Page 87 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

Although Aurora hadn’t written what she’d done, Evangeline imagined she knew.

Jacks had once told Evangeline the story of how he’d become the Archer fromThe Ballad of the Archer and the Fox.How he’d been hired to hunt a fox, but then he’d found out the fox was actually a girl—a girl he’d started to fall in love with. He’d told the men who’d hired him, certain they’d made a mistake in asking him to hunt a girl, but instead of freeing Jacks from his contract, a spell was placed on him that forced him to not only hunt but to kill the fox girl. Jacks fought against the spell and didn’t shoot the girl—but then he kissed her and she died.

“Do you think this means Aurora put both curses on Jacks—the Archer’s curse, and the curse that made his kiss fatal?”

“I wouldn’t put it past her,” said LaLa. “Aurora took Jacks’s heart. I think that falls under the rule ofIf I can’t have him, then no one else can.”

39Evangeline

More festival bunting seemed to have sprouted overnight. Merry little triangle flags in all sorts of fabrics and colors covered the entirety of the bustling Merrywood Village—striped peach, mint green, speckled robin’s-egg blue, sunset pink, and polka-dot purple all waving happily in the gentle breeze.

The brilliant yellow sun was beating down, unobstructed by clouds, although there was a dampness in the air that made Evangeline feel as if it might rain, even without the clouds. She pictured the sky cracking open as if cut by a knife.

Discreetly she adjusted the wig she’d taken from Aurora’s lair, the brown one that had fallen out of one of the books. Evangeline hoped it would help her blend in and avoid anyguards as she and LaLa searched for Aurora. The plan was to find the former princess among the festivalgoers, then follow her in the hopes she would lead them to wherever she was actually keeping Jacks’s heart.

Yesterday Aurora had mentioned her interest in all the Merrywood festival booths and treats and pretty things. Thinking back now, Evangeline remembered how happy Aurora had seemed, how she’d worn a flower crown and a buoyant smile. In hindsight, Evangeline wondered if that joy had in fact been because she finally had taken Jacks’s heart.

Evangeline scanned the crowd for Aurora, looking past the vendors of saws and hammers, berries and beer, and endless baubles. Around them, children giggled and squealed as they ran with spinning paper pinwheels. Happiness swirled through the air like pollen. It was everywhere, touching everything except for Evangeline. All she could feel was a tightness around her chest, a sense that time was closing in on her.

It had already been a day since Aurora had taken Jacks’s heart.

What if Evangeline was too late? What if the reason she couldn’t see Aurora was because she was off somewhere with Jacks and his heart had already been changed? What if—

“Do you see the evil princess anywhere?” asked LaLa.

Evangeline shook her head. She saw people bartering, chattering, and helping to rebuild. But she did not see a girl with violet hair.

“Dragon-roasted apples, get your dragon-roasted apples!”cried a vendor wheeling a sweet red cart. It appeared to have been carefully painted. The wordsDragon-Roasted Appleswere written in an elaborate curling script, and around them were delicate paintings of little apples and outlines of adorable dragons.

He slowed the cart to a stop in front of LaLa.

“We’re not interested, thank you,” said LaLa.

“But someone has already bought something for the young miss.” The vendor, a young man with a friendly, open face, smiled. But it was a little off, a little wrong, like a grin that a child might have added to a master’s painting.

The vendor’s fingers trembled as he handed Evangeline a small scroll tied up with a crisp white ribbon. “I was asked to give you this first.”

Nervously she unrolled the scroll.

Do not look for me.

There was no name, no initial, but Evangeline instantly knew who it was from.Jacks.

She turned back to the apple roaster. If Jacks was telling her not to look for him, then he was thinking about her. There was still hope.

“When was this given to you?” she asked.

But the young man didn’t answer. He didn’t even look at her. The vendor appeared to be in some sort of trance as he poured a sack of sugar over the top of his precious apple cart and then turned to his little dragons. There were three of them. One was brown, one was green, one was peach.

“It’s time,” the young man said quietly.

The dragons whimpered.

“Just do as I say,” he muttered, still ignoring Evangeline.

He must have been under Jacks’s influence, Evangeline realized with a start. She’d seen Jacks do this before, control other people, but in the past, it had always been to protect her.

She had a horrible feeling that was not the case now as she watched the vendor swipe a tear from his eyes right as the dragons breathed out sparks of fire, igniting the sugar. In seconds, the entire cart was blazing, covered in white and orange flames. The vendor stood motionless beside it, as though pinned to the spot.

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