19. Evangeline
Evangeline
The entire way back to her father’s house, Evangeline felt as if she were walking in the wrong direction.
She watched the sand in the hourglass fall, and she wondered if perhaps she’d misunderstood what Mistress Luck had told her, because there was only about a quarter of an hour left and she couldn’t bring herself to start running and find Luc before her time ran out.
All she could think about was the feeling of not-breathing, the nickname Little Fox, the way Jacks’s hand had felt in her hair. And by the time she reached home, her heart felt a little broken.
Another person might have dismissed the feeling. People couldn’t fall in love in one day. But Evangeline Fox had always believed they could. She believed in love at first sight and infinite endings and—
Her thoughts stopped abruptly at the sight of Luc, sitting on the porch.
“Oh, Eva, I’m the worst!” He jumped up as soon as he saw her, and then he was tumbling toward her and pulling her into a hug that she tried her best to return.
“I’m so sorry, Eva, I’m so, so sorry. Earlier I got scared and I panicked, and now I’m panicking again because I don’t want to lose you like that ever again. ”
Luc released her from the hug but kept hold of her waist, pulling back enough that she could see that his face was lined with worry and his eyes were tired and bloodshot.
“Almost as soon as I left the garden, I knew I had made a mistake. I turned around, but then you were gone, and then everyone was starting to move, and I had to explain what happened—”
“Wait—” Evangeline interrupted. “Everyone else is really fine?”
“Well, yeah, at least, I think so. No one can find Marisol, but we’re probably better off without her. I think she might have run off with that awful bloke with the apple.”
“The Prince of Hearts?” Evangeline didn’t really need to say the name. She knew who Luc was talking about, but she didn’t want Jacks to be referred to as that awful bloke with the apple who ran off with Marisol.
“Oh, Eva, I’m truly so sorry—” Luc ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve upset you. I shouldn’t have mentioned him.”
“It’s all right—what matters is that everyone is fine.”
“They are and they’re still here.” Luc grinned.
“They are? What are they all doing?”
“Well.” Luc shuffled his feet nervously. “We were actually hoping you’d come back so we could still have the wedding.”
“Tonight?”
“There’s still light left.” He waved an eager hand toward the sky.
As Valenda’s longest day drew to an end, the sun had finally started to fall, but it wasn’t quite gone yet. It was melting, slowly, filling the sky with brilliant strokes of color—indigo and fuchsia and orange.
“That is, of course, if you’ll still have me?” Luc looked down at her with big, hopeful eyes. “I know I botched things up, but I swear, next time I’ll be the hero.”
The words hit Evangeline like an arrow to the chest, because suddenly she didn’t want a hero.
She reminded herself she couldn’t be with Jacks; she had walked away for a reason. And he hadn’t chased after her. He hadn’t even asked her to stay; he had told her to go.
But Luc had waited for her. Maybe his eyes weren’t fever-dream bright, but they were sincere and steady.
“I need to go freshen up,” she said. It wasn’t exactly a yes, but it also wasn’t a no. Although, from the way Luc smiled, she imagined that he’d taken it as a yes.
“Take all the time you want, just try to come down before it’s dark.” Luc opened the front door.
Evangeline’s father was on the other side. Unlike with Luc, she didn’t have to make herself hug him. Hugging him was easier than breathing, particularly now, with her chest so tight.
“Hey, it’s all right,” her father said. “I’m fine. I’m here.”
“I’m just so glad you’re all right—” She hugged him more fiercely.
She had wanted to help all the wedding guests, but she’d been most worried about her father.
His was the face she’d seen all day. Even now, as he walked her up the stairs, Evangeline found herself holding his hand as if she were still a little girl.
“Eva,” he said, his voice soft, once they reached the top of the steps. “You don’t have to marry Luc. I’ll go down and call it all off. You can do it another day or not do it at all.”
“Do you think I shouldn’t?” she asked. And she found herself hoping he’d say yes.
Her father took a deep breath. “I think that there are different kinds of love. Romantic love, familial love, deep friendship love. Some loves come fast, some loves come slow. Some loves last, others come and go. Life is always going to be full of love if you make room for it in your heart. But my hope for you, my dearest girl, has always been that you will find a romantic love that outshines all the others. I want you to find a North Star love, so steady and bright and constant that when you look for it in the sky of your life, you never have to wonder which star it is. And you will know it’s always there, even when the clouds come or the sun rises and hides it from your eyes. You will know that love remains.”
He kissed her on the forehead. “I will love you always, even when I’m gone. But one thing I cannot tell you is who you should always love.”
He hugged her again, holding her for a full precious minute, and yet she still felt unready to let go.
When her father started back down the steps, Evangeline tried to hold on to his words. Her feelings for Jacks had come fast and fierce, but were they North Star bright? Or was that her feelings for Luc?
Evangeline looked down at her wrist. The sand was nearly gone, about to disappear with the sun. If Mistress Luck was right, she had just minutes to decide what she needed to do.
The only thing she knew for certain was that she needed to freshen up.
She stepped into her father’s room. The floor-length mirror seemed larger than it had earlier in the day, or maybe she just felt smaller.
Her pink hair was wild, knotted from Jacks’s fingers. Her wedding dress was not completely ruined, but it didn’t look fit for a wedding anymore. The hem was ragged—and was that a lollipop sticking to the back?
She started to giggle deliriously. But then the image in the mirror began to shift. She was no longer in a wedding dress. She was wearing a pretty pastel day dress, and she was once again with Jacks.
Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of him.
He was dressed differently, more casually, and he was wrapping his arms around her, similar to how they’d been in the gambling den—one hand circling her waist, the other in her hair.
They weren’t kissing, and yet it still looked intimate.
It looked as if she was his and he was hers.
Congratulations! You have found the mythic Mirror of Infinite Endings.
One at a time, lines of silver script appeared across the mirror’s glass.
Have you ever wondered what else could have been?
Have you ever asked yourself if there are other paths your life could have taken? Other ways your story might end?
Well then, my new friend, this mirror is for you …
Simply touch the tips of your fingers to the glass, say “I’d like to see what else could be,” and—
Evangeline didn’t even need to finish reading. She touched her fingers to the glass. “I’d like to see what else could be.”