He took his dagger and sliced off a lock of her pink hair.
She jolted back. “Why did you do that?”
“Don’t worry, you’re the last person I wish to hurt right now.” He quickly returned the dagger to his belt. “The hair is to break the curses on you and Apollo—just wait out here while I go inside.”
“What’s inside?” Evangeline asked.
But Chaos had already opened the door and slipped through to the Valory.
The stone angels on either side of the arch shuddered as he entered. She remembered once more that he was the abomination many believed to be locked away behind the arch.
If that was the case, she wondered what was actually inside. The heavy door was still cracked. Chaos hadn’t properly shut it behind him. Clearly, he wasn’t afraid of something sneaking out to get her.
Evangeline stepped closer just to peek. With the arch still glowing as bright as daylight, the other side appeared dim at first, a world of sepia shadows.
It took her eyes a moment to adjust. She half expected cages and prisoners, but there was only a domed vestibule of sandstone walls with flickering orange and red torches that lit a series of halls. It looked like the entry to an ancient temple, but it could have been a vault. The story about the Valors locking away their greatest magical treasure could have been true after all.
She knew Jacks didn’t believe that there was anything in the Valory that could allow him to have another chance at love. But what if he was wrong?
Evangeline took a step inside.
She understood why Chaos had warned her away from Jacks earlier—she’d seen a glimpse of Jacks’s heartache when he’d talked about his dead friends and killing the Fox. Evangeline didn’t want to be another heartbreak, and she didn’t want to die. But she refused to believe that meant she had to let Jacks go. There had to be another way.
She felt a rush of anticipation as she stood inside the Valory’s entry. At a glance, the halls snaking out from the vestibule all looked the same—arched doorways made of ancient redstone brick, and floors covered in surprisingly thick stretches of gold-threaded carpet.
This was definitely not a prison. Evangeline listened to each hall. Two were quiet, but she thought she heard footsteps echoing down the third. That must have been the one Chaos had gone down.
Quietly, she crept forward, following the sound. Halfway down the hall, sconces turned from iron to gold, art appeared on the walls, and then she saw a door.
The door was tall and wide, and fairytale-bright light spilled through, allowing her to spy through the crack and see the other side with ease.
Evangeline inched forward, about to open the door all the way, when she caught sight of Chaos on the other side. He was peering down at a row of people lying on the floor holding hands. Their clothes looked ancient, like something out of storybooks—lots of deep-dyed wool gowns and braided gold rope, pewter breastplates and spiky pauldrons.
Evangeline didn’t know what to make of it all until she glimpsed a face among the group, one that she’d seen once in a painting. The girl was even prettier than she’d looked in the portrait, and Evangeline instantly recognized her as Aurora Valor.
It was then she noticed the gold circlet crowning the head of the petite woman beside Aurora. The woman’s skin was a darker shade of olive, her hair was gleaming silver, and her face was serene. She must have been Aurora’s mother, Honora Valor.
The man lying beside Honora looked more battle-worn than handsome. He also had a crown on his head, and Evangeline imagined he must have been Wolfric Valor.
The family on the floor was the Valors.
They were what had been locked away in the Valory, not their treasure or their prisoners. Evangeline nearly staggered back at the realization. This was not what she had thought she’d find. But it made perfect sense—and it actually fit both of the stories she’d been told about the Valory. If the Valors had been trapped here, then the Valory was a sort of prison, one that locked away the Valors’ greatest magical treasure—because it contained them.
No wonder Chaos wanted it open. If the Valors had cursed him to wear the helm, then it stood to reason that they could take it off. Evangeline wondered then if Honora was one who could break the curse that was placed on Apollo. Jacks had said she was the world’s greatest healer.
It all made perfect sense—except Jacks’s belief that the Valory did not contain a loophole for him. If Honora could cure Apollo of the Archer’s curse, then maybe she could help Jacks, too.
Just then, the queen began to stir from her place on the floor. She was graceful, even as she stood on unsteady legs. Chaos seemed to watch her with bated breath, as if she might disappear. And Evangeline found herself doing the same.