The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart #2)(6)

Evangeline knew she needed to ask about a cure for Apollo. As Havelock had reminded her, she didn’t have much time. But celebrating another person’s joy was important, and LaLa was her only friend in the North.

Evangeline gave herself a few minutes to enjoy the cake along with her friend’s happiness as LaLa told the tale of how she and Robin had met and become engaged in just a matter of days. “If you ever want to get married again, pretending to be a damsel in distress always seems to work for me in the North.”

Evangeline laughed, but it must not have been very convincing.

LaLa’s face immediately fell. Her eyes flickered over Evangeline’s gown. She’d taken off her cloak, revealing a Northern mourning gown—pure white silk covered in an elaborate design of black velvet webbing. “Oh, my friend. I’m so sorry—I forgot you’re still in mourning for Apollo. This has all been quite insensitive of me, hasn’t it?”

As a Fate, LaLa did not experience the same range of human emotions, but this was actually one of the things that Evangeline liked about her friend. While Jacks’s lack of humanity made him cold-blooded and remorseless and the bane of her existence, LaLa’s seemed to make her more authentic and forthright.

“Please don’t feel bad. I’m not truly in mourning,” Evangeline confessed, and the rest of the words all seemed to rush out. “Apollo is alive. The stories you heard about his brother poisoning him weren’t entirely true. It was actually Jacks who did it—he put Apollo in a state of suspended sleep to manipulate me.” Evangeline wasn’t sure how much LaLa knew about the Valory Arch. Apollo had once told her that the Northerners believed the story to be more fairytale than fact, and very few people knew what the prophecy was. So Evangeline explained almost everything. “Jacks believes I’m prophesied to be the one key capable of unlocking the arch, and he said that he’ll only cure Apollo if I find the stones and open the arch for him.”

“Oh my.” LaLa paled, skin going gray as her eyes took on a doe-like fright.

It was the first time Evangeline had ever seen her close to scared.

“Don’t worry,” Evangeline said quickly. “I’m not planning on opening the arch for Jacks. I came here to see if you could cure Apollo.”

“I’m so sorry, my friend. Although I do know a bit about potions and spells, the ones I’ve used were not generally for good, and I’ve never put anyone in a suspended state. It’s very old magic. I believe Honora Valor would use it during wars when there were too many people to mend at once. She’d suspend those that she and her other healers couldn’t get to right away.”

Evangeline tried not to be disappointed. This was more or less what other healers had told her. “Are you sure you don’t know anything else? I’ll take any information you have. The new heir arrives tomorrow and—”

“You should open the arch for Jacks,” LaLa interrupted.

“What?” Evangeline thought perhaps she’d misunderstood. Moments ago, Evangeline would have sworn that LaLa had looked haunted. But now her gaze was clear.

Had Evangeline misread her before, or was she misreading her now?

“Don’t you want to save Apollo?” LaLa asked.

Evangeline felt a shiver of guilt. There were moments when she asked herself this question as well. She wanted to save him, but sometimes she feared she didn’t want it enough. She couldn’t say that she and Apollo were in love. But she did feel a tie to him. They were connected. She wasn’t sure if it was a remnant of Jacks’s love spell, if it was their marriage vows, or if Fate had simply entwined their paths, but she knew her future was linked to his.

She thought of the letter she’d tucked away in her pocket, the one she’d memorized because she’d read it so much.





Evangeline had found the note in Apollo’s chamber after she’d been cleared of his murder. At first, the words had made her cry. Then the words had made her hope.

Apollo had been under a love spell the entire time they’d been engaged, but she swore there were moments of affection that had felt real between them. This letter felt like confirmation of that. It felt real and made her believe even more that Apollo had truly experienced times when he wasn’t under a spell. This letter didn’t feel like the writing of a bewitched young man, it felt like a genuine glimpse of the prince—a prince who felt the same way she did.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to save Apollo, except for opening the arch for Jacks. You can’t really think I should do that?”

LaLa pursed her lips, looking briefly torn. But when she spoke again, her voice was resolute and clear and perfectly disturbing. “The Valory does not hold what you think. If I were you, I would open the arch.”

“You know what’s inside it?” Evangeline asked.

“The Valory is either a treasure chest, which protects the Valors’ greatest magical gifts, or it’s a door to an enchanted prison that locks away all manner of magic beings, including an abomination that the Valors created—” LaLa broke off with a scowl. “I hate this story curse.”

She set her half-finished cake on the table with a loud clack, took Evangeline’s hands, and then appeared to concentrate very hard. But this time, when she tried to tell Evangeline what she believed was in the arch, the only words that came out were gibberish.