Page 48 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
She’d crafted this shop not just of magic but of hard work. She’d sought out the space, planned the layout, strategized her business plan, given it a name, grown to know and appreciate her customers…
Rough Around the Hedges was a love letter to the person Violet was trying to become, one who’d left the Thornwitch behind and grown into something new. Change, she was beginning to discover, grew like a seed. Its roots began to sprout beneath the surface long before the leaves burst through the soil. But how would she ever blossom if she had to continually uproot herself?
As she left her spot by the door, Violet knew she would be unable to try this again. Wherever she ended up next, she’d lie low, find some other way to make a living. Flowers were too close to the Thornwitch’s magic, and she couldn’t risk someone from her past finding her again. Wherever she went next, she’d…cut her hair or pay an alchemist to change her eye color perhaps. Maybe she’d give up magic altogether, as much as the thought felt like plucking out a vital organ. But it had been too close a call with Sedgwick. She couldn’t possibly start over while her past kept looking her in the face.
Still, her heart tore at the seams as she remembered Nathaniel’s words in the street.Stay here with me, he’d said as she cried nonsense into his shirt.
How she wished she could.
It was with this thought that Violet registered the knock on her door. Who else could it be but Nathaniel, probably here to berate her and maybe—hopefully?—kiss her again? She was surprised at the jolt in her pulse, the sudden drumming in her heart that begged her, please, just once more.
“Perhaps I owe him another truth before I leave,” she whispered to Peri, but the rock goblin had already scampered upstairs to bed.
She swept to the front of the shop and opened the door, only to find Tristan Sedgwick leaning against the jamb.
“Hello, Thornwitch,” he said, smirking at her. “I thought that might have been you.”
So. She’d been recognized after all.
“Sedgwick,” she replied, schooling her face into an expression she hadn’t worn since she’d left Shadowfade Castle. “I was hoping I’d been mistaken.”
He laughed, low and unpleasant. “Thought I’d check in, make sure our plans don’t interfere with each other.”
“My plan is for you to leave,” said Violet darkly.
He perused her wares, flicking a potted springleaf and watching it twist into a tightly bunched coil as a response. Violet felt the same, a tensely wound spring that could release its unpredictable force at any moment. She breathed through her fear, keeping her magic at bay, but just barely.
Deep breaths, Violet, she thought in a voice that sounded curiously like Nathaniel’s from earlier.
“Leave?” He tutted. “Not likely. This town is ripe with fear, just waiting for someone to pluck it from the vine. Better you orme than, say, Cannibal Craig or the Bone Hag.” She repressed a shudder at the mention of two of Guy’s nastiest associates, though her heart sank at the implication. Dragon’s Rest was unprotected, and once she left…
“But they’re not here,” she said firmly, feigning more confidence than she felt. “I am. Now get out, Sedgwick. Find somewhere else to terrorize.”
“We could work together, Thornwitch. As partners.”
Her skin prickled at the name.
“Absolutely not,” she hissed, and was surprised to see a flash of real emotion in his expression. Was he disappointed? Could it be he truly wanted to work with her? She wouldn’t believe it of him. For the first time in weeks, Violet allowed dark magic to flood her body, her eyes burning with sinister light as she glared at him. “This place ismine.”
She hoped the display was enough to make him think she was still the Thornwitch, that she was working on something big and dangerous here.
But Sedgwick only smirked. “For now.”
Her voice dropped to a growl. “What?”
“Oh, don’t play dumb.” Sedgwick narrowed his eyes. “I know you’re looking for it too. Why else would you settle yourselfhere, in this miserable shit stain of a town? Why else would you ingratiate yourself with these peasants if not to find it?”
Findwhat?
Violet hid her surprise beneath her meanest mask of disdain and clutched the disguise of the Thornwitch around her like a cloak against the hard wind of winter. “Don’t deign to pretend you understand my plans,” she said haughtily. “Unless you have information you’d like to share. You’ve always bragged about your connections, haven’t you, Tristan?”
“Remind me,” he said slyly, studying her. “How did thoseconnections pan out last time? I’ve only ever told you the truth and you know it.”
Violet clenched her fists and tried to appear unaffected.Don’t think about Silbourne. Don’t think about Silbourne.She scoffed to rid herself of the knot in her throat. “Of course. You’re incredibly trustworthy.” Her words dripped with sarcasm.
Guy’s voice came back to her in a rush.Wield your cunning not as you would a sword, petal, but like coin. Watch them slip it into their purse for an even trade—and be gone from their sight before they realize it is counterfeit.
Right. She needed to be smart about this. Sedgwick had always been a talker. She could use that now, so long as he believed she was still the monster he thought her to be. “Tell me what you know and you’ll be rewarded,” she said, her magic crackling and echoing through her voice with the ill intent it was made for.
