“These aren’t things to be curious about,” Jacks warned. “All you need to know is that vampires lock themselves away at dawn. So unless we want to be imprisoned with the creatures, we need to get in and out of Chaos’s lair while it’s still dark.”
He probably would have dragged Evangeline out of the flat directly after that, if Evangeline and LaLa hadn’t both insisted that Evangeline couldn’t keep running around without eating or while still wearing her battered wedding dress.
A few breakfast cakes later, LaLa opened up a secret door in the floor. “Let’s get you cleaned up and find the perfect outfit for meeting a vampire!” She stole Evangeline away from Jacks with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. LaLa clearly hated Chaos, but she seemed quite eager to prepare Evangeline for this meeting, which made Evangeline mildly nervous as to what LaLa had in mind.
Their journey down a flight of creaky steps was brief and ended in darkness that smelled of tears and tulle.
“Stay right there while I light some lanterns,” LaLa trilled.
The snick of the match cut through the quiet, and light tripped across the room, flickering from lantern to lantern. They hung from the exposed ceiling beams, swinging blithely back and forth as they cast a warm umber glow on a jungle of dresses.
The gowns came in shades of frost white, pearl pink, romantic blue, and fresh cream. Some were simple sheaths. Others had elaborate trains or hems covered in everything from silken flowers to seashells. None of them looked as if they’d ever been worn.
“Are these all from your weddings?” Evangeline asked.
LaLa shook her head and looked unusually shy as she ran a hand over an off-white gown with a mermaid skirt. “I make the gowns and sell them. It’s a good living, and it helps with the urges.”
“The urges?”
“Fates aren’t like humans, you know. We don’t share all the same emotions, and some humans think we are entirely unfeeling. But it’s the opposite.” LaLa’s face turned sharp as she gave Evangeline a smile reminiscent of one of Jacks’s deviant grins. “When we feel, it’s intense and consuming. It devours us and drives us. And the strongest of our feelings is always the urge to be that which we were made to be. I want to feel loved. I want it so badly that I cry poison tears, even though I know every time I find someone to love me, it never lasts—it always ends with me alone at an altar, bawling out even more damned tears. So I sew.”
LaLa released the off-white gown to run her fingers over a petal-pink dress with a sweetheart neckline trimmed in sparkling bows. “I’ve found that if I can help a bride with her wedding, it feeds some of the urge to have a marriage of my own. But the desire is always there. The same is true for Jacks.”
LaLa looked so pointedly at Evangeline, the hairs on her arms stood up. Evangeline only knew pieces of Jacks’s history, but she knew what he was made to be: a Fate who killed any potential love with his kiss.
“Unlike me,” said LaLa, “Jacks actually has hope of finding his true love someday. His story promises there’s one girl who’s immune to his kiss. So, I imagine the urges he experiences are even stronger than mine.”
“If you’re trying to warn me away, you don’t have to worry,” Evangeline said. “Jacks and I don’t even like each other.”
“I know. But that doesn’t matter. Jacks doesn’t really like anyone.” LaLa ripped off one of the bows she’d been toying with, ruining the gown with one swift tug. “His curse is his kiss, and if there’s even a hint of attraction to someone, he’ll be drawn to that person in the hope that she’s the girl his kiss won’t kill. But he always kills them, Evangeline.”
“LaLa, I promise, Jacks doesn’t feel any attraction toward me. I’m not a threat to the two of you.”
“What?” LaLa laughed, so light and luminescent, a few unlit candles burst into flames. “Humans are so funny. I’d never be foolish enough to develop feelings for Jacks. Jacks’s idea of love is … well, rather terrifying.”
“So you don’t fancy him?”
“Not at all.” She looked genuinely horrified.
“Then why—why are you warning me about him? And why did you save my life for him?”
Something like hurt danced across LaLa’s pretty face, and the candles that had just burst to life died out.
“I did it because you and I are friends.” Her voice was almost childlike in its sincerity, and Evangeline felt a pang of guilt and sheer stupidity for having so badly misjudged her. LaLa had just been saying that Fates emotions weren’t like humans’。 Evangeline needed to get better at understanding them if she was going to try to read them. But one thing she could read was LaLa’s actions, and they had been one of a friend.