“What if you’re wrong?”
Jacks worked his jaw and clenched his fists.
Evangeline had once heard a tale about a pair of doomed stars, drawn across skies toward each other’s brightness, even though they knew that if they drew too close, their desire would end in a fiery explosion. This was how Jacks looked at her now. As if neither of them would survive if they drew any closer.
“Evangeline, you need to go.”
A thunderous roar poured out from the Valory, so loud it shook the arch and the angels and the ground at Evangeline’s feet.
“Get out of here,” Jacks said.
She held his gaze, one final time, wishing she knew how to change his mind. “I wish our story could have had another ending.”
“I don’t want a different ending,” Jacks said flatly. “I just want you to leave.”
46
Everything hurt. It was the sort of pain that made it hard to breathe.
All Evangeline wanted was to run back to Jacks. But she forced herself to keep walking. She made herself exit the library and turn down the emptiest hall she could find, where no one could hear her cry.
She pressed her hands to her eyes as the tears flowed harder. She didn’t want to cry. But it truly felt over. And it hurt. It hurt so much. It hurt in her chest, and it hurt in her heart. Because he didn’t want her heart. The thought made her cry harder. She cried until she couldn’t see straight, until she was in some unknown corridor, clutching her stomach and biting her arm, trying to silence the sobs as she sank to the floor.
Maybe it would be better to forget him. She hadn’t wanted the forgetting before, but she wanted it now.
She wanted the pain to end. She wanted to forget his dimpled smile, his brilliant blue eyes, the way he called her Little Fox. And suddenly, her chest was tight at the thought she might never hear that nickname again. And she didn’t want to forget. She didn’t want to forget at all.
She didn’t want the memories erased or rewritten; she wanted more of them.
She didn’t want to say goodbye. She still wanted Jacks to change his mind. To find a way to another true love.
It hit Evangeline then, how she could save Jacks. It was so simple, she cursed herself for not considering it before. Love was how she could save him. She didn’t just care about him or want him. She loved him. She just needed to tell him that.
Love was the most powerful magic of all. If he loved her the way she loved him, they could find a way to make it work.
It didn’t matter if he stayed forever cursed. All that mattered was that he stayed, that he chose her instead of fear.
Evangeline started back toward the arch. She needed to find him; she needed to tell him how she felt before it was too late. She needed to do it before he used the stones and she forgot they’d ever met.
He couldn’t have used them yet, because she still remembered him. Evangeline picked up her pace to a run, chest heaving and slippers slapping hard against the castle floors. She must have gone farther than she’d thought and stayed there longer than she’d realized. Wolf Hall was waking up. She could hear servants moving down other halls and see the flicker of freshly lit candles lighting her way back to the library.
It felt like forever before she reached the room with the arch.
The air still swirled with magic and hints of power that felt like a storm. The arch was the same as when she had left. The ancient door was still there, and so were all the stones.
Evangeline felt a rush of relief. If Jacks hadn’t taken the stones, maybe he’d already changed his mind? Although … if he’d changed his mind, it seemed odd he’d have just left the stones for someone else to take.
Something was wrong. She knew it even before she noticed the drops of gold-flecked blood spattered across the wings of the warrior angels.
A tremor of fear moved inside her. What if Chaos had fed on Jacks? Or what if something else from inside the Valory had hurt him? She still didn’t know what was inside of it.
Evangeline reached for the door. But it was already opening.
She jumped back.
“It’s all right,” Apollo said as he appeared in the archway, his broad shoulders nearly filling it.
Evangeline tensed and took another step back.
Apollo slowly raised his hands. “Please, don’t be scared. I’m not going hurt you.” He looked down at her with warm brown eyes; the red was gone, along with the anguish. “The curse is lifted, Evangeline.”
“How?”
“A woman—she didn’t tell me her name, but she was some sort of healer. She found me, cut some of my hair, said a few words I didn’t understand, then I felt it vanish.” Apollo took a shuddering breath. “As soon as it was lifted, I told her that I needed to find you, and she showed me an old arch that led me here.” He looked around the ancient room as if trying to figure out where he was, but then his eyes quickly returned to Evangeline’s.