“What did you do?” she asked. “What will happen if I kiss Prince Apollo?”
“When,” Jacks corrected flatly. “If you don’t kiss Prince Apollo before tonight’s party is over, you’ll die. Which would be a shame, since there are much better ways to go.” Jacks’s unfeeling eyes dropped to the mouth he’d just painted with his blood.
Then he strolled back toward the rest of the party.
14
Evangeline didn’t know if time was like magic and worked differently in the North. But she would have bet her life that it started moving faster the instant Jacks strode away.
Dinner took place at an elaborate table encircling the phoenix tree. It was set with pewter goblets and honeycomb candles shaped like castles, and beside each plate were wooden figurines of tiny dragons all displaying names. Jacks’s name had been placed beside hers. He didn’t show up, but his chair was perpetually full of curious nobles—the Prince of Hearts had apparently been correct about his attention doing wonders for her popularity.
Everyone was friendly in an I’m-only-talking-to-you-because-someone-else-made-you-look-important sort of way. Evangeline heard a lot of what a pretty color of hair, it was just like that princess—of course no one could remember that princess’s name or which prince she’d been married to, but almost everyone remarked on it. Evangeline tried her best to be attentive and polite, but all she could think about was kissing Prince Apollo. A part of her was slightly intrigued by the idea—who wouldn’t want to kiss a prince?—but she didn’t want it like this. She didn’t want to force herself on him, and she didn’t know why Jacks would want her to do this either. What did Jacks have to gain by this?
She wanted to hope that Jacks had been joking earlier when he’d said she would die if she didn’t kiss Apollo tonight. But Jacks seemed like the sort who was probably deadly serious even when he sounded as if he were joking. And given the way he’d left her when she’d turned to stone, Evangeline couldn’t imagine he’d care if she also turned into a corpse. Or—
“Excuse me, Miss Fox.” A palace servant tapped her on the shoulder. “It’s your time to die.”
Evangeline startled but quickly realized that wasn’t what the servant said. He’d actually said, It’s your time to meet the prince. But in that moment, it felt like the same thing. She’d come up with only one theory why Jacks would want her to kiss Prince Apollo—Jacks wanted to kill him. Jacks had painted her lips with his blood, giving her some of his magic, and his magic was in his fatal kiss—which possibly meant her kiss was now deadly.
Her breathing quickened as she approached the steps circling the phoenix tree.
Jacks inclined against the stair rail at the base, head tipped back, blue hair tumbling over one eye, and giving the impression he’d been waiting for her half the night. “Ready, pet?”
He held out his arm like a gentleman.
Evangeline ignored his offer, but leaned closely enough to whisper as they started up the winding steps. “Why do you want me to kiss Prince Apollo? Is this going to kill him?”
Jacks side-eyed her. “I appreciate a good imagination, but use it when you kiss the prince, not when you think about what the consequences might be.”
“I’m not going to kiss him unless you tell me why you want this.”
“If I wanted you to kill the prince, I wouldn’t be climbing these stairs with you.” Jacks wrapped the arm she’d just refused around hers. His gray shirtsleeves were rolled up, so she could feel his skin, cool and rock solid. The contact covered Evangeline’s flesh with tiny unwanted bumps as he brought her closer to his side. “There’s no point in having another person commit murder if you’re going to be in the room with them.”
Evangeline wanted to keep arguing, but Jacks made a convincing point, which was a small relief. Evangeline really didn’t want to die, but she also knew that she couldn’t kiss the prince if she thought that it would hurt him. “If that’s not your plan, what will happen when I kiss him?”
“Depends on how good at it you are.” Jacks’s chilling gaze went to her lips. “You do know how to kiss, right?”
“Of course I know how to kiss!” She yanked her arm free.
Jacks frowned. “Why are you so angry? Do you think the prince is ugly?”
“This is not about how he looks. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“I’m not going to tell you to trust me, because that’s a terrible idea. But you can believe that if I were going to have you harm Apollo, I wouldn’t be around when it happened.”