Page 92 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“We’re taking him home obviously.”
“Obviously,” said Nathaniel, but his voice was distant. Violet raised her brows at the new light that shone in his eyes.
“What is it?” she asked. “I know that look. You’ve grabbed hold of a puzzle, haven’t you?”
“It’s reversible,” said Nathaniel, staring at Peri. “The stone enchantment. It wears off, and that means the magic could be sped along. I could end the spell.”
“But Peri and the rock goblins are back already.”
“Sedgwick isn’t though.”
Violet looked thoughtfully at the stone form of the man she once knew. Dragon’s Rest was much different than the version Sedgwick had last seen. Still, she wondered aloud, “Is that a road we want to travel?”
“What happened with the rock goblins tells me it’s going to happen anyway,” said Nathaniel with a shrug. “We might as well be able to control it. But you’re right. He could be dangerous.”
Violet considered the stone alchemist. He was one of Shadowfade’s best, just as she had been. But in the end, he had faltered. Even if it had flickered out before it could truly burn, a flame ofhope had sparked in him briefly that day in the castle. She’d seen it.
“I was dangerous too once,” she mused. “And even if he didn’t mean it as a kindness, Sedgwick was the one who woke me up. I could try to return the favor…”
Nathaniel squeezed her hand. “Think there’s room for one more in the Thursday support group?”
“I’ll tell Quinn to bake extra honey cakes.”
Nathaniel pretended to gag, and Violet burst into laughter.
They began the walk down the mountainside, back to town. Back home.
Daisy yipped cheerfully as she and Peri followed, rolling in the grass and wrestling like no time had passed. The dying light of the fading sun glinted off the peridot in the rock goblin’s chest. The Eye of the Serpent. Or one of them anyway—they still had no idea what had happened to the second one. Violet wondered if perhaps that was where the rest of the rock goblins had gone, to find it.
Nathaniel followed her gaze. “The Tempest warned us what could happen if that stone ends up in the wrong hands.”
“Do these look like the wrong hands?” Violet held up theirs, still conjoined. “Need I remind you, Mr.Marsh, I am no villain.” She leaned up to kiss him but stopped, her mouth a breath from his, to reconsider her words. “At least, not anymore.”
