The Ballad of Never After (Once Upon a Broken Heart Book 2)

Evangeline decided this forest was magical. She should have noticed before—the scent of the lush green trees was just a little too sweet, as if sugar had been mixed in with the snow that dotted pine needles and leaves.

She rather liked the scent, but she’d have happily traded it for plain, unmagical snow if it meant the forest would stop rearranging itself.

Evangeline didn’t know how long she’d been walking on this path. It was the same path she’d taken to the Tower, only instead of leading her back to Chaos’s underground castle, the path just kept weaving through the trees. The sky above was turning purple. Soon it would be full night, and she shuddered to think of how lost she’d feel then.

It made it even worse that the trip had been for nothing. She had been so wrong. Even now it was difficult to believe that Tiberius had chosen fear of an old prophecy over love for his brother.

She could never reveal this to Apollo—if she were ever able to save him.

Her breath came out in pale streaks as she looked down at the words freshly scratched into her arm: I DON’T WANT TO KILL YOU.

Leaves behind her rustled, a bird cawed, and Evangeline startled.

Quickly, she retrieved the gold dagger from her basket and held it out as she turned.

“Hello, Eva.” Luc walked out from between a pair of snow-dusted trees, flashing a grin that might have been boyish if not for the hint of fangs.

“What are you doing here?” Evangeline asked. She was relieved it wasn’t Apollo, but she didn’t lower her knife. Luc might not have been cursed to hunt and kill her, but he had tried to bite her the last two times she’d seen him.

“You don’t need to hold out that knife.” Luc’s pretty mouth fell into a pout. “I came to say I’m sorry for the other day. I really didn’t want to bite you. Well … I did want to bite you, but I didn’t want to hurt you. I’ve missed you.” He looked at her through his lashes, gold flecks in his eyes glimmering in the darkness.

Her pulse fluttered, and she hated that it still fluttered for him. Although she had a feeling it was vampire allure and not actually Luc affecting her this way.

She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d fallen out of love with Luc. In fact, she wasn’t entirely certain that she had. It felt more like she’d left behind her love for Luc with the version of herself that she’d been before. Back when she believed that first love and true love and forever love were all the same.

She used to think love was like a house. Once it was built, a person got to live in it forever. But now she wondered if love was more like a war with new foes constantly appearing and battles creeping up. Winning at love was less about succeeding in a battle and more about continuing to fight, to choose the person you loved as the one you were willing to die for, over and over.

For so long, Luc had been that person. Even though he wasn’t now, as she looked up at him, it was easy to imagine that he could be again.

He took a step closer, his pout turning into a crooked smile so familiar it made her ache. Nothing had been familiar lately. She’d spent so much time alone in Chaos’s library, being close to Luc now, even in the dark forest, made her feel surprisingly warm.

“You know,” he said softly, “biting is really like kissing but better, if you do it right.” Luc angled his head and leaned in toward her neck.

“No!” Evangeline placed both her hands firmly against his chest and tore her gaze away from him, focusing on the night and the stars and the tops of the trees as she attempted to shake off his allure. “You still can’t bite me, Luc. I’m not a snack.”

“What about just a nibble?”

Evangeline glared.

He sighed. “Are you completely over us, Eva?”

For a second, Evangeline didn’t know how to respond. She’d thought this was just about the biting. But looking at Luc now, she found something like loneliness in his immortal face. Being a vampire was undoubtedly not what he’d expected.

He looked up at the darkened night. The only sky he’d ever see now that he was a vampire. There were a handful of stars, scattered like gems from a broken necklace, but it was mostly just the waxing crescent moon, taunting with a bladed smile that would never give sun-warm light. Evangeline couldn’t imagine being banished from the sunshine, never being allowed to venture into the bright light of day. She wondered if that’s what he was really looking for. Not her but a piece of sunlight. A piece of something from his past to cling to.

She would have thought becoming a prince would have made him happy—at least for a while. But it was probably too much work and not enough play. Although she couldn’t imagine Luc’s council actually trusting him to do anything important.

“What are you doing out here, Luc?”

“I heard some guards say they saw you around the Tower, so I slipped away as soon as it was dusk. I wanted to find you, to see if you wanted to go to a party with me.”

“I can’t.”

“You don’t even know what kind of party it is.” Luc reached into his back pocket and pulled out a gold invitation with gleaming white ink, so bright she could read it in the moonlight.

The words Mirth, Merriment, and Marriage were printed at the top.

“It’s a costume party.” Luc waggled his brows. “All the Great Houses are going to be there, if you’re into that sort of thing—”

Luc kept speaking, but Evangeline’s attention was on the invitation, which was for LaLa’s engagement party.

This morning, when she had found the article about the party, the first word in the title had been smudged, but now as she reread the invite, she realized that word had been mirth.

The word alone wouldn’t have convinced her that the mirth stone might be there, but then she replayed what Luc had said about all the Great Houses attending, and a wild idea bubbled up.

Given how much the Great Houses had gained after the fall of the Valors, she’d suspected that they’d hidden the missing Valory Arch stones, and now she wondered if they would be bringing them to this party. She remembered Tiberius’s words: These stones have powers that call to one another. They long to be reunited.

Perhaps at LaLa’s party, the remaining stones would come together again. Something light and sparkling rose inside her at the thought. And Evangeline knew she needed to go to this party.

“Thank you!” She kissed him on the cheek.

He flashed a crooked grin. “Is that a yes?”

For a second, it was tempting—mostly because if Jacks found out, she was certain he’d be annoyed. But in the end, she told Luc, “No—but thank you for the invitation.”

Before he could argue, or ask for another bite, Evangeline scurried off, hoping the forest would finally let her escape.