Tiberius pulled at his neck, still watching the last drops of blood from her arm drip onto the grimy prison floor. “Say I did believe you—what would you need me to do?”
“Tell me where the Valory Arch stones are hidden. I know you’re afraid of what the Valory holds, but I believe it contains a back door that will allow me to break the curse on Apollo and save his life. I just need to find the missing arch stones. Please, tell me where they are. Help me save your brother.”
Tiberius took a slow, beleaguered breath. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I’m refusing your request. Denying your plea. All of this changes nothing, Evangeline. I’d rather see you die than help you find the stones.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “How can you say that? This is your brother’s life.”
Tiberius’s eyes were glassy, but his voice was resolute. “I’ve already mourned his death, and better his one death than the deaths of countless others and the end of the Magnificent North as we know it, which is what will happen if you open that arch, Evangeline Fox.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know more than you. Do you even know anything about these stones you’re searching for? They aren’t just bits of rock. And they haven’t been hidden just to keep the arch closed. These stones have powers that call to one another. They long to be reunited, and the last time all four stones were put together, one of the Great Houses was destroyed. I saw the ruins—I felt the horrible hollowing magic. Just bringing the stones together is potentially cataclysmic.” Tiberius met her eyes through the bars, his gaze still glassy and somber. “I do love my brother, but saving his life isn’t worth this risk. If you have a heart, let him shoot it with an arrow. Turn yourselves into another tragic Northern ballad and keep the rest of us safe from the power locked inside the Valory.”
19
Evangeline decided this forest was magical. She should have noticed before—the scent of the lush green trees was just a little too sweet, as if sugar had been mixed in with the snow that dotted pine needles and leaves.
She rather liked the scent, but she’d have happily traded it for plain, unmagical snow if it meant the forest would stop rearranging itself.
Evangeline didn’t know how long she’d been walking on this path. It was the same path she’d taken to the Tower, only instead of leading her back to Chaos’s underground castle, the path just kept weaving through the trees. The sky above was turning purple. Soon it would be full night, and she shuddered to think of how lost she’d feel then.
It made it even worse that the trip had been for nothing. She had been so wrong. Even now it was difficult to believe that Tiberius had chosen fear of an old prophecy over love for his brother.
She could never reveal this to Apollo—if she were ever able to save him.
Her breath came out in pale streaks as she looked down at the words freshly scratched into her arm: I DON’T WANT TO KILL YOU.
Leaves behind her rustled, a bird cawed, and Evangeline startled.
Quickly, she retrieved the gold dagger from her basket and held it out as she turned.
“Hello, Eva.” Luc walked out from between a pair of snow-dusted trees, flashing a grin that might have been boyish if not for the hint of fangs.
“What are you doing here?” Evangeline asked. She was relieved it wasn’t Apollo, but she didn’t lower her knife. Luc might not have been cursed to hunt and kill her, but he had tried to bite her the last two times she’d seen him.
“You don’t need to hold out that knife.” Luc’s pretty mouth fell into a pout. “I came to say I’m sorry for the other day. I really didn’t want to bite you. Well … I did want to bite you, but I didn’t want to hurt you. I’ve missed you.” He looked at her through his lashes, gold flecks in his eyes glimmering in the darkness.
Her pulse fluttered, and she hated that it still fluttered for him. Although she had a feeling it was vampire allure and not actually Luc affecting her this way.
She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d fallen out of love with Luc. In fact, she wasn’t entirely certain that she had. It felt more like she’d left behind her love for Luc with the version of herself that she’d been before. Back when she believed that first love and true love and forever love were all the same.
She used to think love was like a house. Once it was built, a person got to live in it forever. But now she wondered if love was more like a war with new foes constantly appearing and battles creeping up. Winning at love was less about succeeding in a battle and more about continuing to fight, to choose the person you loved as the one you were willing to die for, over and over.