystan is yelling at Benedict that he let the true prince hop away. Benedict says “The heart of a true prince is right here in this room” and points at Trystan.
Benedict says 30 years ago, he met Amara, she got pregnant and Benedict wanted her to have an abortion but they came to an agreement. She could keep the child but Benedict could use him for whatever he needed. When Evie was born, Griffin, who was good friends with Benedict, came to him saying the magic specialist had sensed this evilness in Evie. Benedict said he’d help. He had them siphon Evie’s magic off and put it in Trystan.
In other words - Trystan is the true prince of the prophecy. Evie is the true Villain.
Evie’s magic makes its way fully into her and Benedict ends up escaping.
Later, Evie is having a slight identity crisis but Trystan isn’t. He says he now understands why his….her magic was always acting so weird around her. He knows that she is his true love. They will find Kinglsey and the Gurve and together they will fix the magic and the kingdom. He kisses her and says she was his downfall, and he will be her undoing. But now, he is saying it in a sweet way, and not in a bad way.
The next day, Clare is outside having all the emotions. Her dad is dead, Kingsley is gone, and she feels like this is all her fault. She’s crying when she sees bare feet appear in front of her, she looks up and it's a naked dude. He was trying to speak but was struggling. He handed her a note that said, “it's me”. The letter T, had a crooked dash. A golden crown fell in her lap and she looked up saying “Kingsley?”
Bonus chapter shows Kingsley POV on Evie’s first day.
Second bonus chapter is Trystan picking flowers in the dark. He gets caught by Lyssa and that’s when we find out all the rules of Villainy that he has given her. Lyssa tells him she won’t tell Evie about the roses. He puts the roses in a vase, signs a paper with Marv’s name, and leaves it for Evie. We also get a touching moment between him and Lyssa.
