He would no longer get sick or age; he would stay young and strong and healthy forever. He could still die if someone tried to kill him, but he would not perish of natural causes, and according to the scroll, the same magic that kept him youthful would also make it harder for him to be killed.
He might have thought it was too easy, but the scroll had also laid out that growing one of these trees was not a simple task. After Wolfric Valor had been given the very rare seed to plant this tree, he then had to feed the tree with his blood—every morning and every night for a full year. Miss one feeding and the tree would wither and die.
“I’m waiting a few more years,” said Aurora. “It’s hard enough being female. I don’t wish to be a young female forever.”
“At least you have some sense, although not enough for me to feel like calling you daughter right now,” bellowed a loud voice from the tunnel behind them.
Seconds later Wolfric Valor marched into the cavern, flanked by what looked like two of his sons. Like all the Valors, his sons seemed a little more than human.
Aurora flinched ever so slightly at their entrance. “You’re looking surly as ever, Father.”
Wolfric gave her a scathing look before turning to his sons and commanding, “Take her back to the camp. Her mother and I will deal with her there.”
Before they had even gone, Wolfric prowled toward Apollo.
Apollo reached for his weapon.
“Don’t bother,” Wolfric said. “I’m not here to kill you, boy. You have been good to my family, so I will give you one more warning about this tree. The only reason this tree is still here is because I cannot cut it down. If this tree dies, then I die. And before you get any ideas, I’m the only one who can cut it down.”
“I would never—”
“Don’t lie,” Wolfric cut in. “The fact that you’re here says you would do a lot. But do you know what you’re doing? Or did you simply just follow my cloud-headed daughter?”
Apollo thought about telling Wolfric that his daughter was more like a mastermind who had been blackmailing him, but he doubted that would help the situation.
“Do you want to know why I told you no when you asked me about this tree?” Wolfric continued. “Do you want to know what it costs to drink from the Tree of Souls? There is always a price to magic, and to gain eternal life, another life must be sacrificed. In this case, you would lose the life of the one you love the most. That’s the reason I was given the seed to plant this tree.”
Wolfric craned his neck to give the tree a bitterly appraising look. “When I was younger, I was a bit of a fool, like you. Once when visiting a neighboring kingdom, I saved the life of their princess. Her name was Serenity. She was pretty and I was a little friendlier than I should have been. Before leaving the kingdom, Serenity gave me the seed to plant this tree. She told me it was a thank-you for saving her life and I believed her. I thought myself deserving of immortality and didn’t think to ask any of my trusted advisors as to what this tree truly was before I fed it my blood every day.
“It was only after the tree was full-grown, just before I was about to finally drink its blood, that I learned Princess Serenity actually gave me the seed to this tree in hopes that I would plant it and that my wife would die as soon as I drank from its branches.
“After I’d saved her life, Serenity fancied herself in love with me. But she knew that I would never be with her unless Honora was dead. But I would rather die than hurt my wife.”
“So would I,” said Apollo. Everything he’d been doing had been to protect her.
“I hope you mean that,” said Wolfric gravely. “Do not come near this tree again or it will be the last thing you do.”
Chapter 36
Evangeline
What—no—how? No!” Evangeline panted, unable to properly string together words. She wanted to say that Jacks couldn’t have tried to kill her and that he would never hurt her. But she feared those words might not be true, and that if she said them aloud, it would make them even less true.
If Jacks truly never would have hurt her, it shouldn’t have been something that she needed to say at all.
Evangeline pressed her hands to her eyes, hoping to stop the tears that threatened to fall.
Chaos made a strained sound somewhere between a grunt and a clearing of his throat. She wondered if the vampire was trying to think of a way to comfort her or an excuse to leave, now that he had spirited her away from Jacks.
When she brought her hands down from her eyes, Chaos looked exquisitely uncomfortable. The vampire, clad in a black cape and smoke-gray leathers, leaned stiffly against a tree on the other side of the glowing spring.
Evangeline didn’t remember telling him to bring her to the glowing spring, but she must have. The place she found herself now was secluded and pretty, with illuminated waters that made the circle of trees around them shine with hues of greens and blues, while the rocks that surrounded the pool glittered in the bewitching light.
Everything looked touched by an ethereal breed of magic, except for Chaos. The magic touching him appeared to be a different sort.
The light of the water was bright enough that she could see the tips of his fangs were peeking out, growing longer and glowing brighter than the water as the moonlight hit their sharp points.
“Are you planning on biting me?” she asked.
“I just saved your life,” he said, but the words came out with a bit of a growl. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I feel as if that’s what people always say just before they hurt you.”
“Then you should feel lucky that I’m not technically a person.” His mouth moved up slightly at the corners.
Evangeline imagined he was trying to smile, but it looked more hungry than reassuring.
“What happened to Jacks?” she asked.
“I think you already know.” Chaos inclined his head in the direction of the glass cuff that wrapped around her wrist.
It wasn’t glowing now, but it had been when Jacks had tried to kiss her minutes ago, just as it had lit up when Apollo had been hurting her.
A buzzing started in Evangeline’s head, or maybe it had been there all along. Maybe the buzzing was there to keep her from thinking too much about what had just happened with Jacks and how he might have tried to kill her.
“That cuff is very old magic,” Chaos explained. “It was supposed to be a wedding gift from Vengeance Slaughterwood to my twin sister.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“I do. I believe the two of you are actually friends. Although I doubt you’ll still be friends after I finish this story. You know my sister as Aurora Vale, but originally her name was Aurora Valor.”
The mossy grounds around the spring felt suddenly unsteady under Evangeline’s feet. “Did you just say Valor?”
Chaos nodded while Evangeline’s thoughts raced to catch up. Within the last day, she’d remembered so much and been through so much, it was difficult to sort it all out. But she knew about the Valors. She’d studied them as she’d searched for the Valory Arch stones. But she’d never realized Chaos was one of them.
She felt instantly foolish. Minutes ago, Jacks had called him Castor, and Castor Valor had been Jacks’s close friend. He was supposed to be dead, just like all the other Valors—but clearly that wasn’t the case.