Evangeline though was very nice and I found I wasn't annoyed by her inner voice as this book is from her POV and more often than not female characters get on my nerves. I was also kicking my feet up all throughout the book with those moments — even the vulnerable ones. Could Jacks be Prince Castor, beheaded according to the stories but somehow saved from death and now eager to open the arch because he knows what his family put behind it? This narrative style also brings with it an inherent sense of mystery and suspense, for with our knowledge limited to that of Evangeline, we are as in the dark as she is with regard to what will happen next.

After Jacks uses the four stones to go back in time and save Evangeline from chaos, it is then IMPLIED that he sacrifices himself in her place. He held her with the type of intensity that only happens when a person wants something that isn't quite theirs.He pulls her into his bed instead, murmuring she won’t remember anyway, and melts away her resistance with words and his touch. Her hunt for the stones takes her to such whimsical-sounding places as Merrywood and the Hollow, as well as such not-so-whimsical-but-rather-frightening-sounding locations as Slaughterwood Castle. Jacks finds her there, overcome with grief and guilt, and tells her to pack her bags while he deals with the body so they can run for her safety. He wants to leave right away now that they have the youth stone, the truth stone, and the mirth stone between them, the fourth being with Chaos. When Evangeline wakes up, she finds the mirth stone in the magical clock at the heart of the inn, clouding the minds of everyone who enters, including hers and Jacks’s.

Jacks persists in telling her Castor and Lyric were his friends but that Aurora was bothersome and that he wasn’t friends with the Archer.She finds Luc waiting for her there, but before he gets a chance to talk, Evangeline feels a terrible pain in her back and realizes Apollo is being tortured and whipped. LaLa says her words will be twisted because of the story curse but tries telling Evangeline a story to explain: LaLa once loved a shifter who could turn into a dragon. He is the reason she is the Unwed Bride – she turns down all others because she can’t let go of her first love. LaLa only remarks she hopes Jacks has brought enough of the apples he seems to be perpetually snacking on. i want to believe in a fairytale kind of love, like evangeline, even though i know it’s not the most sensible thing.

As she packs for the party, Evangeline spots one of the books from Chaos’s library that originally contained information on the Valor family but is now titled ‘The Archer and The Fox. For Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, betrays Evangeline in the worst possible way, she swears she will never, ever trust this Fate again no matter how much she may be drawn to him or wonder if there could be a more human.

If she tells him she loves him, he might be willing to try instead of going back to Donatella, and perhaps Honora will be able to reverse not only Apollo’s curse but Jacks’s, too. One by one, he starts removing her memories while Evangeline fights and begs and cries – until she no longer knows why she is fighting or begging or crying, and her entire mind turns blank. The way Garber grabs you and then takes you on this journey, I feel like a fly on the wall, and that’s how good every part of this book is.

While the ending didn’t make me bawl my eyes out as I thought it would — trust that I was full of hurt and indignation like the rest of you. As she visits Apollo and thinks about it, Jacks reappears and repeats his offer, but suddenly, Apollo grabs Evangeline’s arm and does not let go. He also warns her the stones are powerful and deceptive, but before he’s done talking, he goes up in smoke, leaving Evangeline to wonder who or what he was.As he opens it, Chaos slides off a lock of Evangeline’s pink hair, claiming to need it to break her and Apollo’s curse, thanks her, and steps through.