And it was. It was very nice.
Possibly the last nice thing between them.
31
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The Daily Rumor
THE DAY WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR
By Kristof Knightlinger
I’m almost saddened that today Prince Apollo and soon-to-be Princess Evangeline Fox will wed. There’s been so much excitement I’m loath for it to end. Although if half the rumors I’ve heard about the wedding are true, it should be a spectacular day.
Unfortunately, it seems that there will be at least one notable person missing from the royal celebration. Tabitha Fortuna of House Fortuna had a terrible fall several days ago. It’s hard to believe that someone so formidable could be bested by a set of stairs, but apparently, the fall was so bad it’s done some damage to her mind. I’ve heard people mutter the words sedated, mad, and magic curses, making it sound as if it could have been more than just a fall. Or could it be that someone is trying to steal the sunlight from our fair Evangeline Fox?
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32
Months ago, on a damp, blustery day, when rain clouds did battle with the sun and the clouds came out victorious, Evangeline Fox planned her wedding to Luc Navarro.
She hadn’t meant to plan a wedding. Before that stormy afternoon, she hadn’t even thought about marrying Luc. She was only sixteen then; she wasn’t ready to be a wife. She just wanted to be a girl. But the mighty rain had kept everyone from the shop that day, leaving her alone with a new shipment of oddities that included a fountain pen with a curious label: For finding dreams that don’t exist yet.
Evangeline had been unable to resist trying the pen, and as soon as she did, a fledgling dream had taken form. She didn’t know how long she’d spent drawing, only that when her piece was done, it felt like a picture of a promise. Evangeline and her love were at the end of a dock covered in candles, which made the ocean glow so that it looked like a sea of fallen stars. Only night and her moon watched. No one else was there, just Evangeline and her groom. Their foreheads were pressed together—and she might not have known exactly what they were doing, if not for the words her pen had etched into the sky: And then they will write their vows on their hands and place them over each other’s chests, so they may sink into their hearts, where they will be kept safe forever and always.
It would have been a ceremony her parents would have approved of. It would have been a simple wedding made of oaths and love, and promises of an ever after spent together. It was the opposite of what would happen today.
The enormous wings attached to Evangeline’s bridal gown dragged across her suite as she looked out a window edged in webs of frost.
In the towers at every corner of Wolf Hall, caged doves waited, ready to be released after Apollo and Evangeline exchanged their vows underneath an arch of gold-flecked ice that sparkled in the morning sun. Night and her moon wouldn’t even glimpse this ceremony. But what felt like a kingdom of people would be there. They were already waiting, decked out in their finest furs and jewels. They’d be there when Apollo kissed his bride and then promptly fell out of love with her.
Evangeline’s stomach fell.
There would be no happily ever afters following this wedding.
Last night, she’d felt good about her choice, but today, it broke her heart just a little. She shouldn’t have let Apollo spend the night with her. She shouldn’t have let him hold her. She shouldn’t have let him remind her of everything she didn’t have and might not have again after today.
She didn’t want Apollo to fall out of love with her.
Since he’d proposed, Apollo had been sweet and kind and thoughtful, if a little extreme in his declarations. But who would he be when Jacks’s spell was broken? Would he still be the tender Apollo who had held her all night long? Would he be the vain prince who’d been ready to dismiss her almost as soon as he’d met her? Or would something else happen, something even worse?
Evangeline tried not to think about the Valory Arch prophecy. She’d already decided that she couldn’t trust anything she’d heard about the arch. Yet she couldn’t seem to fully erase her worries. If she was part of this prophecy, what would happen when it was fulfilled?
“Why do you look so nervous?” asked Marisol, coming up beside her. She wore a candied apricot dress with a sugary cream underskirt and a thick pearl belt, and she looked beautiful. No longer dubbed the Cursed Bride, Marisol had spent the last few days enjoying teas and dress fittings and all the delights of Wolf Hall. She looked happy and refreshed, but her eyes were all awe as she took in the extravagance that was Evangeline’s wedding gown.