Although, to be fair, from Apollo’s standpoint he was: Jacks had put a love spell on him; then he’d put Apollo in a state of enchanted sleep. Jacks hadn’t put the mirror curse or the Archer’s curse on Apollo, but Evangeline wondered if Apollo knew that.
Even though her memories were returning, there were still a number of things she didn’t know. She still didn’t know what all was locked up inside the Valory.
No one had been able to tell her because of the story curse. But she had found she had stopped caring about the Valory’s contents as soon as she learned that Jacks didn’t actually want to open it; he had just wanted to use the Valory Arch stones to turn back time, in order to be with the girl who’d made his heart beat again. Donatella.
Remembering this part felt like reliving it again.
Evangeline’s heart shattered as she remembered Jacks saying, 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.
She’d tried to argue with him. I’m not that fox!
But Jacks had been resolute in his belief that there was no happy ending for the two of them. He’d told her he was the Archer.
And she knew, suddenly, that this was the reason her heart had broken when Madame Voss had first mentioned The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox. Not because of the name Archer, but because it was Jacks’s story and Evangeline knew how it ended. She knew that Jacks had killed the Fox and that he believed that he would someday kill Evangeline as well.
He’d believed this with so much unwavering conviction, he planned to turn back time to pursue a girl he didn’t love and make it so that he and Evangeline had never met, effectively erasing her memories and their story.
She remembered being hurt and furious and fighting with him about it after she’d opened the Valory Arch. She’d begged him to go with her, but he’d chosen to let her go instead. He’d told her, I just want you to leave.
And she had done just that. She had left.
But it was a complicated sort of leaving. Deep down she knew Jacks cared for her. She believed he wanted her. But she also knew that he was so afraid of killing her, he was never going to choose her. He believed he’d already found his true love and it wasn’t Evangeline.
But Evangeline had also never told him she’d loved him. He’d been scared, but she had been, too. She had said that she wished their story could have had a different ending, but she should have told him how she loved him. Love was the world’s most powerful magic.
But love had failed her that night. It hadn’t been enough.
She was still in love with Jacks, and yet both past and present Evangeline felt as if they’d lost him.
Past Evangeline felt so naive to present-day Evangeline as she remembered rushing to find Jacks, believing that if she could just tell him that she loved him, it would fix everything.
Clearly it hadn’t.
And yet, a part of present-day Evangeline envied her former self’s effortless belief in hope and the magic of love.
Evangeline could still hope, but it hadn’t felt quite the same since that night. She wondered now if it was because that was the night she’d lost Jacks, despite believing and hoping and chasing.
When she’d raced back to the room with the Valory Arch, to tell him that she loved him, Jacks hadn’t been there.
She didn’t think he’d turned back time, because she could still remember him. She could also see all four of the magical Valory Arch stones.
But there was no Jacks, only his blood staining the wings of the stone angels who guarded the Valory Arch.
Then Apollo was there. She’d thought he’d let her leave. All she’d done was cause him pain. He was better off without her, but he wouldn’t let her go.
Evangeline had actually never been one to believe in fate, but for a second it was hard to believe in love as she finally remembered Apollo ripping away her memories.
He’d stroked her hair as he stole each memory one by one. Evangeline had tried to stop him. She had struggled and begged and cried.
But he had just kept calmly saying, “It will be better soon.”
“You bastard!” Evangeline had wanted to hit him, hurt him, but all she managed to hit was the mattress as she finally woke from the dreamlike state her memories had plunged her into.
She found herself returned to the present. To the forest-green bed that Jacks had laid her down upon last night.
Only now there was no Jacks.
Evangeline could feel his absence the way she used to feel his presence before she’d lost her memories. It was a prickling chill all over her skin that left her cold and afraid.
She told herself not to panic.
But she was still reeling from the merging of her past and her present. She couldn’t just remember Apollo stealing her memories, she could feel it. Now she understood why her heart had beat out danger, danger, danger, that first night with Apollo on that rooftop. But she hadn’t listened to her heart; instead she had kissed him.
Was this why Jacks had left her? Did he think she was in love with Apollo?
The idea made her so sick, it was difficult to push herself out of the bed. But Evangeline needed to find Jacks. She needed to explain that she had remembered. And she had to tell him that she loved him.
When she looked at Jacks’s actions, most of them seemed to say he loved her, too. He kept coming back, kept protecting her. But he also kept leaving her.
Nervously, she reached for her discarded dress. That was when she saw it on her arm.
There was a wide glass cuff encircling her right wrist. It was cool to the touch and crystal clear, and when Evangeline tugged, it wouldn’t come off.
There didn’t appear to be any type of clasp, and it was too narrow for her to slip over her hand. Someone must have welded it on somehow.
What had Jacks done?
Because she knew it was Jacks. It had to be Jacks. He’d planned to bring her here and put her to sleep with the gold dust. It must have been so that he could put this cuff on her. But why?
Evangeline studied the uncanny glass object. It had appeared at first glance to be plain, but now she could see that it was etched with delicate cherry blossoms that curled around the cuff as if they were flowers stretching out from a tree.
She tried to remember if she’d ever heard a story about a bracelet like this, but she couldn’t recall anything. And cuff or no cuff, she needed to leave. She had to find Jacks before Apollo found her.
By now Apollo no doubt knew she was missing and had probably sent half the army to search for her.
Evangeline wriggled into her dress. Then she grabbed her cloak, threw it around her shoulders, covered her hair with her hood, and started for the door. She hadn’t really paid much attention to it upon entry, as she’d been more wrapped up in the fact that she’d been wrapped up in Jacks’s arms.
Now she noticed that it was a prettyish door. Instead of a simple rectangle, the door came to a dramatic point at its top. It was a slightly faded green with a lovely gold patina. The doorknob might have been a little bit lovely as well, but Evangeline couldn’t properly see the handle beyond the splashes of blood. Deep red blood sparkling with flecks of gold covered the entire doorknob.
She flashed back to the night she’d opened the Valory Arch, when she’d found Jacks’s blood all over the stones.