Page 58 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

“It was Lord Byron Belleflower. Do you know him?”

“We’ve met. Spoiled, rich, mostly useless.”

“Do you know why he would want me dead? He said something about Petra?”

Jacks flinched. It was so quick, almost imperceptible, that Evangeline wondered if she’d imagined it.

When he spoke again, he sounded almost bored. “Petra was a nasty wench. She was Belleflower’s lover until she died recently. But you had nothing to do with that.”

“Then why does he want to kill me?”

“I have no idea.” Jacks sounded slightly annoyed now. “At this point, I’m just assuming everyone wants you dead.”

“Does that include you?”

“No.” There wasn’t even a second of hesitation. “But it doesn’t mean I’m safe.”

He looked at her then, meeting her eyes for the first time since he’d pressed his forehead to hers and pleaded with her to remember. He had the brightest, bluest eyes she’d ever seen. But as they stood there in the forest, his eyes looked paler than before, a ghostly shade of blue that made her think of lights on the verge of flickering out.

“I don’t believe you’re going to hurt me,” she said.

The color of his eyes became dimmer.

You’ll feel very differently soon.

The words were only in her head, but they sounded just like Jacks’s voice, and for a second, there was a terrible falling feeling in her stomach.

A bird cawed above, loud and shrill.

Evangeline looked up.

A dark, familiar creature with wings circled above them.

Her heart skipped over a beat as she had a flash of the very same creature biting her shoulder. “Oh no!”

“What’s wrong?” Jacks asked.

“That bird,” Evangeline whispered. “It belongs to the leader of the Guild of Heroes. He’s hunting you.”

With his free hand, Jacks pulled a knife from the holster on his leg.

“No!” Evangeline quickly grabbed his wrist.

Jacks scowled. “Don’t tell me I’m not allowed to kill birds now.”

“It’s a pet, and it shouldn’t be condemned because of its master.”

Jacks looked at Evangeline as if she made absolutely no sense to him. But he put away the knife. “Let’s just hope this pet bird is living its best day full of fat rabbits and not focusing on us.”

“Thank you,” said Evangeline.

“I don’t think I really did you a favor.”

“But it was what I wanted.”

Jacks looked as if he wanted to say something else about herwants,but then he tugged her forward through the forest by her wrist.

Evangeline didn’t know how long they walked after that, but eventually the vivid forest turned to mist. The flowers and the vines binding them together disappeared, fading like a dream that could live only in the sun.

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