Accomplice to the Villain

Evie and Trystan’s forbidden workplace romance changes how the characters see themselves and experience the world around them. Their love for each other is initially based on infatuation, but deepens over time. The longer they are compelled to work together to save Rennedawn, the more life-changing their affection for each other becomes. Evie’s love for Trystan—Rennedawn’s resident Villain—opens “his cold, closed-off heart” (9) in ways even his best friend Alexander Kingsley couldn’t have anticipated. Trystan’s love for Evie makes her feel seen, understood, and worthy for the first time. Despite the odds against them, Evie and Trystan find themselves “defying the gods, defying destiny, defying everything that had ever told [them they] didn’t deserve” to be loved (90). They choose to be together and act on their feelings for each other because they discover that their love is empowering rather than dangerous.

Evie and Trystan are able to face challenges and to overcome their fraught personal histories because they have each other. Their love imbues them with newfound self-assuredness and possibility, while making them feel wanted and safe. Evie’s internal monologue on the night she and Trystan have sex conveys these aspects of their dynamic: