It should have been too dark to see his expression, but the crescent moon burned brighter with each second, lining the edges of Jacks’s cheekbones as he looked at her with too much intensity.
The crashing ocean felt suddenly quiet in contrast to her pounding heart, or maybe it was his heart.
Jacks’s chest was heaving, his clothes were soaked, his hair was a mess across his face—yet in that moment, Evangeline knew he would carry her through more than just freezing waters. He would pull her through fire if he had to, haul her from the clutches of war, from falling cities and breaking worlds. And for one brittle heartbeat, Evangeline understood why so many girls had died from his lips. If Jacks hadn’t betrayed her, if he hadn’t set her up for murder, she might have been a little bewitched by him.
“Let me go.” She wriggled against the arms that held her, refusing to fall under his spell.
“I’m not kidnapping you,” Jacks grumbled. “The rocks on the shore will cut your feet, and I don’t think you want to be bleeding when we return to the vampires.”
“I don’t want to go back there,” she wheezed, still breathless from the water.
“No one ever wants to go back there. But Apollo will keep hunting you until you’re dead.”
She took another struggling breath. “If you really didn’t do this, can’t you use your powers to stop him?”
“No.” Jacks’s damp chest pressed against her as he trudged farther along the beach. “The curse only breaks when the Archer kills his prey. But…” Water dripped down from his golden hair as he hesitated. “Every curse has … a back door. If you open the Valory Arch, the spell on Apollo can be undone.”
Evangeline’s eyes narrowed. Jacks’s words were similar to what Chaos had told her, and yet … “This seems rather convenient.”
“Then you clearly misunderstand the situation.” Jacks’s voice turned heated. “The Valory Arch has remained locked for thousands of years because it is nearly impossible to unlock. If there was another way to break this curse on Apollo and ensure you didn’t die, I would do it. Because even if you agree to open the arch, it’s far more likely that Apollo will kill you first. The Archer’s curse won’t let him rest until you’re dead.”
Evangeline wanted to keep arguing. She hated to concede anything to Jacks. But it was also getting harder to believe that Jacks would put her in this much danger, especially when she could still feel his heart beating just as furiously as hers.
Although if Jacks was telling the truth, if he hadn’t cursed Apollo this time, then someone else had.
The thought was sobering.
Evangeline remembered the last person who’d tried to kill her, before Apollo: Tiberius. As far as she knew, he was locked away in the Tower, and he had no idea his brother was alive. So she doubted he had done this. But perhaps someone else from the Protectorate had.
Evangeline didn’t know too much about the Protectorate—they were a secret society that most considered a myth. She was only aware they existed because their primary goal was to ensure the Valory Arch never opened, which was why Tiberius had tried to kill her.
She didn’t know how many remaining members the Protectorate had. It was possible there were more out there who knew she was the key. Although if they really wanted her dead, all they would have had to do was kill Apollo after placing the mirror curse on him. It didn’t entirely make sense that they would do this. Unless someone else had placed the mirror curse, which also seemed unlikely.
“We need to question the guards who were watching Apollo.”
“Already done, while you were asleep,” Jacks replied. “They said there were no visitors other than you and me.”
“Could someone have erased their memories?” Evangeline’s first thought was Marisol, whom she knew was a witch. But Marisol didn’t know that Apollo was alive.
“I doubt any memories were erased,” said Jacks. “For all we know, this curse could have been cast before he was poisoned. There were a lot of jealous girls and thwarted parental hopes after that ball.”
“Is that what you think happened?” Evangeline looked up at him.
Water dripped from Jacks’s golden hair, catching the moonlight as it fell. Even after jumping from a cliff and falling into an ocean, he still looked like a ruthless fairytale—a fallen prince who refused to break.
“I don’t think it matters. Finding whoever did this is a waste of time because it won’t undo the curse. There is no cure that anyone knows of. The only way to save yourself and Apollo is to open the Valory Arch.”