Page 97 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

“No!”

“Calm down, darling.” He shackled her arms first, behind her back.

“Don’t do this!” she screamed and thrashed, kicking both legs wildly.

She got him in the shoulder once. But then he managed to grab her and bind both legs at the ankles.

He immediately stumbled away once it was done. The pain was nearly unbearable now. Apollo doubled over and retched at the side of the tunnel where he’d brought her.

He thought about leaving her there. He wasn’t sure how much more pain he could handle. And he wasn’t even certain he needed her there with him.

But he still loved her. He looked at her, bound on the ground, pink hair clinging to her cheeks as she cried. She’d betrayed him and broken his heart, but if she had only a few minutes left on this earth, he wanted them to be together.

“Don’t worry, my sweet, soon enough this will all be over,” he whispered. Then he picked her up once again and carried her in his arms.

45Jacks

All Jacks could see was smoke. Thick and gray, it burned his eyes and his throat. But he needed to find her.

“Jacks! Help me! Jacks!” He could hear her voice. It was tiny and terrified. He’d never heard her sound so small before.

It didn’t even sound like her after the initial few cries.

At first her voice had been like the smoke—he’d heard it everywhere. Screaming his name, calling for him. But then no matter where he went, Evangeline sounded farther away.

“Jacks!”

“I’m coming, Little Fox!”

Sweat dripped down his neck as he ran through the smoke.

“Jacks—over here—” She broke off with a hacking cough.

But she sounded closer now.

He chased the sound of her cough, farther away from the burning tree, away from the smoke.

The air was still thick with dirty soot. But he could see again through all the grimness, through the ash. He could make out a tree in the clearing that hadn’t caught fire. An ordinary oak tree with a violet-haired girl leaning against the bark, hand on one hip of her iridescent dress as she brought the other hand to her lips and feigned another cough.

Aurora.

Not Evangeline.

“I’m guessing I’m not who you expected,” Aurora said sweetly.

He hated the sound of her voice. He had never liked it before, but now he wished that he could grab hold of the voice and toss it into the flames of the burning phoenix tree behind him.

“Where is she?” Jacks snarled.

Aurora pouted. “Why do you think I would know?”

He slowly clenched and then unclenched his fists. He was trying to be nice because this was Castor’s twin sister. But how many times had he done that? Made excuses for Aurora because of who she was? Told himself she wasn’t dangerous because she had something he wanted? He knew she wasn’t the one who’d set fire to the phoenix tree, but she’d just lured him away from Evangeline. And whether she knew where Evangeline was or not, he wanted to hurt her—badly.

“I’m going to give you one more chance.” Jacks reached out and took Aurora by the throat. “Where is Evangeline?”

Aurora pursed her lips.

“Do you want to die?” Jacks squeezed lightly. “Is that what you want, Aurora? Because I’m this close.”

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