Chapter 25 #2
She felt instantly guilty about it. She had no reason to dislike this Petra Youngblood. It was jealous and petty—undoubtedly another side effect of the youth stone. Doing her best to shove the feelings aside, Evangeline said, “It’s lovely to meet you. I’m Evangeline.”
“I think everyone here knows that,” Petra said with a conspiratorial wink.
She was friendlier than Evangeline would have imagined.
As they chatted, it became easier to shove aside any lingering feelings of jealousy.
In fact, after a few minutes, Evangeline was suddenly struck with a peculiarly familiar feeling that she and Petra had met before, or at the very least crossed paths prior to tonight.
“Were you at my wedding?”
“Oh no.” Petra laughed softly. “I’m a Youngblood.”
“I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with that name.”
“Exactly,” Petra said wryly. “People like me, who aren’t from one of the Great Houses, don’t get invited to royal weddings in Valorfell. I’m lucky to have been asked here.”
“It didn’t really look that way to me, given how all the gentlemen seemed to respond to you.” Evangeline regretted the petty words as soon as they were out.
But Petra only widened her pretty smile.
“It seems you’re not as naive as they say, after all.
Although, perhaps you should pay a little more attention to the gentleman you came here with.
” Petra’s eyes slowly swept around all the lords and ladies at the table until she eventually paused at the far end where—
Jacks was gone. His seat was vacant; all that remained was an apple core left on his otherwise empty plate. The seat beside his was empty as well—the one where the tall Darling girl had been.
Evangeline felt her stomach drop. She hoped that Jacks hadn’t snuck off with this girl to do what Evangeline suddenly feared he might do.
But he wouldn’t do that. He couldn’t do that. He’d promised not to kill anyone.
Evangeline cast a nervous look about the hall.
Maybe he’d just taken the Darling girl to look at the trebuchet. Or—
“You might want to look toward the portrait door.” Petra slowly pointed a gloved finger toward a gilded frame that was slightly cracked away from the wall, revealing an entry behind it.
Evangeline quickly shoved up from the table.
“Wait—” The girl grabbed Evangeline’s wrist. For a second, she looked surprisingly concerned. “Just let them go, Princess. All you’re going to do is embarrass yourself.”
Other people were, indeed, looking her way, judging her over the rims of their goblets.
Her pride warred with her to sit back down.
There was a chance she was wrong about what Jacks had gone off to do.
But she doubted that. If Jacks had covertly left with another girl, she didn’t imagine he was simply playing checkers. He was going to kiss her and kill her.
Evangeline left the table. Her stomach churned as she made her way to the edge of the boisterous dining hall and reached the gilded frame that had been pulled away from the wall.
The portrait inside the frame was of Glendora Slaughterwood, wearing an embroidered red gown covered in broken hearts and a smile that looked sad as she watched Evangeline slip through the secret door.
The corridor on the other side was spiderwebbed and dim, and it smelled of secret trysts, musky and more than a little smoky from the torches jutting out of the walls.
Between the flames, she caught glimpses of words carved over and over into the stone.
Glory in Death. Glory in Death. Glory in Death.
Evangeline hugged her arms to her chest. She wasn’t sure what this place was, but she didn’t like that even the walls seemed to be encouraging Jacks.
Jacks, she cried silently.
There was no response.
Jacks, she tried again. If you can hear me, I’m asking you to stop whatever you’re doing.
Nothing. Just the brush of her slippers against the aged stones.
And then—her ears caught the thrum of Jacks’s seductive voice, saying soft things in the dark. Her chest felt tight. She couldn’t determine what he said. But Evangeline knew the low cadence of his voice.
She sped around the corner, nearly ripping the slit of her skirt in her haste.
The torches gleamed brighter, and the smoke grew thicker, swirling around Jacks’s golden hair as he dipped his head toward the Darling girl. Her neck was arched and her eyes were closed.
Evangeline’s blood rushed to her ears as she watched Jacks trace the girl’s lower lip before—
“Stop!” she shouted.
The girl opened her eyes with a gasp.
Jacks was slower to move. He left his fingers on the girl’s open mouth as he took his time dragging his hooded eyes to Evangeline. “Your timing is terrible, Little Fox.”
I can’t believe you were going to kiss her! Evangeline seethed silently.
Jacks lifted a cavalier shoulder and said in a silent voice only Evangeline could hear, The dinner was getting boring.
“You really do have terrible luck with boys, don’t you?” The Darling girl gave Evangeline an unconvincing frown—the kind that somehow looked like a smile, as if she loved the idea of Evangeline having horrid luck with boys.
For a second, it was tempting to turn away and leave this girl with Jacks to let her see who actually had wretched luck with boys, since she clearly had no idea who the boy she was about to kiss really was.
Evangeline instantly felt ashamed for even having the thought. Yet it still wasn’t easy to look the girl in the eye and say, “You need to go right now.”
“I think I’m comfortable where I am. You’re the one who doesn’t belong, Princess. ” She snickered as her hand moved to Jacks’s chest and boldly undid one of his buttons.
Evangeline’s heart twisted again. She didn’t want to feel this. She didn’t want to feel anything for Jacks, and she especially didn’t want to be jealous of this girl he was about to kill. But jealousy wasn’t a reasonable emotion, all it saw was another girl being wanted and touched.
She told herself it was just the youth stone, but they were far from the party now, and this girl wasn’t wearing any gems. She’d had a tiara on earlier, but it had been discarded.
You should go, Jacks echoed in Evangeline’s thoughts. I’ll clean this up when I’m done.
His eyes met hers, more black than blue in the torchlight and utterly unmoved as the Darling girl undid another button.
How can you be so unfeeling? Evangeline thought.
Jacks stroked the Darling girl’s cheek, his eyes still on Evangeline. How can you keep mistaking me for someone who cares?
Go ahead, then. Evangeline crossed her arms over her chest. If he could be terrible, she could be stubborn. Let’s see if your kiss is really worth dying for.
The torch lamps flickered, and Jacks’s gaze darkened.
“What’s she still doing here?” the girl moaned. She reached for another one of Jacks’s buttons.
He grabbed the girl’s hands by the wrists and shoved her away.
“What are you doing?” she screeched.
Jacks sighed. “Go back to dinner, Giselle. Flirt with someone else until you find a nice husband.”
“But you said—”
“I lied,” he cut her off.
The girl’s face fell, cheeks bursting with pink, and Evangeline felt a brief surge of pity as Giselle quickly shuffled past, disappearing down the dim corridor and leaving Evangeline alone with Jacks.
“Happy now?” He took a threatening step toward her.
Evangeline resisted the urge to take a step back. She didn’t think she’d moved, but the cold wall was suddenly at her back, and Jacks was so close—and so much taller than she ever realized—she had to tilt her head to meet his heartless eyes. “You told me you wouldn’t kill anyone.”
“No,” he said. “ You told me I wouldn’t kill anyone. I told you that was a terrible plan.”
“But you didn’t need to kill her,” Evangeline argued.
“What do you know about what I need?” Jacks’s long fingers grazed the slit of her skirt.
She swallowed a gasp. The touch had to be an accident.
He flashed a dimple as his fingers moved under the fabric, stroking her bare thigh as he gently parted the slit in her skirt.
This definitely wasn’t an accident.
The tips of his fingers were soft, deceptively gentle, as they traveled higher and…
higher. She told herself to pull away—this was Jacks and he was evil—his hand was definitely doing wicked things.
But the racing of her heart didn’t feel like fear just then.
The rush of her blood and the tingling of her skin felt good. He felt good.
His touch was clearly making her delusional.
Evangeline really needed to push him away. But she grabbed his shirt instead, fisting the fabric in her hands.
He smiled, only it wasn’t kind. It was like the wicked end of a fairytale, all sharp teeth that glinted under the torchlight.
This was a mistake. A dangerous mistake.
She reminded herself he’d just been touching another girl.
But it was hard to care when he knew exactly how to touch her.
How to make her feel like she was the one he’d wanted all this time.
His other hand slowly reached for her hip and hitched it up over his.
Her breath caught in her throat.
“Still think you know what I need?” He pressed in closer, lips nearly grazing her jaw and sending a shiver over her skin as he whispered, “I’m not a human, Evangeline. And I’m not your friend, or your husband, or your lover.”
“I never said you were,” she breathed.
“Then don’t try to make me act like it. It doesn’t end well.” The fingers under her skirt turned rough and something vicious flashed in his eyes. Enough to make her finally feel a spike of fear. “ This doesn’t end well.” His fingers pressed harder.
Evangeline gasped, and at last she pushed him away. “There is no this —I’m married.”
Jacks ran his finger over the smirk playing on his lips. “You keep saying that, Little Fox, as if it’s something I should care about.”
A heartbeat later, he was gone.