“Hello, friend.” LaLa’s grin was nearly incandescent.
Evangeline couldn’t decide if it was terribly out of place or perfectly fitting for this strange tableau.
She opened her mouth to do the polite thing and thank her. Evangeline was fairly certain LaLa was the one who’d given Jacks the cure to save her life. She probably owed Jacks a thank-you as well for bringing her here. And yet somehow nothing even remotely close to words of gratitude came out. “I’m so confused. How do the two of you even know each other?”
“She’s the Fate that poisoned you,” Jacks said.
LaLa gave Jacks an impressive glare. “This is why everyone hates you.”
He laughed in response as if they were flirting. Was this how Fates flirted—with accusations of murder? Still imprisoned on Jacks’s lap, Evangeline couldn’t quite see his face. But from the casual way he’d made his claim about LaLa, Evangeline had the impression that he didn’t really believe LaLa had tried to kill her and succeeded in killing Apollo.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to be sure about anything with Jacks. Evangeline had the impression that LaLa didn’t like Jacks, but perhaps she was attracted to him, or they had some sort of secret liaison. LaLa’s cheeks suffused with a pretty blush as they sparred.
LaLa then explained to Evangeline that she was indeed a Fate—the Unwed Bride—though she wasn’t inclined to elaborate on that much. Evangeline didn’t blame her. In Decks of Destiny, the Unwed Bride was always pictured in a veil of tears. She represented rejection, loss, and unhappily ever afters. It seemed that, unlike Jacks, LaLa could easily find someone to love her whenever she wanted, but the love was doomed to never last. Every girl feared becoming the Unwed Bride, and Evangeline had pitied the idea of her, but the reality of LaLa almost made Evangeline envious.
LaLa was not a wilting maid pining away for lost love. She was the boldest girl at the party, the girl who was unafraid to dance by herself or let a pair of fugitives into her home when they knocked on her door in the dead of night. She had magic and confidence, and she was not afraid of fighting with Jacks. She didn’t make being alone seem lonely as Evangeline had always feared. She made it seem like an adventure, as if every moment were the start of a story with endless possibilities.
“They were my tears that poisoned you,” LaLa said, “but I didn’t try to kill you or Prince Apollo. I sold off some vials of tears ages ago, and I suspect someone must have used one of those. I would tell you who, but it’s been so long since I’ve sold tears, I couldn’t even guess where they are now. I swear it. I haven’t hurt anyone since coming north. Like most of the other Fates, I fled here to start afresh—after Jacks got us all exiled.”
“I’m not the one who got us all exiled,” Jacks interrupted.
LaLa gave him a tart look. “You might not have single-handedly gotten us all kicked out of the south, but I heard about some of the things that you did to the empress’s younger sister. People said you were obsessed with her.”
“This is getting tedious.” Jacks suddenly sounded bored. But Evangeline felt every inch of his body flinch at the mention of the empress’s sister, the girl that LaLa once said had broken Jacks’s heart.
Was this the root of whatever was going on between LaLa and Jacks—was she jealous of this other girl?
“I don’t even remember her,” Jacks drawled. “And right now, I really think we should focus on the human’s past, not mine.”
One of his hands left Evangeline’s waist so that he could toss a paper onto her lap.
* * *
The Daily Rumor
MURDER!
By Kristof Knightlinger
Our beloved Prince Apollo is dead. As I write this, tears keep smearing my ink, because—sadly—this is not a rumor. Every report I’ve received from Wolf Hall, where the prince was married only yesterday, has said the same thing. His Highness was murdered in his wedding suite.
The news spread quickly after wails from Princess Evangeline were heard from every guard and servant. “I didn’t know a human could cry like that,” a source close to the princess told me.
However, not everyone under royal employ is convinced that Princess Evangeline’s grief was real—especially now that the princess has gone missing.
Some whispers out of Wolf Hall have said that she is a murderess seductress and that she fled with her accomplice, the Fated Prince of Hearts!
I cannot imagine it, and I know there are others who agree. Our new crown prince, Tiberius, is very concerned for his sister-in-law. He believes she may have been kidnapped by Prince Apollo’s real killer. Soldiers have been sent across Valorfell and the neighboring provinces to search for Evangeline and bring her safely back to the royal grounds.