He shrugged one shoulder, unapologetic. “I would think that would make you happy, since you’ve been so afraid of opening the arch.”
“But I need to open it to find the cure for the Archer’s curse. Were you even going to let me do that?”
Jacks didn’t answer, which was practically the same as no.
It shouldn’t have hurt. Even if he’d said yes, she wouldn’t have believed him.
It all brought a new swell of fatigue as she started toward the door.
Jacks shot an arm across the frame, trapping her in before she could cross.
“Let me go, Jacks.”
“You should get some rest, Little Fox. You look exhausted.”
“I feel fantastic,” she said. At least she could lie now that the stone was gone. And if she tottered on her feet as she said it, it was only because she was angry, not because her legs were starting to feel as weak as string.
She took another step and swayed.
Jacks groaned and scooped her up, one powerful arm swooping under her legs and the other behind her neck.
And suddenly, she was boneless. She knew she needed to fight him, but her body refused, mistaking his arms for somewhere safe. She hated that he could be both so gentle and so maddening. She knew that he needed her alive to find the last stone, but he didn’t need to carry her; he could have left her in a guest room bed or simply let her crumble to the ground. He’d let her turn to stone before. Why couldn’t he be more unfeeling now? He didn’t need to hold her close to his chest as they stepped outside, protecting her from the chill.
“I’m still mad at you,” she grumbled.
He sighed as they crossed the bridge. “I thought you were always mad at me.”
“I almost forgave you last night.”
“That would have clearly been a lapse of judgment.”
“I was dying, and—” Evangeline stopped herself as he carried her into the tree loft.
She didn’t know why she was arguing with him. He was right: what he’d told her earlier about the stones confirmed that she couldn’t trust him. But despite being mad at him for lying, for tricking her again, she still felt impossibly drawn toward him; it didn’t matter that nothing could ever come from it. The wanting from last night still hadn’t gone away. If anything, it was even stronger. And she couldn’t believe the inexorable pull she felt was entirely one-sided.
She looked up at his unreadable eyes as he lowered her into the bed. “Do you still think of me as just a tool?”
Jacks frowned. “I try not to think of you at all.”
* * *
In Evangeline’s dream, Jacks was sitting in the shadows at the end of an old wooden dock, overlooking the same lake she’d seen from the tavern. The one that had been full of stars. Only now there were no stars, just a gem-bright sky, trapped in the final moments of a sunset. All pink clouds and brilliant strands of glowing yellow and orange.
She watched as Jacks skipped a rock across the mirror-smooth surface of the water. Plink. Plink. Plink. Plink. Plink. When it disappeared, he tossed another.
He didn’t look up as she approached. His back was to a post, hair tousled and dark brown.
Evangeline’s steps faltered.
From a distance, she’d thought Jacks had been cast in shadow, but now it was clear the young man at the end of the dock was not Jacks.
“You’re a difficult one to track down.” The young man turned from the lake, and when she saw his face, her breath caught in her chest.
She thought at first that he looked familiar, but it might just have been that he was incredibly handsome, clean-cut jaw, dark eyebrows over hypnotic eyes, and a charming smile that made her heart take an excited little tumble.
“Who are you?”
Ignoring her question, the handsome stranger leaped to his feet with one agile move. His clothes were rough and rugged, the kind meant for forest adventures, but his movements were graceful and slightly predatory.
Evangeline felt a flicker of caution. She told herself this was just a dream, but this was the Magnificent North, and she feared that dreams were like fairytales, a little bit true and not entirely trustworthy.
He dropped his brilliant eyes to her very naked legs. Evangeline was still only dressed in Jacks’s shirt, and she flushed from her toes to her cheeks. But she tried not to let it show in her voice as she asked the handsome stranger once again, “Who are you?”
His eyes glittered with his smile. “Why don’t we just stick with the Handsome Stranger.”
Her heart did an embarrassed flip. “You can read my thoughts.”