Page 86 of A Curse for True Love (Once Upon a Broken Heart)

Please beat. Please beat,she quietly repeated, touching jar after jar after jar.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Just cool glass and more cool glass and—

Her fingers touched something that was not a jar or a glass. It felt like leather against her skin. Evangeline opened her eyes to find a white leather book with gold embossing on the spine.

“I wonder,” she mused. “Could it be possible that Aurora cut out the center of one of these books and put the heart inside?”

“I suppose anything is possible,” said LaLa, who went to work yanking books from shelves. She untied their ribbons, shook them, and turned them upside down to see if anything fell out—Evangeline heard a few keys clatter to the ground.Then she watched a long brown wig fall from one volume before LaLa recklessly tossed it to the floor. “It’s not the same as taking an ax to the door, but it feels rather good,” LaLa said, throwing another book over her shoulder.

Evangeline was more careful as she took the white leather volume from the shelf. The cover had no words, just another image of a wolf’s head wearing a crown.

Evangeline didn’t know if Jacks’s heart was hidden in this volume, but there was clearly something inside it. She could sense an otherness as she tried to open the book, but it refused to budge.Magic.

Evangeline quickly pricked her finger and drew her blood along the pages of the book as she said, “Please open.”

The book immediately obeyed.

The wordsAurora’s Book of Spellswere written carefully on the first page.

“What do you have there?” asked LaLa, just before she tossed another book on the floor.

“It’s Aurora’s spell book.” Evangeline turned the page, hoping to find a table of contents. But this book appeared to be more of a journal.

The first entry had a date, followed by a line that said:I attempted my first spell today.

“I don’t think you’re going to find Jacks’s heart in there,” said LaLa.

“I know, but perhaps I’ll find the spell Aurora plans to use to change Jacks’s heart or give him another one.”

“Or maybe we could find a spell to use on her,” LaLa suggested brightly.

Evangeline kept turning pages. The paper was old and brittle underneath her fingers as she carefully looked at entry after entry.

Aurora was determined, Evangeline had to give her that. Most of her early spells had failed, but that hadn’t seemed to stop her. She resolutely continued trying spells until at last she began to succeed.

I changed the color of my hair today! It is now a glorious shimmering violet. Although Jacks didn’t seem to notice.

“Of course he didn’t,” LaLa grumbled, reading over Evangeline’s shoulder.

Evangeline felt a brief flutter of something like happiness, but it quickly faded a few entries later.

My sister, Vesper, finally had a vision of Jacks’s future. “He’ll fall in love withaFox,” she said.

“What do you mean, a fox?” I asked.

But of course Vesper didn’t know. She’s still trying to master her visions. Right now they don’t always make sense. But I think I’ve brilliantly figured it out.

My brother, Castor, has been building a network of spies to keep the North safe—as if our father needs any help with that! Fortunately for me, Castor’s spies are very handy. One of them fancies me, of course. The other day, as he was undoubtedly trying to impress me, he told me of a peasant girl he’d met who could turn into a fox. He planned to tell my brother, thinking this girl would make an excellent spy.

I persuaded him otherwise.

This girlhasto be the “fox” that Jacks will love. Not that I’m letting that happen.

In fact, I may have already done something that I shouldn’t have done to prevent it. But it’s too late to change it now.

“It’s not too late to torture her,” said LaLa.

“I never trusted her,” Evangeline muttered. “But it’s still hard to believe that she could be this terrible.”

---