The Villainess Reigns

Chapter 27

I sat on the bench outside Fern's cottage, feeling as if my entire world had shattered.

In a way, it had—and this new revelation from Fern didn't make things any different.

The fact that I was not living inside Julia's novel, that her story wasn't just a story at all.

It was real. From Fern's words, I couldn't help but compare this to the multiverse.

But I don't want to live in a multiverse, I. .. want to go home...

My heart ached. I didn't know as much about this world as I first thought—especially since Julia's books were apparently only glimpses. There were people here I'd grown to love, but so many things I missed back home.

Back home, I wasn't fighting for my survival. There weren't people aiming to throw daggers into my back. There was coffee, walmart, and instagram, and I could wear tank tops, shorts, pajamas, or whatever I wanted. But... There also weren't people who were willing to risk their lives to protect me.

My fingers idly tracing the cracks in the stone as the night air curled around me, thick and humid.

Fern had told me to go outside and get a breather, and think about it.

"The answer to your way home lies within your own heart.

.." Those words kept swirling in my mind like a typhoon, wearing a path in the curves of my brain.

My thoughts were swirling as I mulled over this new revelation.

There may be a way to return home—it was something I'd never even considered, and if I had, I would have completely given up on it.

After all the danger I'd faced, all the times my life had been on the line, it was certainly appealing, but Fern had to be so mysterious about it.

What did she mean, the answer lay in my heart?

I could hear the soft thud of footsteps approaching, and there was a creak on the porch steps as Rowan flopped down beside me with an exaggerated sigh. He leaned back, hands behind his head. But it looked like he hadn't even broken a sweat.

"I hate chopping wood," He said nonchalantly.

I was still in my bloody nightgown, though my wound was bandaged, and I wasn't wearing shoes.

I was a mess. Inside and out. After a few moments of silence, he nudged my foot with his boot.

"Alright, you've got a lot on your mind, I can tell. Talk to me."

I didn't answer. Rowan knew my secret now—was he really just going to act like nothing happened?

He'd spent so long trying to figure me out.

I was certain he never would. Maybe I shouldn't have confronted Clara in the first place.

I squeezed my hands together anxiously, kicking my feet in the dirt absent-mindedly.

If I hadn't, she wouldn't have sent assassins after me, I wouldn't have been injured, and we wouldn't have come here.

"You... Don't hate me?" I asked quietly.

He shook his head. "You're still the same person I knew before. Just because your 'soul-threads' are tangled or whatever that means, doesn't change my view of you."

I paused. Could I really trust him enough to tell him how I felt?

To be vulnerable enough to tell him what had been gnawing at my insides since the moment I woke up in this world?

I hadn't even confided in Julian about this—I hadn't confided in anyone.

He's saved your life, twice... I reminded myself.

If there was anyone in this world I could trust, it was him.

Tears welled in my eyes, "I just... feel so conflicted," I admitted. "...and guilty. I know I'm not supposed to be here. And I... don't know what happened to the real her." I gestured up and down at my body and sighed, trying to blink away the tears and steady my breath.

Rowan sighed. "I think it's for the best. The real Rosaria sounds like a jerk."

I didn't even have the strength to glare at him.

"But... we never even knew her," I sighed, with a shaky breath.

I'd been judging her for being a villainess since the beginning, but everything I knew about her had simply been written down in a book or hearsay.

And now I know that she wasn't fictional—she was a real person, someone who shared similar struggles as Julia.

I never actually got to know her. And I never would.

There was a long silence for a moment as I worked through these thoughts.

Would she be happy with what I've done so far?

Angry? Rosaria was a very conflicted person, but I knew in the end, she meant well.

She could have poisoned the Prince, but chose to go after Chancellor Veltin instead. I thought that was brave.

I let out another shaky breath, "She said... there might be a way back. A way for me to return to my world." I finally brought a hand up to wipe a lone tear that fell from my eye. I pursed my lips, willing my watery eyes to contain them. "When I woke up here, I never even thought it was possible."

Silence stretched between us, filled only by the rustling leaves. Then, he said slowly, with a lopsided grin, "So? Are you gonna leave?"

The question settled heavy in my chest. If I did, I don't even know how, I admitted to myself, clenching my fists. I don't know anything. I'm completely lost.

Rowan hummed, tapping the coin against the railing. "That's gotta be a first for you."

I frowned. "What?" I hadn't realized I had said that out loud.

He turned, looking me in the eyes. "You always seem to act like you know everything. Almost like you can see the future," He said slowly.

I blinked, not realizing he'd seen that in me.

Damn, he's sharp, I pursed my lips.

But this was different, because this was something I couldn't predict.

There was nothing in the book Julia wrote about souls crossing worlds.

It was an entirely foreign concept. "This is different. "

He shrugged. "So? Then make it up as you go.

You don't need to know everything to make decisions.

Go with your gut. I did when I decided to work for you, and it hasn't led me wrong yet.

" Suddenly I threw my head back and laughed, wiping a tear from my eye.

This seemed to startle Rowan a bit. "What? " He asked, a bit defensively.

"It's nothing, it's just... Fern said something similar to me," I sighed. "She said... the answer is in my heart," I murmured, my voice tapering off.

Rowan snorted. "I don't like that. That's cryptic as hell."

I let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "Yeah. But not any different than telling someone to follow their gut."

He held up one finger and wagged it at me, "Following your heart can lead you to some bad decisions. Following your gut never will."

I sighed. "Sounds like you're comparing apples to apples."

There was a long moment of silence. I thought of Rowan and his aura blade, which he used to defend me from the assassins.

Since the day I'd met him, he'd been nothing but a loyal ally.

And a talented swordsman, too. I imagined the green tendrils of aura that curled around his blade as he faced off against three assassins, and won within minutes.

He was a beast, a monster, and definitely not human.

And his identity was yet to be revealed, because he was nowhere to be found in the archives of the kingdom's soldiers and knights.

Aura users were rare. And to find one in Averine, a remote Dukedom in a relatively small Kingdom, was exceedingly rare.

It left me wondering about his story, and just where exactly he came from.

And if Julia's story is like a history book of this world, why isn't he in it?

I wondered. Her works had documented almost all of the aura users that had ever existed, because they could be traced back to Grace, the hero.

As I mulled over these thoughts in my head, Rowan shifted beside me. Then he flicked his coin into the air, as he so often did, and caught it, tracing its edges.

"I don't think I ever told you the whole story behind this coin.

" Rowan began, his voice soft, almost like he was testing the waters.

He handed it to me. I could see the intricately carved crest, a unicorn's head.

Or rather, the head of a lion with a unicorn's horn.

"It's from my mentor. The first person who ever thought I was worth something. "

I turned my head, being jerked from my thoughts. After all my work of prying into his past and finding nothing, he was finally going to just... "Tell me," I said slowly, handing the coin back to him.

His eyes carried a very nostalgic look as he rubbed his thumb over the coin, his fingers lingering on its smooth surface.

"I grew up in the slums of a city called Portton, in Ceredulia.

I didn't always have the best life. Shocker, right?

" He gave me a half-smile, but there was something distant in his eyes.

"Ceredulia... it's not like this Kingdom.

People there live rough. I barely scraped by after my parents died. But I survived."

I felt a pang in my chest, a connection I hadn't expected. "I can't imagine what that was like," I said quietly. "I... lost my parents too." Granted, I was already an adult when they passed. And I never had much of a bond with them in the first place.

This caused him to regard me curiously for a moment, as if he wanted to ask me about my past life, but decided against it.

"Don't be. They died when I was young, I don't remember much anyway.

" he said gently, though I could see the hint of sadness in his eyes.

"As I was saying, I... managed. I followed my gut—that's what got me through.

I dodged swords more often than not and risked my neck, all so that I could live for just one more day.

I did a lot of things I'm not proud of."

I was on edge, listening intently as he continued.

"And one day, I saw this... this man. Wearing the shiniest armor I'd ever seen.

He carried an emblem made of pure silver hanging from his neck, and I thought, 'If I could just steal this, I would be set for life.

' How naive, right? But I was young, fourteen—a little too old for begging on the streets, but too skinny and useless to join a mercenary band.

If things didn't change, I'd be on a one way trip to the gallows. "

I nodded slowly, watching him. He sounded so matter-of-fact, like he'd made peace with this part of his past. He let out a dry laugh, shaking his head as if reminiscing.

"Well, you can guess what happens next. Until then, I'd survived on sheer luck and willpower, so I'd never been the best thief.

He caught me before I'd even taken two steps and swung at me with the blunt end of his sword—but I dodged.

I think that startled him, because he swung again, and I dodged that too.

I guess I dodged enough swords in my life, I had to be good at it eventually.

" he said amused. "And then... and then he swung at me a third time, but he was actually serious, and that time I couldn't dodge.

The bastard knocked me out." he said with a bitter smile.

"When I woke up, he was there. He offered me the medallion I tried to steal, told me I had potential, and if I became his squire there'd be more where that came from.

Who could say no?" He tilted his head to look up at the trees.

"I didn't know it then, but I'd just met the man who would change my life.

" His voice softened as he spoke next, but there was a new intensity behind it.

I was on the edge of my seat. "And? Was he the one you learned the aura blade from?"

He sat back, tossed the coin up in the air and caught it, "That," he flashed a Cheshire grin, "is a story for another time."

I groaned. "Oh, come on! At least tell me how you ended up here, in this kingdom, of all places."

"A lot can happen in eight years," He said, and I could tell that was all I was going to get out of him.

I groaned, frustrated, but feeling a little better now that I had a couple laughs and something to take my mind off things.

It helped that Rowan had taken the revelation of my identity so well.

I pondered what he said for a moment. "Wait.

.. eight years. So you're only three years older than me," I looked at him, surprised.

"Pfft, how old did you think I was? Thirty?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I guess I just...

didn't realize," I looked him over. Despite his childish demeanor, he held the features of someone who had lived much longer than twenty two years.

Blonde hair, dark tanned skin, scars, gentle stress creases, and piercing green eyes that looked like they'd seen a world of danger.

"Um... thanks," I said quietly, looking down at my hands.

"For what?"

"For being there. For me. I—" I stumbled over my words—saying thank you was not in my vocabulary. "I shouldn't have confronted Clara like that. I thought I was invincible. If you weren't there I... I would've died."

The silence hung heavy in the air for a moment.

"Well, you did what I told you to, didn't you?" He said, gently nudging my shoulder. "And now look where we are. When we get back, there's no way Clara and her minions are going to get away with this now."

I sighed. "You're–you're right," I began. "It's just that I thought I was a little more important to them than that. But I was too bold."

He tilted his head, swinging his feet off the porch. "What were their plans for you, anyway?"

"They... they told me I was their 'crown jewel'..." I admitted. "The epitome of all their plans. I was the mole in the court. The one who was going to get close enough... to poison the crown prince."

Rowan took this in stride, clearly not at all horrified by my revelation. "Why not just... play along with their plans then?" He asked.

"It's too late now. I've already made myself a target," I sighed, cradling my head in my hands, deep in thought.

"Well, not if they can't send word back to their cronies," He grinned. "How's your shoulder feeling?"

"Better," I admitted.

"Then, if we leave tomorrow, we can get there and bust the whole thing. Just tell me your plan, and I'll get a letter to Gareth."

"How will you do that?" I wondered.

He grinned, standing up from the porch to offer me his hand, holding his other hand to his lips with a wink. "It's a secret."

And in that moment, I realized something else.

The person standing before me wasn't just the trained fighter, aura user, the witty mercenary, or the man with a mysterious past he kept buried.

He was someone who had survived far more than he let on—someone who, despite everything, still chose to stand by me.

I think I finally understand the words Gareth had said to me, which felt like ages ago now, "He is someone you should keep by your side at all times. "

We formed our plans late into the night, being served a warm supper by Fern. When we left the next morning she grasped my hand, strong and firm, and looked into my eyes. "Take care," She smiled. "I hope you find what your heart is searching for."