Once Upon a Broken Heart

Evangeline wakes to find Jacks holding on to her stiffly. LaLa is revealed to be a Fate—the Unwed Bride who represents “rejection, loss, and unhappily ever afters” (259). Her tears were used to poison Evangeline, but LaLa doesn’t know who did it. An article in the Daily Rumor implies Evangeline and Jacks killed Apollo. Though she’s reluctant to do so after how Jacks manipulated her, Evangeline forms an alliance with him to find the real killer and clear their names. She stipulates that they will have no secrets and that Jacks won’t use his power to control her emotions, thinking that he may have had more power than her “but that didn’t mean she was powerless” (265). Jacks agrees. Their first stop is a visit to Chaos, the Fate lord of spies and assassins.

A cheerful LaLa scours through the racks of wedding gowns she’s made to stave off the urge to get married. She prepares Evangeline to visit Chaos, dressing her in a revealing outfit of black and blue. In addition to being a Fate, Chaos is a vampire, and all the skin Evangeline is showing makes her nervous. LaLa shrugs off Evangeline’s concerns, saying Chaos deserves to be driven mad by the site of flesh and acting like “turning Evangeline into vampire bait was a perfectly reasonable thing to do” (274). When Jacks sees Evangeline, he looks at her in a way that makes her feel warm.

Evangeline notices a copy of a book that Marisol had on her nightstand, which makes Evangeline realize she doesn’t know if her stepsister is safe. The book in question is a spell book of powerfully dangerous magic that’s disguised as a cookbook. LaLa and Jacks try to convince Evangeline that Marisol must be up to something, but Evangeline refuses to think badly of Marisol.

Evangeline is curious about the vampires, but Jacks warns her that human curiosity never ends well. Jacks talks his way into Chaos’s lair, keeping Evangeline close so the vampires don’t get any ideas about enthralling her. An escort leads them through elegant rooms complete with shackles to hold human prey. Then, suddenly, their escort is gone and Chaos arrives, greeting them in a voice that’s “gritty and slightly hypnotic” (286).

Evangeline is startled by Chaos’s arrival and makes the mistake of looking into his eyes, which almost make her forget herself. Jacks pulls her back, but even at a distance, she feels heat coming from Chaos, as if “parts of her were too close to a fire” (288). Chaos wears a bronze mask that’s enchanted to keep him from biting people, but even so, Evangeline doesn’t feel safe.

Chaos tells her there are two types of vampire venom—one that kills and one that transforms—before leading her and Jacks to a balcony that overlooks a chess board. Vampires drink from human victims, infecting them with venom that will turn them once they feed on human flesh.

The game is the final step for humans to become vampires and members of the order of spies and assassins. These changelings have until sunrise to complete the transformation. Watching the changelings fight for freedom makes Evangeline nervous, and Jacks takes her hand in a gesture of comfort that surprises both her and Chaos.

Jacks asks Chaos who killed Apollo. Chaos doesn’t know, but about a week ago, a woman sought out his potions master to make a specific type of deadly oil. Before they leave, Evangeline notices the medallion Chaos wears, which has the same pattern as the door in the palace library behind which all stories of the former royals are supposedly kept. Chaos offers her information in exchange for one bite of her. Evangeline declines, and Jacks pulls her away. They need to leave before the changelings break free and come after them.

They rush back the way they came. One of the rooms is now full of changelings in cages. They call out to Evangeline and Jacks, one asking Evangeline if it’s really her. The voice is Luc’s, and Evangeline looks up, only to “lock eyes with her first love” (301).

Luc begs Evangeline to let him out of his cage. He doesn’t want to be a vampire and only came here because he heard vampire venom could heal his wounds and scars. The venom also cleared his head of what now felt like the curse of loving Marisol. Where Marisol once told Evangeline she’d desperately tried to be with Luc after the wolf attack, Luc describes the exact opposite—that he tried and failed to win back Marisol’s affection. The last thing Luc clearly remembers is Marisol touching his neck. After that, he was just obsessed with her.

Jacks warns Evangeline not to listen, but Evangeline can’t bring herself to leave Luc behind. She gives him a weapon to free himself, and as soon as he does, he leaps after her in a rush of fluid grace that looks like “the worst mistake she had ever made” (308). Jacks shoves Evangeline aside and takes Luc’s bite before breaking his neck. Jacks moves to cut off Luc’s head, but Evangeline stops him, offering to leave without any more fuss if he lets Luc live. Jacks stalks away, angry that Evangeline fell for Luc’s tricks. As they leave the lair, Jacks’s appearance changes and he grows fangs. Luc infected Jacks with the vampire venom that transforms, rather than kills.