More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
August 31 - September 7, 2025
Her head hurt and her chest felt hollowed out, as if she’d lost more than just her memories. For a second the agony was so deep and so brutal, she clutched her heart, half expecting to find a jagged hole. But there was no wound. Her heart was still there; she could feel it beating. Yet for a devastating moment, Evangeline imagined that it shouldn’t have been, that her heart was supposed to be as broken as she felt. Then it hit her, not a feeling but a thought—a sharp, fragmented one. She had something important to tell someone.
There wasn’t much there, just a vague recollection of being held and carried, followed by a thought. 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 …
Evangeline read it aloud. “The Greatest Love Story Ever Told: The True and Unabridged History of Evangeline Fox and the Prince of Hearts.”
She was the moth and Jacks was still the flame.
Jacks had always considered himself more of a sadist than a masochist. He enjoyed inflicting pain, not receiving it. And yet he couldn’t bring himself to leave the shadows of Evangeline’s bedroom. It wasn’t an obsession. One visit wasn’t an obsession. Jacks just needed to make sure she was still alive. That she wasn’t bleeding. In danger. Unhappy. Cold. She was safe in her bed. She’d be even safer when he left her. But he was too selfish to leave just yet. He leaned against the bedpost and watched as she slept. He’d never understood why someone would watch another person sleep … until her.
“Wait!” Evangeline called. “What’s your name?” You already know, Little Fox. But once again, his thoughts weren’t projected loudly enough for her to hear. Instead, he gave her the name he’d planned on. He knew she wouldn’t remember it, and he needed to make sure he didn’t forget it. “You can call me Archer.”
If Jacks stayed, if he stormed in the room and used his powers to make Apollo watch as Jacks told Evangeline that she wasn’t nothing to him. That she was everything. That he’d turned back time to keep her alive, and he would make the same choice again. If Jacks made her remember that he was the one she should have wanted to kiss. She wouldn’t be safe anymore. She wouldn’t even be alive.
“Yes, I am a murderer. I enjoy hurting people. I like blood. I like pain. I am a monster, but whether you remember it or not, I’m your monster, Evangeline.”
Jacks had so badly wanted to tell her that he couldn’t even remember what Donatella looked like, that Evangeline’s face was the only one he saw whenever he closed his eyes, that he would go with her anywhere … if he could.
She tried to pull away, but Jacks held tight, knotting her hair in his fist and keeping his forehead pressed to hers. “Please, Little Fox, remember.” The name did something to her. Little Fox. Little Fox. Little Fox. Two simple words. Only they did not feel simple at all. They felt like falling. They felt like hope. They felt like the most important words in the world.
“So, this is your best day?” Evangeline asked. She wished she realized it sooner, or that she had more time to look around this curious inn, to see what it was that Jacks held dear.
But Evangeline held tight. She fought against the sleep overtaking her as she said, “I don’t believe you, Jacks. I might not remember everything about you. But I know you. I know that I know you, and I don’t believe there is anything you can’t do.” “I can’t do this,” he said roughly. This close she could see his eyes were glossy red around their edges. It almost looked like … blood?
She’d been in love with him for quite some time. Evangeline wasn’t sure if that part was a memory or just a thought she was presently having. Her memories didn’t feel so much like her past as they felt like their story. The story of Evangeline and Jacks. And it was a beautiful story, her new favorite story.
“I love you, Jacks.” He closed his eyes as she said the word love. She hoped a little harder. She wanted to ask him to look at her, but all that mattered was that he didn’t let her go. “I used to wonder if fate was real,” she said gently. “I used to fear it meant that I had no real choices. Then I secretly hoped fate was real and that you and I were fated, that by some miraculous chance I was your true love. But now I don’t care if fate is real—because I don’t need it to decide for me. I don’t need it to make this choice. I’ve made my decision, Jacks. It’s you. It will always be you, until the
...more
“No!” Jacks cried. Then Evangeline felt his arms catching her as she fell. She tried to stand, tried to move, but her head would not stop spinning. “No!” Jacks screamed. “Not again!” He dropped to the ground with Evangeline in his lap. She could feel his chest shaking as he held her.
“I already told you. You are the love of my life. You are mine, Jacks of the Hollow. And you’re not going to be the end of me.” “But you were dying.” “No,” she said, a little embarrassed. “I just forgot to breathe.”
Jacks idly stroked her jaw with his fingers. “I love you,” he said simply. Then his face went abruptly serious. “I’m never going to let you out of my sight.”
He continued to look at her solemnly. “This isn’t just for now, it’s for always, Little Fox.” “I like the sound of always.” She smiled against his fingers, and then she reached up to touch his cheek, because now he was smiling, too. And he loved her. He loved her. He loved her. He loved her. He loved her so much he’d rewritten history. He’d given up what he had believed was his only chance at love. And now he had finally broken the spell that he never thought he’d escape.
“Little Fox!” Jacks lashed his arms against his captors as he screamed and cursed everyone in the cavern. “Little Fox, I’m sorry.” His tortured voice echoed toward the sky. The broken sound of it would have made Evangeline cry if she wasn’t already. She wanted to tell him not to be sorry, she wanted to tell him again that it would be all right—but just in case it wasn’t, she called, “I love you!”
