Page 78 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

She couldn’t see so much as a scratch on his beautiful face. Evangeline felt as if she could breathe again. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how worried she’d actually been.

“Did I scare you, pet?”

“No—I mean, yes—not really,” she said, flustered, although she couldn’t have said why. She was going to go out searching for him and now here he was. Being very Jacks-like.

He tossed a pale white apple as he moved through the forest, the way a shadow might move at sunset. Slow and quick, all at once. He’d been several feet away, but now he was in front of her, looking down on her with clear blue eyes that shone in the dark.

“I remember,” she breathed.

“Do you now?” He smiled, and just like everything else, it was a very Jacks-like smile. Sharper at one corner, giving the impression of being both cruel and playful all at once. It reminded her vaguely of the first time they’d met, when she’d thought he looked like a half-bored young noble, half-wicked demigod.

“Tell me, pet, just how much do you remember?” The tips of his cool fingers found the base of her neck.

Her pulse spiked. Just a little, and yet it was enough to erase some of the warmth inside of her as Jacks slid his fingers from the hollow of her throat up to the line of her jaw.

This, too, felt like Jacks.

And yet… her heart was beatingwrong, wrong, wrong,and she was now thinking about how he’d called her pet twice. Not Little Fox, not Evangeline.

But the problem with wanting something you can’t have, or shouldn’t have, is that the second it seems possible, all reason flees. Reason and wanting go well together only when the reason encourages a person to get what they want. Any reason opposed to this want becomes the enemy. A distant part of Evangeline told her that Jacks was acting strange, and that shedidn’t like it when he called her pet. But the part of Evangeline that wanted Jacks to love her tried to ignore this instinct.

“I remember all of it,” she said. “I remember everything from the moment we met in your church to the night at the Valory Arch. I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jacks said flippantly, still smiling crookedly as he dropped the apple in his hand. It fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Evangeline. Back away from him,” called a smoky voice through the trees. It was vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place it until Chaos carefully stepped closer. “He’s not safe right now.”

“I’m never safe,” Jacks said. Then with a smirk toward his old friend, he added, “Playing the hero doesn’t suit you, Castor.”

“At least I don’t give up just because I fail.”

“I’m not giving up,” Jacks drawled. “I’m giving the girl what she wants.” His fingers moved down her jaw to Evangeline’s chin. For a second, time seemed to slow as he carefully lifted her chin in a way that made her think of only one thing:kissing.

Evangeline felt suddenly sober.

“Isn’t this what you want?” Jacks whispered.

Yes, she wanted to say. But again, she could hear that small, reasonable voice telling her that this was wrong. Jacks was supposed to tease her, taunt her, touch her, but never try to kiss her. He didn’t believe they could kiss. He believed in doomed love and unhappily ever after.

And Evangeline still wanted to prove him wrong.

She might have felt suddenly terrified as he leaned in closer.Yet she couldn’t make herself pull away as Jacks brought his lips to—

He immediately doubled over in pain and cursed loudly, saying words Evangeline had never heard anyone utter. His face contorted, turning bone white as he clutched his ribs before dropping to his knees with a groan.

“What’s happening?”

She bent down to help him. And that’s when she noticed the words on the cuff around her wrist had started glowing again.

“Sorry about this.” Chaos’s hot arms went around her, nearly scorching her as he picked her up. “We need to leave before Jacks tries to kill you again.”

35Apollo

Aurora dropped flower petals on the path as she walked. She tossed them out before her like some fairy goddess of the forest. And the path to the Cursed Forest treated her as such.

It always rained on the roads to the Cursed Forest—except where Aurora Valor walked. As soon as she tossed her petals and took a step, the rain fell no more. All Apollo felt was a subtle breeze as he walked in step beside her on a path paved in shoes and lined in overturned carriages, some of which still had wheels spinning.

“You haven’t told me what this will cost,” said Apollo, “or where we are going.”

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