Chapter summary
Chapter 9
Trystan (The Villain) pushes through the western side of Hickory Forest, arriving at a hidden safe‑house that has been breached. He finds one of his long‑standing Malevolent Guards murdered and a squad of Valiant Guards assaulting his remaining men. Trystan unleashes a gray mist of magic from his fingertips, the mist highlighting each guard’s weak point. He directs the mist to strike a glowing red spot on the first knight’s abdomen, killing him, and then sweeps the mist over the other Valiant Guards, exploiting their vulnerabilities until every knight lies dead. He orders his surviving guard, Keeley, to move all stolen cargo to a more secure location and to bring the bodies back to the manor for burial.
After the battle, Trystan rides south back to his manor, feeling a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. Upon entering his office, he is confronted by a disheveled Rebecka Erring, who gasps that a bomb has been placed in his desk and that “Evie” has taken it outside. Trystan rushes up the stairs to the parapet, where he sees Evie trapped—her foot stuck in the stone—while a small gold bomb sits on the parapet edge, its timer ticking. He shouts at her to pull her foot free, but she cannot. Trystan grabs her, throws her to the ground, and presses his body onto hers, channeling as much of his magic as he can into a protective shield. As he does so, the bomb’s timepiece shakes, the tower trembles, and the world blazes red as the device detonates, leaving the outcome ambiguous.