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

by Stephanie Garber

Dark was for stars and dreams and the magic that took place in between days.

and handsome as ever.

he was the one who did the breaking, because he didn’t know how to love.

He smirked, flashing dimples he didn’t deserve.

Little Fox.”

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.”

Monsters were supposed to look like … monsters, not like Jacks.

I never tried to pretend otherwise, you just let yourself believe I was something I’m not.”

I’m not some human boy who will tell you pretty lies or bring you flowers or gift you jewels.”

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.”

He was a vampire. And the first boy she had ever loved.

heroes didn’t get happy endings,

He reached toward her and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear with one featherlight touch. Butterflies moved inside her.

That one small touch could affect her so.

“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.

she wondered how he’d taste. Would he be cool on her tongue? Would brushing her lips over his neck stop her blood from burning and her heart from racing?

He hadn’t bitten her, he’d just touched her. That was all she wanted.

she wanted was to press her mouth to his throat and maybe lick it just once.

She wanted him to rip Chaos off her chest so that he could pin her to the bed instead.

Little Fox.

Not interested in biting me anymore?

and together they fell.

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.

Jacks’s arms. They were cool as he held her on his lap. “I’ve got you,”

How safe it felt to be so close to him.

She didn’t want to be a person who could disappear without anyone knowing she was gone. She wanted to be important to someone.

“You talk in your sleep,” he drawled. “You said my name—a lot.”

“Obviously, I was having a nightmare.” “It didn’t look that way to me, Little Fox, and I was here all night.” Her heart pitter-pattered at the thought that he’d watched as she’d slept.

“Don’t fret, I won’t tell your husband that you’re o...

“But I’m not getting dressed while you’re in here.” “That’s too bad,” Jacks murmured.

“You’re staring.”

“You started it with your stare,”

“You could at least say please.” “I could, but then you might think I’m being nice, and I would hate to confuse you.”

“Only because the luck stone makes people reckless, and you’re always reckless,”

“The truth is never what you want it to be, Little Fox.”

She tried to take comfort in the books.

Evangeline didn’t like the way it hurt when she thought about how he’d just left her here.

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.

Normally, that was how she thought of Jacks,

And being human looked good on him—or maybe it was just that he looked so happy.

“You’re staring at me.”

because you give them a pretty smile?

“Want me to kill any of them for you?”

“You sure? They deserve it.” The whole House deserves it.

Because she was starting to care for him.

“You think about what I do when you’re not around?” “Careful, Little Fox.” He took a step forward. “You sound rather excited by the idea.”

but she didn’t want to reveal how much he affected her.

“No controlling, no killing. You’re taking all the fun out of this party, Little Fox.”

“Good, because if you did, you’d be dead next autumn.”