Page 62 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

He slowly worked his jaw. “I lied,” he said. “I do wish that we could have had a different ending.” He uncorked the vial. “Goodbye, Evangeline.”

“Why are you saying goodbye?” She panicked as Jacks started to tilt the vial toward her.

She had no idea what was in it. She still didn’t believe he would hurt her. But she had no doubts he would leave her.

Was he planning to put her to sleep? Did he have some sort of sleeping potion inside the ampule?

She surged off the bed and knocked the vial out of his hand. It went flying.

“No!” Jacks tried to move, but for once he wasn’t fast enough.

Shimmering gold dust from the vial fell like a spell over the entire room. Evangeline could feel it dusting her cheeks, her lashes, her lips.

She told herself not to taste it. But whatever it was, it must have affected her upon contact. The bedroom was spinning enough to make the world seem pleasantly buzzy as all the gold dust shimmered around them. Jacks seemed to shine the most of all. In fact, he looked as if he was made to shine. His hair, his cheekbones, his sulky mouth were all beautifully golden and glowing.

It looked as if the powder might have been affecting him, too.

Evangeline watched as he tried to shake the shimmer from his hair, but his locks were still damp and the gold dust was stubborn. After a second, he gave up on shaking his hair and tried to scowl, but it just came across as petulant. Everything about Jacks that was usually sharp looked suddenly soft and just a touch bewildered.

“You are a menace,” he grumbled as the gold swirled around him. “That could have been poison!”

“You would have poisoned me?”

“I’ve been tempted on more than one occasion…” His eyes darkened as they lowered to her lips and stayed there.

Evangeline’s skin heated and she started to think that she and Jacks had very different definitions of poison.

Something prickled at the back of her mind.Jacks’s cruel mouth. Her lips. Death and kisses, and pairs of doomed stars.

The thoughts felt like fractured pieces of a memory. She tried to grab on, tried to remember. If she could just remember, maybe she could make him stay. But everything was so hazy in her head from the golden dust.

The room was growing warmer, and for a second, all she wanted to do was close her eyes and lie down on the bed until everything stopped swirling. But she feared that if she closed her eyes, when she opened them again, Jacks would be gone.For good this time.

He’d just told her goodbye. He’d said he wished their story could have had a different ending, as if they’d already reached the final page.

But Evangeline wanted more pages.

When Jacks averted his gaze and turned to go, she grabbed his wrist with both her hands. “I’m not letting you leave. You said you weremymonster. If you’re mine, why bring me here just to leave me? None of this makes sense.”

He gritted his teeth. “Being yours does not make you mine.”

If the shimmering gold powder was still affecting him, Evangeline couldn’t tell. All of his sharp corners were back as he stood there with his damp hair and his burning eyes. They were unearthly bright, almost fevered.

I can’t stay with you. You and I aren’t meant to be.

He pulled away—

But Evangeline held tight. She fought against the sleep overtaking her as she said, “I don’t believe you, Jacks. I might not remember everything about you. But I know you.I know that I know you,and I don’t believe there is anything you can’t do.”

“I can’t do this,” he said roughly.

This close she could see his eyes were glossy red around their edges. It almost looked like… blood?

He closed his eyes, as if he didn’t want her to see, but doing so only made him look more lost. Close and far away all at once.

She heard a drop of water fall. She thought it might be a tear, but it was rain from his doublet, dripping onto the floor.

The fire and gold dust had removed most of the chill, but their clothes were still soaked all the way through.

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