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October 13 - October 17, 2025
Dark was for stars and dreams and the magic that took place in between days.
Happy endings can be caught, but they are difficult to hold on to. They are dreams that want to escape the night. They are treasure with wings. They are wild, feral, reckless things that need to be constantly chased, or they will certainly run away.
“Do you kiss the prince because you actually enjoy it?” Jacks asked. “Or is it because you honestly think it will magically revive him?” “Maybe I do it because I know it will annoy you,” Evangeline answered archly. Jacks flashed a smile that was far more wicked than welcoming. “Glad to know you’re thinking about me when you kiss your husband.”
“I hurt everyone, Little Fox. But you have to be alive to hate me.” His eyes iced over. “I do not want you dead, and I’ll kill anyone who tries.”
“Evangeline—” It sounded like Jacks’s voice. But he’d said her name, not Little Fox. Jacks never said her name. Then he was murmuring something else. Two more words she’d never heard. “I’m sorry,” he said, just before it all truly went dark.
Jacks’s chest was heaving, his clothes were soaked, his hair was a mess across his face—yet in that moment, Evangeline knew he would carry her through more than just freezing waters. He would pull her through fire if he had to, haul her from the clutches of war, from falling cities and breaking worlds. And for one brittle heartbeat, Evangeline understood why so many girls had died from his lips. If Jacks hadn’t betrayed her, if he hadn’t set her up for murder, she might have been a little bewitched by him.
It felt more like she’d left behind her love for Luc with the version of herself that she’d been before.
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.
His eyes dropped to her lips, searing her mouth with one sharp look and instantly reminding her of what he could do with a single kiss. Evangeline bit down on her lip, just to taunt him back. Something primal flashed behind Jacks’s eyes—desire or anger, she couldn’t quite tell. All she knew was that her mouth felt swollen from the force of his gaze and the inescapable sense that he wished to be the one biting down on her lip instead.
She would never admit it to him, but she was feeling a little too tired to lie to herself, and she had to admit, she loved the way Jacks smelled, like apples and magic and crisp, cold nights that made her want to curl up in a blanket.
I’m just giving her what she wants. But don’t worry, she is not what I want. All I want is for her to find the stones.
“It hurts, Jacks.” “I know, love. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”
“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.”
She meant to say, For tonight, I’m yours, but all that came out was “I’m yours.”
She desperately wanted love, too. But to have found true
love and lost it, and yet still have a sliver of hope of getting it back, was another type of torture entirely.
But maybe she needed to feel this pain to get over it.
