“There’s also a Wanted post warning that Tiberius has escaped the Tower,” LaLa went on. “I would guess he’s probably on his way here right now, along with Apollo.”
Jacks shot LaLa a murderous look. “Whose fault is that?”
“I did what I had to do.” LaLa’s voice took on a hard edge. “She wasn’t going to open the arch.”
Evangeline staggered back. She must have misheard them. LaLa was her friend. LaLa couldn’t have been the one to place the Archer’s curse on Apollo.
But LaLa had told Evangeline to open the arch. And Jacks had asked LaLa to break the spell on Apollo. Maybe this was why—because LaLa was the one who’d cast it?
Evangeline looked down at her fox-girl costume. Perhaps it hadn’t been by chance that LaLa had given her this gown. Maybe it had been an intentional push?
She didn’t want to believe that LaLa would betray her. Then she remembered the day she’d visited LaLa’s flat. At one point, LaLa had taken Evangeline’s hand and spoken words of gibberish. Evangeline had thought it was the story curse, garbling her speech, but what if that was when LaLa had cursed her and Apollo?
Evangeline watched through the cracked door as Jacks turned and faced the fire. For a second, all Evangeline could see was the angry roll of his shoulders as he spoke into the flames. “If she dies, it’s your fault.”
“She won’t die if you get her out of here now.” LaLa finished off her glass of wine. “Can you keep her safe?”
Jacks shot her a glare.
“Don’t look at me like that. I saw the way you looked when you arrived here with your arm around her shoulders.”
“How did I look?”
“Like you would kill for her.”
“I would kill for a lot of things.”
“Just be sure you don’t kill her,” LaLa said. “I’ve also seen the way you two look at each other. Last night when I walked into the dining hall, I was half-terrified you were going to kiss her in the middle of the party.”
“I thought you knew me better than that.” Jacks’s glare slowly dissolved into a smile, and then his eyes flashed with the same primal look he’d given Evangeline last night. “I’m just giving her what she wants. But don’t worry, she is not what I want. All I want is for her to find the stones.”
“And you think I’m cruel.” LaLa’s shoes clacked angrily against the floor as she turned toward the door to leave.
Evangeline staggered back another step, and then she fled before either of them could discover she’d been listening.
If there was any mirthful magic in the stone around Evangeline’s neck, then it wasn’t working, because it hurt—everything hurt. She had believed LaLa was her friend. She thought LaLa cared, but it seemed LaLa was just like Jacks—all she wanted was to open the arch.
Evangeline’s chest was heaving by the time she reached the Slaughterwood ballroom.
At the open doors, servants handed out goblets of dark red wine and sweet mead. It would have been wiser not to take one—she needed to find the truth stone and the youth stone before Apollo or Tiberius found her.
But Evangeline just wanted to drink until it felt better or until she didn’t care that it was all suddenly worse—that there really was no one she could trust.
She grabbed a goblet and downed it quickly. Then she replaced it with another full drink to make sure she had enough.
Tonight, the goblets were wood, their stems twined with aged bronze vines and trumpet flowers that smelled of apples and blood.
Her footsteps faltered.
The scent made her think of the Prince of Hearts’ church, but thankfully, Jacks had not entered the woodsy ballroom yet. She really didn’t want to see him.
She was wounded by LaLa. But she didn’t even want to think about what Jacks had said.
I’m just giving her what she wants. But don’t worry, she is not what I want. All I want is for her to find the stones.
The words made her feel so naive. Repeatedly, she’d told herself not to trust him, she’d told herself he didn’t care. But a part of her had really started to believe that he didn’t want to keep her alive just because he needed her to open the arch.
Even now, after hearing him tell LaLa he didn’t care, that he didn’t want her—that killing her wasn’t a risk because he was only pretending to be attracted to her—she still wanted to think he was lying.
Evangeline took another deep drink from her goblet and wove her way deeper into the costumed crush, determined to disappear in it.