The Ballad of Never After

“We shouldn’t do this,” she said.

“I’m just asking you to stay the night.” His lips left her neck as he murmured, “You won’t even remember.”

Evangeline tensed in his arms. “What do you mean, I won’t remember?”

“I mean … it’s just one night,” he said softly. “In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don’t like me, and I can pretend that I don’t care. But for tonight, let me pretend you’re mine.”

“What do we have here, Little Fox?” His voice took on a mocking lilt. “Was this a gift from Luc?”

“No!” she said, and she might have laughed with relief that he didn’t know what it was and then again at the disturbed look on his face. “Are you jealous of Luc?”

“I thought we already covered that yesterday. I’m always jealous. And so are you,”

“It’s all right,” he rasped. “I’ve got you. Just stay with me, Little Fox.”

“It hurts, Jacks.”

“I know, love. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”

“Can you control yourself if I release you?” Jacks asked. “Or do we need to shackle you to one of the chairs?”

He held her like a secret, pulling her close to his pounding heart. She remembered her vow not to let him touch her. But if she pulled away, she felt as if she might break into a thousand tears.

Evangeline let herself lean against him as one of his hands
slid into her hair, gently pressing her head to his shoulder. The other hand was at her waist, fisting the ribbon tied around it as if he also knew that, were he to let her go, she would shatter.

She tried to hold back the tears, but she sobbed until his shirt went damp.

“Can you keep her safe?”

Jacks shot her a glare.

“Don’t look at me like that. I saw the way you looked when you arrived here with your arm around her shoulders.”

“How did I look?”

“Like you would kill for her.”

“I would kill for a lot of things.”

“Just be sure you don’t kill her,” LaLa said. “I’ve also seen the way you two look at each other. Last night when I walked into the dining hall, I was half-terrified you were going to kiss her in the middle of the party.”

“I thought you knew me better than that.” Jacks’s glare slowly dissolved into a smile

“If she dies, it’s your fault.”

“She won’t die if you get her out of here now.”

“I don’t know who this girl is, but you should stay away from her.”

“Why? If you don’t know—”

“I don’t like her,” Jacks cut in.

“Why? Because she doesn’t like you?”

“No one likes me,” Jacks answered swiftly.

“We both know that’s not true,” Evangeline challenged. “Plenty of girls appeared to like you last night.”

“They liked Lord Jacks. But, as you know, Little Fox, I am not Lord Jacks.” For a second, Jacks’s entire face changed, any hint of humanity slipping away as he looked at her with eyes as dead as Chaos’s. “I’m the person who’ll kill this Petra girl if she goes near you again. So you should stay away unless you want her dead.”

“Can I bite you now?”

“No, Luc, I’m never going to let you bite me.”

“Never say never, Eva.”