The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart #2)(2)
Evangeline clutched her lantern like a sword.
“Go away, Jacks.” It had only been two days since she’d had the guards remove him, and she’d hoped he would have stayed away longer—forever would have been ideal. “I know what you did, and I don’t want to see you.”
Jacks shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. His smoke-gray shirt was loosely tucked in, with sleeves shoved up lean arms and buttons missing at the throat. With his tousled hair now golden instead of seductive midnight blue, he looked more reckless stableboy than calculating Fate. But Evangeline knew she could never let herself forget what Jacks truly was. He was obsessive and driven and entirely without morals or conscience.
The stories said his kiss was deadly to all except his one true love, and as he’d searched for her, he’d left a trail of corpses. Evangeline had once been naive enough to believe that meant the Prince of Hearts understood heartbreak because his heart had broken over and over as he looked for love. But now it was crystal clear—he was the one who did the breaking, because he didn’t know how to love.
Jacks spoke softly. “I understand if you’re upset—”
“If,” Evangeline cut in. “You poisoned my husband!”
Jacks lifted his shoulders in an insouciant shrug. “I didn’t kill him.”
“That’s not something you earn points for.” She fought to keep her voice from cracking.
Until then, Evangeline hadn’t realized that a part of her still held on to a sliver of hope that Jacks was innocent. But he wasn’t even trying to deny it. He didn’t care that Apollo was little more than a corpse, just as he hadn’t cared when Evangeline had been turned to stone.
“You need to stop holding me to human standards,” Jacks drawled. “I’m a Fate.”
“That’s exactly why I don’t want to see you. Since I met you, my first love was turned to stone, I was turned to stone, then I was turned into a fugitive, multiple people have tried to murder me, and you poisoned my husband—”
“You already said that one.”
Evangeline glowered.
Jacks sighed and leaned against a nearby bookshelf as if her feelings were the emotional equivalent of a sneeze—something to be gotten over quickly, or avoided simply by stepping out of the way. “I’m not going to apologize for being what I am. And you’re conveniently forgetting that before we met, you were a sad orphan with a broken heart and a wicked stepsister. After I stepped in, you became the sweetheart savior of Valenda, married a prince, and became a princess.”
“Those things only happened because they served your twisted interests.” Evangeline seethed. Everything he’d done for her was just so that he could use her to open the Valory Arch. “Children treat their toys better than you’ve treated me.”
Jacks’s eyes narrowed. “Then why didn’t you stab me, Little Fox? The other night in the crypt, I threw you a dagger, and I was close enough for you to use it.” His gaze sparked with fresh amusement as it lowered to her neck. To the exact place his mouth had lingered three nights ago.
She blushed at the unwanted memory of his teeth and tongue on her skin. He’d been infected with vampire venom, and she’d been infected with stupidity.
She’d stayed with him that night to keep him occupied so he wouldn’t feed on human blood and become a vampire himself. He hadn’t, but he’d fed on her sympathy instead. Jacks had told her the story of the girl who’d made his heart beat again—Princess Donatella. She was supposed to be his one true love, but instead of filling that role, Princess Donatella had chosen another and stabbed Jacks in the chest.
After hearing that story, Evangeline had started to see Jacks as the sympathetic Prince of Hearts that she had first gone to for help. But Jacks was all broken without any heart. And she needed to stop hoping that he could be more.
“I made a mistake that night in the crypt.” Evangeline banished the blush from her cheeks and looked straight into Jacks’s inhuman eyes. “But give me another chance and I won’t hesitate to stab you.”
He smirked, flashing dimples he didn’t deserve. “I’m almost tempted to test that claim. But you’ll have to do more than wound me if you wish to get rid of me.” Jacks pulled an intensely white apple from his pocket and started tossing it. “If you really want me out of your life forever, help me find the missing stones and open the Valory Arch. Then I promise you’ll never see me again.”
“As much as I’d love that, I’m never going to open that arch for you.”
“What about for Apollo?”
Evangeline felt a sharp stab of pain for the prince and another flare of anger for Jacks. “Don’t you dare say his name.”
Jacks grinned wider, looking oddly pleased by her anger. “If you agree to help me, I’ll wake him from his suspended state.”
“If you actually believe I would do that, you’re delusional.” Her first bargain with Jacks was the start of this entire mess. There would be no more deals with him, no more partnerships, no more anything. “I don’t need you to save Apollo. I’ve found another way.” Evangeline lifted her chin toward the sealed library door. It was still half-covered in shadow, but she swore the crowned wolf’s head grinned as if it knew that she was the one who’d finally open its lock.