Page 81 of Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore
“Not the time, Pru. She needs help.” He felt wild, like something had been set loose inside him.
Pru put a hand on his shoulder. “Then help she will receive. Violet’s as much a part of this community as anyone.”
“But we’re already too late.”
Quinn held up a finger, a smile spreading over her face though her eyes looked distant. “Maybe not,” she said, and turned to look at Jerome. “How fast can you be?”
The gnome was already on his feet and on his way out the door. “Don’t let the short legs deceive you.”
Nathaniel and Pru exchanged a long look, the kind that said more than words could. Hope flared in his chest. If Peri was the Eye of the Serpent, then it might not be the only part of the legend that was real.
“Pru,” Nathaniel said slowly. “Did you ever finish that book on rock goblins?”
Shadowfade Castle
For the second time in a week, Violet returned to Shadowfade Castle. Bees buzzed happily through the colorful flowers of her overgrown gardens, probably thrilled for the out-of-season nectar. But Violet felt sick looking at anything her magic had grown.
She couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid.No more dark magic, she’d vowed when she came to Dragon’s Rest, but it had been there all along, letting itself free through the windows even as she carefully guarded the doors. She understood now what Nathaniel had been trying to say about magic and energy. Pulling life from the plants around her?Thatwas evil, even if the magic she had taken from those plants wasn’t. Violet had brought destruction to her community, all because she was a naïve little girl who wanted to be good and had no idea what that truly meant. She dragged a hand over her scar, a permanent reminder of her own stupidity.
What would the Tempest, that shining hero, think of her now? Would she see the blighted remains of Dragon’s Rest and regret her decision to leave Violet alive? Would she see Sedgwick’s plan and understand that Violet couldn’t possibly be good because evenif she wasn’t evil, she was nothing on her own? She was a tool in someone else’s hand, only as good or evil as its wielder.
Misery overtook her anew as Violet realized even that wasn’t right. Shadowfade had forced her hand at the end, yes, but she’d been the one who destroyed those towns, who killed those people, all because she wanted him to care for her as something other than a master would his favorite hunting hound.
Violet’s innate well of magic was never dark or evil; it was what had grown the greenhouse jungle that night, after all. It was what had sprouted rosebushes on these lawns and calmed her moods with the gentle touch of branches and vines on her shoulder. No, Nathaniel was correct here as well—her magic was never bad; she was the one who had used it so poorly.
But that stopped today.
She crept toward the castle, avoiding the front entrance. Sedgwick had set up his workspace in the Great Hall, so it would only make sense that was where he’d taken Peri. Violet made her way toward a side entrance, the same one she’d used to make her escape after Shadowfade had— No, it was time to stop talking around it. After she’d killed him.
Violet slipped through the servant’s corridor and peered into the Great Hall. Sedgwick stood exactly where she’d stabbed Shadowfade and had watched him bleed out before she ran. Intricate ritual symbols had been painted onto the parquet floor, forming a circle around the metal box she’d seen that day with Pru. He was preparing to do the spell, then.
In Sedgwick’s hands was a large yellow-green gemstone, about the size of his fist. The Eye of the Serpent. Violet looked for Peri and found the rock goblin lying motionless at Sedgwick’s feet, a cavernous hole in his chest.
“Thornwitch,” said Sedgwick with a smile, turning to look directly at her. “So good of you to join us.”
“My name,” she said, stepping fully into the hall, “is Violet Thistlewaite.NotThornwitch. What have you done to Peri?”
“Who?” Sedgwick looked around, following her gaze to the rock in his hand. He laughed. “The rock goblin? Oh, Thornwitch, youhavegone soft.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Peri move. She had little understanding of rock goblin physiology or what it took to injure one, but her friend was alive at least. She could work with that, but now she needed to focus on Sedgwick. Remembering the nasty vial he’d thrown at her before, she glanced around for traps. Sure enough, there was a line of some glittering substance about three feet in front of him, and above them hung a curtain, no doubt coated in some devious powder that would immobilize her. She did not want to bring blight or other consequences, so she abandoned everything she’d taught herself about magic during her time in Dragon’s Rest and allowed her own eager power to flood her senses. Her eyes gleaming green, she conjured a careful mass of creeping vines that slowly bound the curtain so he could not shake the powder loose.
“Tristan, stop this,” she said to Sedgwick, deliberately using his first name just as he had deliberately avoided using hers. All she had to do was keep him talking. “He’s gone and we’re better off for it. What will bringing him back do for you?”
“Shadowfade had vision,” said Sedgwick, his jaw tight. “He had power and he wasn’t afraid to use it, unlike you.” It was clear from how he spat the words that he saw it as an insult.
“You’re right. For a long time, the power he wielded gave me purpose. I didn’t belong anywhere else but with him. Butyouare the one who set me free, Tristan. You’re the one who woke me up when you gave me that letter about my mother. You made me realize I could be something else.”
He reared back like she’d struck him, and she recalled the moment the alchemist wavered in her shop. She wasn’t the only one who felt aimless without a master to follow. Only Sedgwick never had anyone to show him there was more. He’d never had anyone to offer him a second chance. Gently, Violet gave him the words she wished someone had said to her years ago. “You can be more than what he made of you.”
Sedgwick’s face twisted. “What are you talking about?”
“He won’t love you for bringing him back,” she said softly. “You might think it will win you his favor but he’ll resent that he needed you. Whatever you’re looking for by resurrecting him? You won’t find it.”
For a moment it was as if she could read his every thought: He wasn’t powerful like she was; he couldn’t command respect through his magic alone. But he was smart, the kind of man who had clung to power all his life, a pilot fish over the shoulder of the shark, knowing the chum upon which he fed was all due to his patron. Following someone like Shadowfade lent him protection, armored him in someone else’s power, made him feel he had a purpose. Made him feel needed.
Violet could relate.
“You can build what you need without him,” she cajoled in the same voice she’d used to get Daisy out from under the bush. She wished she had one of Guy’s pastries to offer, but all she had were the same words that drew her out of her own personal darkness. “You could be so much better. You could be good.”
