Around them, all the guards went very still. Even the birds stopped chirping.
Evangeline opened her mouth to say something—anything. Aurora had no idea how vicious Apollo could be, and after the way she’d just stood up for Evangeline, she wanted to protect her. But then to her surprise, Apollo vanquished the look from his eyes and bowed his head. “You are correct, Miss Vale. I should not have laughed at my wife.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Aurora scolded.
And it was the strangest thing. Seconds ago, Evangeline had been frightened for her, but now she sensed the power balance had changed.
Apollo looked as if he feared Aurora.
Evangeline might have thought it was only in her mind. But when Aurora finally left, after declaring she’d build with Evangeline tomorrow, Evangeline swore that she saw the girl slide Apollo a note.
It happened when Apollo had kissed Aurora’s hand in farewell. Evangeline glimpsed the rolled-up page for only a second. Then she imagined that Apollo must have slid it up his sleeve, for when she looked again, the tiny scroll had vanished.
Chapter 32
Apollo
The first time Apollo met Aurora Valor, he had thought she was an angel. She was beautiful and he felt more like a ghost than a prince.
Earlier that night, he’d been caged on top of a bed in a vampire’s underground lair. Evangeline had locked him in after he’d kissed her and then lost control, nearly killing her.
Once she’d left him trapped in the cage, Apollo had thought the vampires were going to kill him, and he’d almost wanted to die. He was cursed, truly cursed—not the way people said they were cursed when they merely had bad luck.
One curse, and Apollo might actually have been glad of it. A prince who’d been cursed once could go on to become a legend, but Apollo had been cursed three times, and nearly killed just as many times—once by his own brother.
He was ready to let the vampires drain him of blood as long as it was quick. But then a woman had entered the room. He hadn’t known her name, not then anyway. He’d just closed his eyes and waited for her to bite. But this woman hadn’t been a vampire. This woman had been Honora Valor, and somehow she cured him from the Archer’s curse and the mirror curse. But it was one of those situations in which the remedy initially felt nearly as bad as the afflictions.
The cures left Apollo suddenly untethered. His connection to Evangeline had been severed and he wanted it back. He didn’t want to be cursed, but he wanted her; the wanting didn’t end just because the curses had.
If anything, he wanted her even more. Now that he didn’t feel compelled to hurt her, to hunt her, he could finally make her his.
But he knew it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t simple at all.
For most of his life, Apollo had always been given what he wanted. As a prince, he was not used to wishing for anything. He was used to taking and getting. But for the first time, Apollo feared he might not get what he wanted.
He’d tried to kill Evangeline. He’d shot and strangled her. The bruises were probably still on her neck from where his hands had squeezed.
He hoped she’d forgive him. He’d been cursed. Unable to help it. Surely she’d understand. But what if Evangeline never forgot what he had done?
What if, whenever he tried to kiss her, it made her flash back to when he’d also tried to kill her?
Then there was Lord Jacks. Apollo’s former friend.
Apollo had never been in competition with another man. Who could compete with a prince who would be king? But when Apollo had tried to kill Evangeline, he had seen the way that she had looked at Jacks after he’d stormed into the room to rescue her. As if Jacks was her savior, her hero.
Something had changed between them.
And Apollo didn’t know what to do about it.
Before Honora had left him, she’d lifted the bars of the cage. He’d been free to go. But Apollo hadn’t been able to move. He had been too nervous and afraid to leave the room.
Then Aurora had appeared in the doorway like an angel.
She wasn’t just beautiful, she was ethereal, with a sweet voice that said all the words he wanted to hear. “Someone as handsome as you shouldn’t ever look so sad,” she’d told him. And she’d known things, and not just that he was a prince—which everyone was aware of. She knew about the Archer’s curse that had forced him to hunt down his wife.
“I could help you fix it all,” she said. Then she had offered him an elixir. “Drink this, and for a short while you will have the power to erase it all from her memories. You can start afresh. You can remove whatever memories from her that you wish and rewrite a new story.”
Apollo should have asked more questions.
But he hadn’t wanted to know the answers. He’d drunk the elixir and regretted it right away.
How could he even consider erasing Evangeline’s memories? He wouldn’t do it. He’d let the power wear off. Even in his fractured state, Apollo knew it would have been an unforgivable violation.
But then he’d left the cell and found Evangeline, and she’d looked at him as if she was letting him go. She’d said that she wished Jacks didn’t have such a hold on her, and then she told Apollo she was sorry.
She was choosing Jacks.
She was choosing wrong.
She was deceived just like Apollo had been when he’d thought Jacks was his friend.
Apollo had to stop her. He had to save her.
He didn’t want to hurt Evangeline. He tried to make it painless for her. He’d held her as she cried and promised, silently, that together they would make new memories. Beautiful, extraordinary memories. And he would never do anything like this to her again.
He also didn’t think he’d see the angel again, or that she’d turn out to be Aurora Valor.
Like everyone else in the North, Apollo had thought the Valors were dead. When Honora Valor had first healed him, he hadn’t known who she was.
It wasn’t until later, until after Apollo had taken Evangeline’s memories and then fled into the Valory, that he’d seen the entire Valor family and began to understand the full scope of what had happened.
The Valors had not been beheaded, as the stories had always claimed. The family was alive and had been in a state of suspended sleep for hundreds of years. They were the true treasure hidden behind the Valory Arch.
Wolfric and Honora had assured Apollo they weren’t there to steal his kingdom or his crown. But all Apollo could really hear was the blood rushing to his ears as he saw their daughter Aurora.
She’d winked as if it was all a great game and Apollo had just stood there, like a child.
“All we want now is a place to live quietly,” said Wolfric. “No one need know we’ve returned.”
If Apollo had possessed more of his senses, he might immediately have said something like, “I couldn’t agree more,” and then sent them off to the far, far edges of the North where no one would ever see them again.