Page 71 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

32Apollo

The first time Apollo met Aurora Valor, he had thought she was an angel. She was beautiful and he felt more like a ghost than a prince.

Earlier that night, he’d been caged on top of a bed in a vampire’s underground lair. Evangeline had locked him in after he’d kissed her and then lost control, nearly killing her.

Once she’d left him trapped in the cage, Apollo had thought the vampires were going to kill him, and he’d almost wanted to die. He was cursed, truly cursed—not the way people said they were cursed when they merely had bad luck.

One curse, and Apollo might actually have been glad of it. Aprince who’d been cursed once could go on to become a legend, but Apollo had been cursed three times, and nearly killed just as many times—once by his own brother.

He was ready to let the vampires drain him of blood as long as it was quick. But then a woman had entered the room. He hadn’t known her name, not then anyway. He’d just closed his eyes and waited for her to bite. But this woman hadn’t been a vampire. This woman had been Honora Valor, and somehow she cured him from the Archer’s curse and the mirror curse. But it was one of those situations in which the remedy initially felt nearly as bad as the afflictions.

The cures left Apollo suddenly untethered. His connection to Evangeline had been severed and he wanted it back. He didn’t want to be cursed, but he wanted her; the wanting didn’t end just because the curses had.

If anything, he wanted her even more. Now that he didn’t feel compelled to hurt her, to hunt her, he could finally make her his.

But he knew it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t simple at all.

For most of his life, Apollo had always been given what he wanted. As a prince, he was not used to wishing for anything. He was used to taking and getting. But for the first time, Apollo feared he might not get what he wanted.

He’d tried to kill Evangeline. He’d shot and strangled her. The bruises were probably still on her neck from where his hands had squeezed.

He hoped she’d forgive him. He’d been cursed. Unable tohelp it. Surely she’d understand. But what if Evangeline never forgot what he had done?

What if, whenever he tried to kiss her, it made her flash back to when he’d also tried to kill her?

Then there was Lord Jacks. Apollo’s former friend.

Apollo had never been in competition with another man. Who could compete with a prince who would be king? But when Apollo had tried to kill Evangeline, he had seen the way that she had looked at Jacks after he’d stormed into the room to rescue her. As if Jacks was her savior, her hero.

Something had changed between them.

And Apollo didn’t know what to do about it.

Before Honora had left him, she’d lifted the bars of the cage. He’d been free to go. But Apollo hadn’t been able to move. He had been too nervous and afraid to leave the room.

Then Aurora had appeared in the doorway like an angel.

She wasn’t just beautiful, she was ethereal, with a sweet voice that said all the words he wanted to hear. “Someone as handsome as you shouldn’t ever look so sad,” she’d told him. And she’d known things, and not just that he was a prince—which everyone was aware of. She knew about the Archer’s curse that had forced him to hunt down his wife.

“I could help you fix it all,” she said. Then she had offered him an elixir. “Drink this, and for a short while you will have the power to erase it all from her memories. You can start afresh. You can remove whatever memories from her that you wish and rewrite a new story.”

Apollo should have asked more questions.

But he hadn’t wanted to know the answers. He’d drunk the elixir and regretted it right away.

How could he even consider erasing Evangeline’s memories? He wouldn’t do it. He’d let the power wear off. Even in his fractured state, Apollo knew it would have been an unforgivable violation.

But then he’d left the cell and found Evangeline, and she’d looked at him as if she was letting him go. She’d said that she wished Jacks didn’t have such a hold on her, and then she told Apollo she was sorry.

She was choosing Jacks.

She was choosing wrong.

She was deceived just like Apollo had been when he’d thought Jacks was his friend.

Apollo had to stop her. He had to save her.

He didn’t want to hurt Evangeline. He tried to make it painless for her. He’d held her as she cried and promised, silently, that together they would make new memories. Beautiful, extraordinary memories. And he would never do anything like this to her again.

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