“Why are you saying I won’t remember?” she asked. Although she feared she already knew. If Jacks went back in time, it wouldn’t just change his life, it would also alter Evangeline’s. That’s why he was saying she’d forget, because if Jacks created a new reality, none of this would happen. They would never even have this argument.
Everything that had occurred between Jacks and Evangeline since she’d come North had been a result of Jacks’s search for the arch stones. But if he managed to use them and rewrite his history, then he wouldn’t need to find them again—he wouldn’t need her.
Suddenly, Evangeline felt sick.
Jacks looked as if he didn’t care at all.
“If you go back in time, how much of my life will change?” she asked.
Jacks took another bite of his apple. “Your life won’t be entirely different. Time doesn’t wish to be changed—most things will reset themselves, unless someone actively fights to alter them. From what I’ve gathered, you’ll still find your way here—it just won’t be due to me. I imagine Chaos will accomplish bringing you here on his own. So, don’t worry, pet, you’ll still be a princess, and you’ll still have Apollo.”
“What about you? Will we ever meet?”
“No.” And if Jacks felt anything about it, the emotion didn’t show.
“Will you still remember me?”
“Yes,” he said with equal indifference. “But I’ll make sure our paths never cross.”
“But you just said my life wouldn’t change.”
“It won’t.” He took another bite of his apple. “You’ll find another way to stop Luc’s wedding. Poison, I imagine.”
“That wasn’t what I was talking about.” Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t believe that Jacks didn’t care that she would forget him. That this moment and every other moment between them would be erased. That Chaos or Poison would simply replace him—that is, if his theory about her life staying mostly the same was correct. If he was wrong, there were so many other directions her life could take.
Although she wasn’t worried about that just then. All Evangeline cared about was that she was going to forget about him. Her breath was short, and her heart was pounding—she feared that at any moment it might just give out. And he was standing there eating an apple.
But she knew he felt something. She no longer believed anything that had happened between them in the Hollow was because of the mirth stone. The mirth stone didn’t create bliss; all it had done was mend wounds and take away fear.
What was Jacks afraid of? What was his wound?
She was supposed to be my one true love—I want another chance at that. That’s what he’d said when Evangeline had asked why he wanted to go back to be with Donatella. He hadn’t said he loved her. He just wanted her because he believed she was his only chance at love. It really was because she was the one girl he hadn’t killed with his kiss.
“What if you’re wrong? What if Princess Donatella isn’t your only chance at love? You said that if I opened the Valory Arch, there was something inside that could cure the curse on Apollo. What if there’s something in there to help you, too? Maybe there’s a way that you can find another true love.”
Jacks ground his jaw and dropped his apple into the fire. “That’s not how it works.”
“Why won’t you at least try? Why is your only solution to go back in time for a girl who doesn’t love you?”
Jacks’s eyes turned into a storm.
Evangeline probably should have stopped there, but this was her last chance. If he went through with his terrible plan, she wouldn’t even know they’d ever met. Slowly, she walked toward where he stood and tilted her head to look up at him.
“If you really believe this is what you want, then you’re lying to yourself.”
“I’m not lying to myself,” Jacks snarled.
“Then tell me this is what you truly want. Swear you want this more than anything else and I’ll never mention it again.”
Jacks grabbed her by the shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. For a minute, he didn’t speak. He just looked at her, at the remaining blood still on her lips and the dried tears staining her cheeks. “I swear this is what I really want.” He spoke each word like a vow. “I want to erase every moment you and I have spent together, every word you’ve said to me, and every time I’ve touched you, because if I don’t, I’ll kill you, just like I killed the Fox.”