Page 73 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

He needed to let her go. She was scared again. He’d sensed something similar at the inn where he’d found her, but he hadn’t been sure until now. His mouth lingered on her neck, close enough to feel her pulse, rushing under his lips. Then he heard her suck in a sharp breath.

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.

Meet me at the border of the Merrywood and the road that leads to the Cursed Forest.

Be there at sunset.

Come alone, and I suggest you tell no one.

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 hadreturned. 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?”

---