“Do you want to know why I told you no when you asked me about this tree?” Wolfric continued. “Do you want to know what it costs to drink from the Tree of Souls? There is always a price to magic, and to gain eternal life, another life must be sacrificed. In this case, you would lose the life of the one you love the most. That’s the reason I was given the seed to plant this tree.”
Wolfric craned his neck to give the tree a bitterly appraising look. “When I was younger, I was a bit of a fool, like you. Once when visiting a neighboring kingdom, I saved the life of their princess. Her name was Serenity. She was pretty and I was a little friendlier than I should have been. Before leaving the kingdom, Serenity gave me the seed to plant this tree. She told me it was a thank-you for saving her life and I believed her. I thought myself deserving of immortality and didn’t think to ask any of my trusted advisors as to what this tree truly was before I fed it my blood every day.
“It was only after the tree was full-grown, just before I was about to finally drink its blood, that I learned Princess Serenity actually gave me the seed to this tree in hopes that I would plant it and that my wife would die as soon as I drank from its branches.
“After I’d saved her life, Serenity fancied herself in love with me. But she knew that I would never be with her unless Honora was dead. But I would rather die than hurt my wife.”
“So would I,” said Apollo. Everything he’d been doing had been to protect her.
“I hope you mean that,” said Wolfric gravely. “Do not come near this tree again or it will be the last thing you do.”
Chapter 36
Evangeline
What—no—how? No!” Evangeline panted, unable to properly string together words. She wanted to say that Jacks couldn’t have tried to kill her and that he would never hurt her. But she feared those words might not be true, and that if she said them aloud, it would make them even less true.
If Jacks truly never would have hurt her, it shouldn’t have been something that she needed to say at all.
Evangeline pressed her hands to her eyes, hoping to stop the tears that threatened to fall.
Chaos made a strained sound somewhere between a grunt and a clearing of his throat. She wondered if the vampire was trying to think of a way to comfort her or an excuse to leave, now that he had spirited her away from Jacks.
When she brought her hands down from her eyes, Chaos looked exquisitely uncomfortable. The vampire, clad in a black cape and smoke-gray leathers, leaned stiffly against a tree on the other side of the glowing spring.
Evangeline didn’t remember telling him to bring her to the glowing spring, but she must have. The place she found herself now was secluded and pretty, with illuminated waters that made the circle of trees around them shine with hues of greens and blues, while the rocks that surrounded the pool glittered in the bewitching light.
Everything looked touched by an ethereal breed of magic, except for Chaos. The magic touching him appeared to be a different sort.
The light of the water was bright enough that she could see the tips of his fangs were peeking out, growing longer and glowing brighter than the water as the moonlight hit their sharp points.
“Are you planning on biting me?” she asked.
“I just saved your life,” he said, but the words came out with a bit of a growl. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I feel as if that’s what people always say just before they hurt you.”
“Then you should feel lucky that I’m not technically a person.” His mouth moved up slightly at the corners.
Evangeline imagined he was trying to smile, but it looked more hungry than reassuring.
“What happened to Jacks?” she asked.
“I think you already know.” Chaos inclined his head in the direction of the glass cuff that wrapped around her wrist.
It wasn’t glowing now, but it had been when Jacks had tried to kiss her minutes ago, just as it had lit up when Apollo had been hurting her.
A buzzing started in Evangeline’s head, or maybe it had been there all along. Maybe the buzzing was there to keep her from thinking too much about what had just happened with Jacks and how he might have tried to kill her.
“That cuff is very old magic,” Chaos explained. “It was supposed to be a wedding gift from Vengeance Slaughterwood to my twin sister.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“I do. I believe the two of you are actually friends. Although I doubt you’ll still be friends after I finish this story. You know my sister as Aurora Vale, but originally her name was Aurora Valor.”
The mossy grounds around the spring felt suddenly unsteady under Evangeline’s feet. “Did you just say Valor?”
Chaos nodded while Evangeline’s thoughts raced to catch up. Within the last day, she’d remembered so much and been through so much, it was difficult to sort it all out. But she knew about the Valors. She’d studied them as she’d searched for the Valory Arch stones. But she’d never realized Chaos was one of them.
She felt instantly foolish. Minutes ago, Jacks had called him Castor, and Castor Valor had been Jacks’s close friend. He was supposed to be dead, just like all the other Valors—but clearly that wasn’t the case.
And if Aurora was Castor’s sister, then her parents must have been Wolfric and Honora Valor. Evangeline didn’t know how she would have figured out that they were in reality the first king and queen of the North returned from the dead after hundreds of years. Yet she felt as if she should have been able to piece it together somehow. She had always distrusted Aurora, but she’d just thought Aurora had the same first name as Aurora Valor. She’d never imagined the two were one and the same.
“I can see you have lots of questions,” Chaos said.
“I have nothing but questions,” Evangeline said. “Did your family come back from the dead? Or were they simply pretending to be dead? Where have they been all of these years? Why return now?”
“I know this will be hard, but I suggest you hold on to any questions until I finish this story, in case Jacks returns.” Chaos didn’t give her time to object before saying, “I think Jacks already told you that my sister was engaged to Vengeance Slaughterwood.”
Evangeline nodded and Chaos continued.
“Vengeance thought Aurora was nothing more than a pretty princess who wasn’t capable of taking care of herself. He had a protection cuff made for her—one that would thwart anyone who intended to harm her.
“There was just one catch to the cuff: once it is on, it can’t be taken off. Knowing this, my sister refused to put it on. She also didn’t need any amulet for protection, or so she thought. She held on to the cuff instead. I don’t know what she planned to do with it, but while she was locked away in the Valory, the cuff turned into a legend.”
“Hold on,” Evangeline interrupted. “Your sister was inside the Valory?”