“I made a mistake that night in the crypt.” Evangeline banished the blush from her cheeks and looked straight into Jacks’s inhuman eyes. “But give me another chance and I won’t hesitate to stab you.”
He smirked, flashing dimples he didn’t deserve. “I’m almost tempted to test that claim. But you’ll have to do more than wound me if you wish to get rid of me.” Jacks pulled an intensely white apple from his pocket and started tossing it. “If you really want me out of your life forever, help me find the missing stones and open the Valory Arch. Then I promise you’ll never see me again.”
“As much as I’d love that, I’m never going to open that arch for you.”
“What about for Apollo?”
Evangeline felt a sharp stab of pain for the prince and another flare of anger for Jacks. “Don’t you dare say his name.”
Jacks grinned wider, looking oddly pleased by her anger. “If you agree to help me, I’ll wake him from his suspended state.”
“If you actually believe I would do that, you’re delusional.” Her first bargain with Jacks was the start of this entire mess. There would be no more deals with him, no more partnerships, no more anything. “I don’t need you to save Apollo. I’ve found another way.” Evangeline lifted her chin toward the sealed library door. It was still half-covered in shadow, but she swore the crowned wolf’s head grinned as if it knew that she was the one who’d finally open its lock.
Jacks took one look at the door and chuckled, quiet and mocking. “You think you’ll find a cure for Apollo in there?”
“I know I will.”
Jacks laughed again, darker this time, and took a cheerful bite of his apple. “Let me know when you change your mind, Little Fox.”
“I won’t change my—”
He was gone before she could finish. All that lingered was the echo of his ominous laughter.
But Evangeline refused to be nettled. She’d been told by an old librarian that this door led to every missing book and story about the Valors. Although the North’s first royal family was human, it was widely accepted that they all possessed remarkable powers. Honora Valor, first queen of the North, was said to be the greatest healer of all time. And Evangeline had very good reason to believe that among the stories on the other side of this door were tales about her healing, which hopefully included a way to bring someone back from a state of suspended sleep.
Evangeline pulled out her dagger, a jewel-hilted blade with a few missing gems. It was actually Jacks’s—the same one he’d tossed at her the night they’d spent in the crypt. He’d left it behind in the morning, and she still wasn’t sure why she’d picked it up. She didn’t want to keep it—not anymore—but she hadn’t had time to replace it yet, and it was the sharpest thing she owned.
One prick of the dagger and her blood welled red. She pressed it to the door and whispered the words “Please open.”
The lock instantly clicked. The knob easily twisted.
For the first time in centuries, the door swung open.
And Evangeline understood why Jacks had been laughing.
2
Evangeline stepped through the door, and the ground beneath her crumbled as if her slippers had found crackers instead of stones. It was rather like her hope: rapidly disintegrating.
This room was supposed to hold shelves of books on the Valors, answers to her questions, a cure for Prince Apollo. But there was only a wheeze of cloudy air, wafting in swirls around a dramatically carved marble arch.
Evangeline closed her eyes and opened them as if she could blink the arch away and the precious books would appear in its place. Sadly, Evangeline’s blinks did not contain magic.
Still, she refused to give up.
In the Meridian Empire, where she was from, this arch would have just been a decorative curve of carved rock, large enough to frame a set of doors. But this was the Magnificent North, where arches were something else entirely. Here, arches were magical portals built by the Valors.
This arch had mighty angels clad in armor carved into the columns, like warriors on opposite sides of an eternal battle. One of the angels had a bowed head and a broken wing; it looked almost sad, while the other appeared angry. Both had their swords drawn and crossed over the center, warning away anyone who might wish to enter.
But Evangeline wasn’t just anyone. And if anything, the forbidden nature of the arch made her want to look inside even more.
Maybe this arch was a gateway to the books and the cure that she needed for Apollo. If the old librarian was right about this room containing all the stories on the Valors, perhaps the angels were protecting the books from the story curse so that they would stay uncorrupted. Maybe all she needed to do was press her blood to one of their swords and they would politely step aside to let her enter.