Again, he knew he should release her, but he couldn’t let her go. The pounding of her pulse triggered something inside him, an urge to keep her in his grasp. To hold her until she no longer wanted to escape.
“I thought we were over this nonsense about your not acting like my wife.” His arms tightened around her and—
It hurt! The pain was sudden and intense and so strong he couldn’t hold on to her. He doubled over. His vision went black and spotty.
It felt as if a burning knife had been plunged into his ribs, then twisted. But just as quickly as he felt the sharp stab of pain, it was gone.
When he could see again, Evangeline was watching him with a new kind of horror.
“Apollo, are you all right? What happened?” she asked, clutching both hands to her chest.
It was then that he noticed the cuff on her wrist. It was made of glass. That must have been how he had overlooked it before. He might not even have noticed it were it not faintly glowing, lit up with words in a language he could not read, although he feared that he knew what the words meant. What the cuff really was.
He wanted to ask where she found it, how it had become hers, why she wore it, if she knew what it did. But he assumed Evangeline had no idea what it was, and he didn’t want to draw attention to it. He also hoped that he was wrong.
Because if Apollo was right—if this was Vengeance Slaughterwood’s missing cuff of protection—then that meant Apollo had been about to hurt her.
He had to get control of himself.
“I’m fine,” he said, slowly backing away. “I just remembered something important I need to take care of.”
“What is it?” asked Evangeline.
“Boring, princely business. Don’t worry, I’ll be back shortly.” He might have tried to give her a goodbye kiss, but he didn’t trust himself. And he did have business to take care of.
As soon as he left the tent, Apollo pulled the note from Aurora Valor out of his sleeve.
Instead of her name, she’d drawn a wolf wearing a flower crown.
He burned the note as he passed the closest fire.
Apollo arrived at the crossroads early. He wanted to get this business with Aurora done as quickly as possible.
He’d ridden here on horseback, surprised at how much Merrywood Forest had already changed. Moss covered the rocks. New leaves grew on trees. Apollo could even hear sounds of life—deer and birds and crickets.
The Merrywood Forest had been reborn since the Valors had returned. It no longer felt like the haunted place he’d feared as a boy—and yet Apollo had never seen his horse so agitated. After he tied it to a tree that bordered the Merrywood Forest and the wet road to the Cursed Forest, the animal stomped and whinnied. When Apollo tried to feed it an apple, the horse knocked it from his hand.
He wondered if the beast was upset by how close they were to the enchanted road to the Cursed Forest, or if it was perhaps because of the arrival of Aurora Valor.
Aurora, of course, still looked like an angel as she rode toward Apollo on a horse that appeared to glow silver underneath the moonlight.
“Don’t look so sullen. It’s unattractive,” she scolded before hopping off her horse. “And believe it or not, Prince, I’m here to help you.”
“Like that last time you helped me?”
“Evangeline is yours, isn’t she?”
“For now,” Apollo grumbled. “I’m starting to fear that some of her memories might be creeping back.”
Aurora finished tying her horse to a tree. Unlike Apollo’s, her animal seemed perfectly content. “Why do you say that?”
“She’s acting strange. Do you have any more of that memory elixir?” he asked. And he hated himself for asking.
Aurora scoffed as she strode closer, her long silver skirts sweeping the forest floor. “You think that was an easy potion to come by?”
“You’re a Valor.”
“Yes. But our magic is not limitless. Do you imagine I just carry around bottles of magic with me?”
“You did that day.”
Aurora briefly pursed her lips shut. “Do you want to keep asking silly questions, Prince? Or would you like to become the sort of man your wife will never dare to think about leaving?”
Chapter 33
Evangeline
After Apollo left Evangeline in the tent alone, she studied the glass cuff that wrapped around her wrist. It was magical. She’d assumed as much, but she hadn’t known what it did until she’d seen Apollo double over in pain.
She held the glass closer to the candlelight. She had seen it light up with curious writing when Apollo had been clutching his stomach. She couldn’t make the letters appear again now; all she could see were the little cherry blossom flowers etched into the glass.
She wondered if it had been specifically enchanted against Apollo—if that’s why the strange words had appeared minutes ago when he’d touched her and she hadn’t wanted him to. It seemed like just the sort of enchantment Jacks would place on an object.
What she didn’t understand was why. If Jacks didn’t want Evangeline with Apollo, then why did he leave her with him? Why didn’t Jacks take me with him? she wondered. But she already knew the answer to that.
You and I aren’t meant to be.
Sorry to break your fairytale, Little Fox, but ballads don’t end happily, and neither do the two of us.
Every girl I’ve kissed has died, except for one. And you are not that girl.
I want to erase every moment you and I have spent together . . . because if I don’t, I’ll kill you, just like I killed the Fox.
Jacks had already given her all his reasons for leaving.
Although the last reason she recalled gave Evangeline pause. Jacks had wanted her to find all the Valory Arch stones, not so that he could open the Valory, but so that he could use them to turn back time and be with Donatella, the one girl he’d kissed who he hadn’t killed. But Jacks hadn’t done that. If he had, she wouldn’t have ever met him, and he’d be with Donatella in Valenda right now.
What had happened, then? There were four arch stones. Each one had a different magical power, but when all four stones were combined, they had the power to turn back time. But they could be used for this purpose only one time.
Had Jacks changed his mind about turning back time? Was he waiting to use the stones? Or had they already been used?
Before she’d gotten her memories back, Chaos had told her: I’m here because a friend of ours needs help—your help. He’s about to make a horrible decision and you need to change his mind before it’s too late to save him.
Clearly he’d been speaking about Jacks. But what was the horrible decision?
Evangeline had been heartbroken and terrified when she’d learned that Jacks wanted to go back in time and change the past so that she and he had never met. But this didn’t sound as if he was going to do that—this sounded like something else. Something possibly worse.
Evangeline needed to get out of this tent and find him.
She considered setting the tent on fire and then escaping in the melee. But fires could too easily get out of control, and she didn’t want to hurt anyone.
Unless it was Apollo. She did want to hurt him.
“I hope you appreciate just how much trouble I’ve gone to in order to break into this tent,” said a wonderfully familiar voice as Evangeline’s tent flapped closed.