Chapter 22 #2
“Aurora tried to break off the wedding to marry Lyric, but her father refused. Wolfric said Aurora was a silly girl who knew nothing of love.” Jacks’s mouth twisted wryly, and again, she couldn’t tell if he felt the same or not.
“Aurora knew that no one ever won a fight with Wolfric. So she told her father that she would go through with the marriage to Vengeance. But on the morning of the wedding, she ran away. That was when Vengeance learned of her affair with Lyric Merrywood, and let’s just say Vengeance lived up to his name. …”
The coach rumbled forward as Jacks trailed off. They’d left the gray and the ruins behind, returning to a world of crisp, white snow. The sun was out again, shining its cheery light and adding flecks of iridescent color to the ice on the trees.
Jacks turned away from the window as if he couldn’t stand the sight of it all.
Or perhaps it was the sign up ahead that he didn’t wish to see.
YOU ARE ENTERING THE LANDS OF HOUSE SLAUGHTERWOOD
Welcome, if you are a guest!
Beware, if you are not…
Evangeline doubted she would have felt warmed by this sign under any circumstances. But after Jacks’s story, the greeting felt especially unsettling.
She reminded herself that the story curse could have twisted part of Jacks’s tale.
But his story explained the two different engagement pictures she’d seen of Vengeance, and Jacks hadn’t struggled for words.
His quiet voice had possessed an understated confidence as if he’d not just heard the story but had been there to experience it.
Jacks had repeatedly told her he didn’t care about anyone or anything. But it was hard to believe him right now. Maybe that’s why he’d turned his head away from the light—so it wouldn’t shine on him and illuminate how he really felt.
The thought made something inside of her ache for him. Before she could think better of it, Evangeline leaned across the carriage and put her hand atop his.
Jacks sighed as if disappointed. “Don’t feel sorry for me, Little Fox. I told you, this place makes everyone sad.” He pulled his hand away with a scowl. But it couldn’t quite hide the sorrow that was still deep in his eyes.
She couldn’t help but feel for him. Again, she considered the idea that Jacks was hurting because he was Castor Valor.
The last of the Valors, the only survivor of a royal family whom the people of the North had seemed to love until they’d brutally killed them, and friend to a young man who had also been murdered.
But Castor Valor hadn’t been in this story, and neither had the third member of the Merrywood Three, the Archer.
Evangeline might not have pressed the matter. But Jacks had made it clear he didn’t want to be treated with care. And the more she thought about the story, the more she wondered if Jacks had only told it to her so that she’d feel as if he’d opened up and she wouldn’t ask more questions.
“Your story didn’t mention Lyric’s friends—Castor Valor and the Archer. Did Vengeance Slaughterwood kill them as well?”
“Only Castor,” Jacks said flatly. “He was the noble one out of the group. He’d tried to warn Lyric of the attack, but he ended up getting killed as well.”
Evangeline watched Jacks’s handsome face closely for any sign that he was lying—a flicker of something that would tell her he was really Castor—but Jacks could be so difficult to read sometimes.
All she sensed was that he fit somewhere into this story and that it had something to do with why he wanted to open the Valory Arch.
“If you really weren’t a member of the Merrywood Three, then how do you know all of this?”
“Everyone who was alive then knew the story. Aurora Valor was a princess, Castor was a prince, and Lyric and Vengeance were sons of lords.”
“What about the Archer?”
“He was no one,” Jacks said coldly, “except maybe to the Fox. But I’ve already told you how that story ended.” He gave her a smile that was all teeth, as if warning her away.
For a second, she wondered if perhaps she was wrong about him being Castor. Maybe Jacks was actually the Archer, and he wanted to open the Valory Arch to somehow save the Fox.
The thought should have felt romantic, but instead, it struck a false chord with Evangeline.
“Now,” Jacks said sharply, “it’s my turn to ask questions, and I want to know where you heard that ridiculous story about the arch stones destroying one of the Great Houses.”
Evangeline hesitated.
“Come now, Little Fox, you can’t expect me to tell you things if you won’t tell me things.”
“I went to see Tiberius,” she confessed.
“You what?” he snarled.
“Oh no—you don’t get to be upset. You were gone. You wrote me a note that was practically two words and left me alone in a castle full of vampires.”
“And because of that, you just thought you’d go have a chat with the person who tried to kill you twice?”
“I wasn’t having any luck in the library. I thought he might know where the stones were hidden.”
Jacks’s only response was a look that said he wanted to pull over the coach, take her up to an isolated tower, and throw away the key.
“He’s locked in a prison,” she said. “It was perfectly safe.”
“He wants you dead. That’s a powerful motive to try to escape.”
“But he didn’t,” Evangeline persisted. “What else was I supposed to do? You said yourself the books all lie.”
Jacks raked a violent hand through his hair. “Did Tiberius suggest we go to this party?”
“No, he refused to help, even after I told him that my life was linked to his brother’s.”
“You told him that?” Jacks’s nostrils flared. “If Tiberius shares this with anyone from the Protectorate, they’ll find and kill Apollo in order to kill you.”
For a flash, Jacks looked like he wanted to kill someone, too.
“Calm down, Jacks. When I visited Tiberius at the Tower, it looked as if the Protectorate had abandoned him. Even if I’m wrong, I truly don’t think that Tiberius would put his brother in danger again.
He wouldn’t help me open the arch, but he looked conflicted about it.
I don’t believe he really wants to kill his brother. ”
“You give people too much credit,” Jacks grumbled. “And you should have told me this right away.”
“Why, so you could kill him?”
“Yes.”
“No, Jacks. You can’t go around murdering people because they’re a problem.”
“You can’t save everyone and yourself. How do you think you’re going to get those stones?” His voice turned hard and a little mean. “Do you believe the owners will just hand them over because you give them a pretty smile? If the stones are here, people are going to die at this party.”
“No—I’m not going to kill anyone to get the stones. And neither are you.”
“Then why are we even here?” Jacks sneered.
The coach rolled over the mighty drawbridge that led to Slaughterwood Castle, and Evangeline took it as an excuse to look away from Jacks.
This was exactly why she was always reminding herself not to trust him.
Of course he would think the only way to get what they wanted was to murder someone for it.
Evangeline could not let Jacks ruin this.
She knew he was bitter about the past, and she didn’t blame him for that.
She also wondered if he thought LaLa’s engagement didn’t matter because as the Unwed Bride she was likely not to get married.
But Evangeline still refused to believe that.
In a world where there were Fates and magic and curses and prophecies, Evangeline couldn’t help but believe there was also the potential for everyone to find a happily ever after.
She squared her shoulders and turned back to Jacks with new determination. “LaLa is my friend, this is her engagement party, and it is going to be magical. No one is going to die at this celebration. You are not going to kill people while we’re here.”
Jacks leaned back in his seat and picked up his apple, mouth twisting into a sullen frown. “That’s a terrible plan, Little Fox.” He took a wide bite, sharp teeth tearing at the fruit. “Someone is going to die. It will either be one of them or one of us.”