“I remember,” she breathed.
“Do you now?” He smiled, and just like everything else, it was a very Jacks-like smile. Sharper at one corner, giving the impression of being both cruel and playful all at once. It reminded her vaguely of the first time they’d met, when she’d thought he looked like a half-bored young noble, half-wicked demigod.
“Tell me, pet, just how much do you remember?” The tips of his cool fingers found the base of her neck.
Her pulse spiked. Just a little, and yet it was enough to erase some of the warmth inside of her as Jacks slid his fingers from the hollow of her throat up to the line of her jaw.
This, too, felt like Jacks.
And yet . . . her heart was beating wrong, wrong, wrong, and she was now thinking about how he’d called her pet twice. Not Little Fox, not Evangeline.
But the problem with wanting something you can’t have, or shouldn’t have, is that the second it seems possible, all reason flees. Reason and wanting go well together only when the reason encourages a person to get what they want. Any reason opposed to this want becomes the enemy. A distant part of Evangeline told her that Jacks was acting strange, and that she didn’t like it when he called her pet. But the part of Evangeline that wanted Jacks to love her tried to ignore this instinct.
“I remember all of it,” she said. “I remember everything from the moment we met in your church to the night at the Valory Arch. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jacks said flippantly, still smiling crookedly as he dropped the apple in his hand. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
“Evangeline. Back away from him,” called a smoky voice through the trees. It was vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place it until Chaos carefully stepped closer. “He’s not safe right now.”
“I’m never safe,” Jacks said. Then with a smirk toward his old friend, he added, “Playing the hero doesn’t suit you, Castor.”
“At least I don’t give up just because I fail.”
“I’m not giving up,” Jacks drawled. “I’m giving the girl what she wants.” His fingers moved down her jaw to Evangeline’s chin. For a second, time seemed to slow as he carefully lifted her chin in a way that made her think of only one thing: kissing.
Evangeline felt suddenly sober.
“Isn’t this what you want?” Jacks whispered.
Yes, she wanted to say. But again, she could hear that small, reasonable voice telling her that this was wrong. Jacks was supposed to tease her, taunt her, touch her, but never try to kiss her. He didn’t believe they could kiss. He believed in doomed love and unhappily ever after.
And Evangeline still wanted to prove him wrong.
She might have felt suddenly terrified as he leaned in closer. Yet she couldn’t make herself pull away as Jacks brought his lips to—
He immediately doubled over in pain and cursed loudly, saying words Evangeline had never heard anyone utter. His face contorted, turning bone white as he clutched his ribs before dropping to his knees with a groan.
“What’s happening?”
She bent down to help him. And that’s when she noticed the words on the cuff around her wrist had started glowing again.
“Sorry about this.” Chaos’s hot arms went around her, nearly scorching her as he picked her up. “We need to leave before Jacks tries to kill you again.”
Chapter 35
Apollo
Aurora dropped flower petals on the path as she walked. She tossed them out before her like some fairy goddess of the forest. And the path to the Cursed Forest treated her as such.
It always rained on the roads to the Cursed Forest—except where Aurora Valor walked. As soon as she tossed her petals and took a step, the rain fell no more. All Apollo felt was a subtle breeze as he walked in step beside her on a path paved in shoes and lined in overturned carriages, some of which still had wheels spinning.
“You haven’t told me what this will cost,” said Apollo, “or where we are going.”
“I’m taking you to the Tree of Souls.”
“Your father—”
“Is very stubborn,” Aurora interrupted. “He knows a great many things, but he does not know everything.”
Something twisted inside Apollo—a feeling that told him either he’d eaten some bad mutton earlier or this was a very poor idea. He knew better than to trust Aurora. She was not half as sweet as she looked as she continued to pull flower petals from her silver cloak and toss them onto the path.
Yet, how could he walk away from this? A chance to be immortal.
“There’s just one small thing I ask in return,” Aurora said, so softly he almost missed it.
Apollo immediately tensed. “What do you want?”
She slowly turned toward him, and for once there was nothing sweet in her expression. She looked wolfish in the moonlight, white teeth gleaming as she said, “I want you stop this nonsense about trying to kill Jacks. After tonight, you will clear his name of crimes and he will no longer be wanted or hunted.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Then I cannot show you the Tree of Souls.” Aurora stopped walking as the path ended and they reached the misty in-between that led to the Cursed Forest. “Either you can have immortality or you can choose to hunt Jacks, who I actually doubt you’ll ever be able to kill—not as long as you’re human. You’ve sent a whole kingdom after him, and what have you come up with? Perhaps once you’re immortal, you’ll have a fighting chance. But I don’t want you to take that chance, which is why right now, you’ll swear in blood on your life never to harm Jacks.”
Apollo’s shoulders tensed. “Why do you want to save Jacks?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is if you’re asking me not to kill him.” Apollo glared. “Did he bewitch you, too?”
Aurora bristled. “No one bewitches me. I’m a Valor.” She looked at him with all the haughtiness of a princess.
And this was exactly why Apollo had never liked princesses. Like Aurora, they often looked good on the outside, but so many of them were rotten at the core.
“If you’re worried about Jacks winning back Evangeline or taking her away from you, you don’t have to,” Aurora said. “I’ve already taken care of it.”
“How?”
“You don’t need to fret about that. I keep my secrets, just as I’ll keep everything between us secret. Now what will it be, Prince?”
Apollo knew he couldn’t walk away from this. His father had always told him to be more, and there was nothing more than immortal. He imagined that he could probably keep fighting Aurora about Jacks, but he doubted he’d win. Despite what Aurora had said, clearly Jacks had bewitched this girl, just as he had bewitched Evangeline. “After you take me to the tree, then I’ll swear in blood. But not before then.”
Aurora narrowed her eyes.
“You have my word,” Apollo said. “If I’m lying, you can tell the entire kingdom I took the memories of my wife.”
“Very well,” said Aurora. Then she was tossing petals again as she led Apollo deeper into the in-between.