OUABH

Lost in something that felt a lot like wonderful, Evangeline was nearly at the sky carriage house when she realized she'd left her caplet on her chair. It didn't take long to walk back, but the garden door was already closed when she got there.

She hesitated.

There were voices on the other side. One was the empress. But the other was male, and the low way he spoke made Evangeline feel as if she'd be interrupting something private if she opened the door now.

Maybe she didn't need the caplet after all.

She was about to leave, when she heard an uneasy shift in the empress's voice. "I'm still not sure this is a good idea."

"Sometimes there aren't any good options," the low voice replied. "But would you rather have your sister in constant danger, or take a little risk with... "

His tone dropped lower.

Evangeline leaned closer to the door, practically pressing against the smooth red surface to catch the low voice say. Evangeline.

"I still wish I would have told her the entire truth." The empress now sounded remorseful. But it did nothing to calm Evangeline's racing heart or the shock of betrayal that had rattled it. The empress had deceived her, but why?

"Being honest would only put the girl in more danger."The low voice turned coaxing. "The northern kingdoms have given the Fates asylum. This way, the girl can claim ignorance if things go wrong and our people get caught trying to apprehend Jacks."

Evangeline's hand was on the doorknob as soon as she heard Jacks's name. It was a visceral reaction, and a ridiculously foolish mistake. She knew that as soon as the door was open and she found herself in in the grip of a furious young man with a wicked scar that sliced down his face. "What did you hear?" he snarled.

"Julian!" cried the empress. "This is Evangeline Fox. Please let her go."

The scarred young man immediately released Evangeline's arm, but his expression remained aggressive.

"Please forgive him, Evangeline, he's a little over protective of me."The empress wrung her hands. Their conversation must have been as bad as it had sounded, given how guilty she looked, and how her companion appeared ready to commit murder on her behalf.

It was tempting to smile blandly and tell them both not to worry. Evangeline could say that she'd just come back for the caplet, and hope they thought that she'd heard nothing. But thar would fail to get her any real answers as to what they wanted from her, or what they knew about Jacks.

Poison's words returned in a rush: You'll be drawon to our kind, and youll want to find Jacks to fulfill the deal you've made with him.

But Evangeline didn't want to fulfill the deal. She wanted nothing to do with Jacks, that's why she'd opened the door - so that she could avoid him when she went north. If she was still going to go.

"Why do you really want me to go north?" Evangeline asked.

The empress winced at her bluntness.

"Crimson," growled her companion. "You don't have to answer her questions."

"It's all right, my love." She reached for his hand, before turning back to Evangeline with a heavy sigh. "I am sorry for trying to trick you. I really do think you'll make a wonderful ambassador, but as you've surmised that's not the real reason I chose you for this. The Prince of Hearts needs to be apprehended and punished for his crimes. He's a danger to everyone, but particularly my sister. I know that she'd not like me to share the details of the terrible things that he's done to her. But believe me, they are unforgiveable, and if we don't stop him, he will eventually return here to destroy her."

She sounded like a sister then, not a ruler of an empire. Her hazel eyes were wide and pleading, and her words made Evangeline think of Poison once again. But this time she didn't recall what he'd said. She thought of what he hadn't said, how he'd given her a warning, instead of information as to why Jacks had fled Valenda. This must have been the why.

Obviously Jacks hadn't kissed the princess, since she was still alive. But he must have committed some other atrocity. 

"I'm terribly sorry about whatever happened to your sister," Evangeline said. "But I'm not sure how I'm supposed to help.

"We simply need you to lure him out for our guards," the empress said gently. "Poison told us that you made a bargain with Jacks, and that the debt you owe him will coax Jacks out of hiding if you venture north."

Evangeline's back went stiff at the mention of her deal. Although the empress must not have known the fullness of the bargain, or much about it at all. If she had known more, she'd have surely chosen to blackmail Evangeline instead of practically beg for her help.

And a part of Evangeline did want to help. She'd been carrying around so much guilt ever since she'd made her deal with Jacks, and going north to stop him sounded like an excellent way to erase it. She could finally be a real hero. Except that didn't really seem like the offer the empress was making. They didn't need her to stop Jacks, they just wanted her to bait him. And things never ended well for bait.

"Magic works differently in the north," the empress pressed on, apparently sensing Evangeline's reluctance. "We don't believe any of the Fates have their full powers. And, as long Jacks doesn't know you're working with our guards to capture him, he should have no reason to harm you."

Evangeline could have laughed at that. She might not have known the Prince of Hearts well, but she imagined that he didn't always need a reason to do things.

"We can make it worth your while," the scarred young man promised, flashing Evangeline a grin that looked more like a threat than an encouragement. "Do this for us, and we'll give you whatever you want."

The empress nodded in agreement, her smile far sweeter, as hummingbirds buzzed about, crowning her dark hair with soft pink petals until she looked like a garden queen. And for a moment, Evangeline felt as if she was making another deal with a Fate. Whatever she said next would change the course of her life. All she had to do was decide which course she wanted to take.

Much later, she would wonder what the empress might have said if Evangeline had asked for her parents back, or for Luc to return to her. But part of why she was doing this was to finally let go of Luc, and just then she'd not believed that people like her parents could come back from the dead.

So she asked for the next best thing, the thing that might help restore a bit of her past, and ensure that she'd have a future, which Agnes couldn't steal away. "My father had a curiosity shop, Maximilian's Curiosities, Oddities, and Whimsies. It was my home, I spent almost every day in that shop, and while I was turned to stone my stepmother sold it. If you can get it back for me, I'll make sure you get the Prince of Hearts."

"I think we can manage that." The empress beamed at Evangeline, as if she'd already succeeded.

Her scarred companion appeared considerably less impressed. He still wore his smile, but as more words were exchanged it began to slide off like an ill-fitting mask.

When the conversation ended, he offered to walk Evangeline back to the sky carriage house. The empress regarded him as if he were a knight for the gesture, but Evangeline imagined there was nothing gallant about it, and her suspicions were confirmed almost as soon as they were out of the garden.

"I'm going to give you a friendly warning." His voice was quiet. "Lure the Prince of Hearts out, and then walk away. Jacks is easy to hate, but emotions that strong easily turn into other feelings. I saw it happen to the empress's sister. Even as she hated him, she was drawn to him. Don't let that happen to you. It would be a shame if you ended up betraying us. My empress might hesitate to retaliate, but I assure you that I will not."

THE HOLLOW

Inn for Travelers, Adventurers,

and Those Searching for

Happily Ever After

There was a time, not too long ago, when the only place in the world Evangeline Fox wanted to be was in her father's curiosity shop. For so long, she believed she could neer love any place as much as she had loved that shop, with its magical little bell on the door, its crates full of oddities and the endless memories of her parents that lived between its wondrous walls.

The curiosity shop hadn't simply felt like home - it had felt like a part of her. And yet when Jacks told Evangeline that together they could go anywhere, the curiosity shop was not the place that came to mind.

"Let's go to the Hollow," she'd said.

He'd looked taken aback and perhaps a little nervous - it was difficult to be sure with the bruises and cuts fresh on his face from his fight with the Valors. But even without considering his depression, Evangeline sensed that Jacks was as anxious about losing her as she was about losing him.

He had meant it when he'd said. "I'm never going to let you out of my sight."

When they were in the Hollow, he was never far from her. Sometimes when she was reading or napping or feeding the little dragons outside, she'd turn to find him there, leaning lazily against a wall or tree, watching her shamelessly.

Evangeline thought she would grow used to his presence, to Jacks sauntering into rooms or to waking up beside him every morning. But even after some months, seeing him smile still managed to give her a flutter of surprise.

Being with Jacks was strange in the same delightful way it's strange to experience a warm day in the middle of winter or to find a surprise meteor shower upon looking up at the sky.

It shouldn't have been possible to love him more than she already did. But she supposed that every day she was a little bit different than she had been the day before, and she imagined it was that little bit that fell more deeply in love with him each day.

Evangeline could happily have stayed ensconced with Jacks alone inside the Hollow forever, among the cheerful flowers, the friendly little dragons, and the lingering magic. The Hollow was not the same as it had been when the mirth stone had lived inside the clock in the hall. But it was also not as bereft as Evangeline had first thought it might be after she'd taken the stone.

It seemed that when Evangeline had first taken the mirth stone from the clock, the Hollow had grieved. It had been robbed of its precious stone. Then its only two visitors in forever had decided to abruptly leave, without so much as a goodbye.

Upon Evangeline's and Jacks's initial return to the inn, the Hollow had actually been quite frosty. Doors often slammed shut. Windows stuck. Wardrobes refused to open. Faucets yielded only icy water.

"I think it's cross with us," Jacks had said. "Give it a few days. It will warm up."

The wall had rattled then.

"If it doesn't, we'll leave," Jacks added, tossing a dart up in the air as he spoke.

"We can build a new inn - a better one."

Jacks caught his dart, then threw it, purposefully missing the board and sinking the dart's sharp tip into the wall instead.

Doors stopped slamming after that. Windows no longer stuck, and wardrobes were more eager to open.

As the days went on, the Hollow became friendlier and friendlier. Fresh flowers started to appear on the tables. Evangeline found new logs in the fireplaces every morning at dawn and whenever she drew a bath the water was always perfectly warm.

The Hollow wanted them to stay.

Soon it became apparent that it wanted others to stay there as well. The No Vacancy sign kept falling off the Hollow's main sign welcoming travellers and adventurers.

Jacks was quick to reattach the little No Vacancy sign. But after three weeks of the sign tumbling to the ground and getting stuck in the mud, Evangeline had taken the Hollow's not-so-subtle hint that it was ready to reopen for guests.

And so it was that on a sunshiny morning that smelled of honeysuckle and strawberries, Evangeline marched out to the welcome sign with two buckets of paint: buttermilk white and a lovely, shimmering dragon-treasure gold.

The No Vacancy sign had already fallen to the ground, and Evangeline left it there as she dipped her brush into the buttermilk.

Carefully she painted over the old welcome sign, and then once it was dried, she carefully rewrote the sign with her dragon-treasure gold.

THE HOLLOW

Inn for Travelers, Adventurers,

and Those Searching for

Happily Ever After

When she painted the comma between travelers and adventurers, Evangeline felt the final broken heart scar on her wrist begin to tingle.

She didn't hear him approach.

Jacks's footsteps were always preternaturally soft. But she heard him make a disappointed noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh as she finished painting her last three words.

"That's not going to work at all," he muttered.

"Why not?" Evangeline spun around.

Jacks was dressed in olive-green trousers and a cream shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves and only halfway buttoned. His golden hair tousled, and as always, her heart did a little flip when she looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She was rather proud of her handiwork with the sign -she'd been practicing painting her letters and she thought they'd turned out rather nicely.

Jacks frowned, sullen lips turning down at the corners. "I think it will attract too many people."

She laughed. "That is the entire point of an inn, silly."

His frown deepened. Possibly at being called silly.

This made Evangeline smile wider.

Then Jacks was taking hold of the ribbon around her waist and tugging her closer to him. She'd noticed before that he couldn't go very long without touching her. Tucking hair behind her ear, toying with the straps of her gown, coming up behind her and pressing kisses to the back of her neck as he wrapped his cool arms around her and whispered things that often made her blush.

"I don't want anyone here but you," he murmured. Then in one of his lightning-fast moves, he deftly stole the paintbrush from her fingers.

"What are you doing?" she squeaked as Jacks released her waist and swished the brush across the sign, adding two letters right before the word happily.

"There," he said smugly, "it's fixed now."

Evangeline scowled, as did the little blue dragon who'd been perched happily on the sign. The greeting on the sign, still swinging from Jacks handiwork, now read:

THE HOLLOW

Inn for Travelers, Adventurers,

and Those Searching for

UNHappily Ever After

"No one will come if it says that," Evangeline said.

"Don't be so pessimistic." Jacks carelessly dropped the brush back in the bucket.

"People will still come. They'll just be a little cursed if they dare to stay here."

He showed off a dimple as his smile returned. Clearly he liked the idea of cursing their guests. Although Evangeline imagined what Jacks really enjoyed was tormenting her. 

She had to admit, she actually liked it when he teased and tormented her. She had once told Jacks that she would gladly take an uneventful happily ever after, but truthfully she would much rather have this life with Jacks, which would never be uneventful.

Evangeline still believed in happily ever afters, of course, and she hoped to have lots of happiness with Jacks. But she was less certain about the uneventful part. She no longer wanted to sit quietly at the end of a story. She wanted to keep stepping into new ones. She wanted to love, to discover, and to feel. She wanted a life that felt like running through a field of wildflowers and then finding a gate at the end that led into an enchanted unknown. And she wanted to do it all with Jacks by her side.

Aurora Valor was many things. She was clever, she was selfish, she was pretty — extremely pretty, extraordinarily pretty. She was also brave, and calculating. But she was never clueless. 

Not like Evangeline Fox.  

Although now Aurora wondered if perhaps she should have been more clueless. Perhaps she’d relied on her sister Vesper’s visions of the future a little too much. Maybe it was time for her to be reckless, to do something that would bring about a future that was completely unknown to her.  

Aurora stepped closer to the Tree of Souls. 

Its branches rustled. She couldn’t tell if it was greeting her or was possibly about to hurt her. 

“Hello,” she said softly. 

Trees and plants usually liked Aurora. Flowers always bloomed when she walked through, dropping leaves over muddy paths so that she wouldn’t ruin the hems of her  gowns. 

But this tree, with its unnerving heartbeat pulsing through the ground, did not seem glad to see her. 

She looked at all the faces trapped inside its trunk. So many faces, all watching her with eyes that seemed either sad or judgmental. When she found Apollo’s striking face, he seemed to glare at her with more venom than the rest. But really, he should have known better than to trust her. Back when Aurora had been a princess of the Magnificent North, she’d been warned by both parents only to ever trust her family. 

Of course now her family was hunting her. 

She shouldn’t have been here at all; she should have fled as far south as she could go. But she really didn’t like the heat, and she had been unable to resist seeing if  Jacks and Evangeline really were happy. Maybe they were bickering, or perhaps Jacks had grown tired of Evangeline Fox and her endless hope. But when Aurora had found the pair living in the Hollow, they had seemed stupidly in love.

Aurora knew it was wretched of her, but she wanted to destroy that love. She wanted to take it away so that Evangeline hurt the same way she did.  

Aurora held out a dagger in her hand, ready to strike the tree and drink its blood to find out if maybe, in exchange for her immortality, it would take the life of Jacks. 

But Aurora wasn’t quite able to do it. She wasn’t entirely certain the tree would take Jacks, and she didn’t want to end up like Apollo. She also noticed something that she had not seen the last time she’d been there. 

“What’s this?” she murmured, and then she cautiously stepped closer to where someone had written these words on the trunk: 

If your soul de brave and

your love be true,

then by your spilled blood

may the trapped prince in this tree

be freed for you.

Aurora contemplated the words for only a second. The prophecy must have been written as a means to free Apollo, and while she didn’t particularly care about seeing him ever again, she knew his return would upset Evangeline and Jacks. Hopefully even end them.  

Aurora felt a rush as she took the blade in her hand and dug it into her palm. She’d come here to be reckless, and now she was doing just that. For while she hadn’t seen this prophecy before, she knew enough about prophecies to be certain that there had to be more to this than one met the eye. 

Blood welled up from the cut in her hand, and then it spilled. 

Drop. Drop. Drop. 

Three perfect circles of red hit the ground. Then for good measure Aurora pressed her bleeding hand to the tree. And then she hoped. It was probably the wrong sort of hoping, since there wasn’t really any love in it. But after a moment of hoping and bleeding, she felt a shift in the cavern. The air seemed to spark. She could hear it sizzle. Then she could feel the bark of the tree pulse beneath her palm. Thump. Thump. Thump.  

Aurora quickly removed her hand and took a cautious step back, watching as the tree continued to pulse. Thump. Thump. Thump. 

She held her breath. 

But nothing happened.  

After a few seconds, the tree’s heart no longer beat so fast. She could feel it thumping under her feet, but barely. 

It must simply have been excited about her blood. 

“I didn’t really expect it to work,” Aurora muttered. 

Then she heard a coughing sound coming from the other side of the tree, followed by a grunt.  

Aurora quickly rounded the tree’s massive trunk. 

Rising up from the ground was a young man dressed in only a pair of loose pants. His shoes were gone, as was his shirt — and for a second, she couldn’t help but stare. This young man must have just come out of the tree. His hair was long, his eyes were a little wild, and he was clearly no Apollo. 

“Who are you?” she asked. 

The young man looked up and slowly cocked his head. “You don’t know who I am?”  

Aurora shook her head. 

The stranger gave her a smile that was a little more feral than friendly. “That will make this a lot more fun."