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“I’m Merrick of House Redthorne,” he said.
“I’m Evangeline.”
“And I’m Jacks,” Jacks said, appearing beside Evangeline , no longer wearing the smile he’d shared with the Darling girls. “How’s your new wife, Merrick?”

“You’re still bleeding.” He licked the center of her lips, soft and agonizingly slow. His tongue felt like heaven and hell. Like everything she wanted and all she couldn’t have. She had to stop herself from leaning closer, though she doubted Jacks would let her.

Jacks speared her with a quicksilver glare. “Don’t be dazzled. You’re useless to me as a vampire.”
“Well, let’s hope I don’t decide I’d rather be a vampire than be useful to you.”

I would have bitten her and I wouldn’t feel bad about it. In fact, I know I would have enjoyed it. I bet good little Evangeline would have enjoyed it, too.

She wanted the pain to end. She wanted to forget his dimpled smile, his brilliant blue eyes, the way he called her Little Fox. And suddenly, her chest was tight at the thought she might never hear that nickname again. And she didn’t want to forget. She didn’t want to forget at all.

He held her so tightly it hurt, but this pain she didn’t mind. She’d let him crush her, let him break her, just as long as he never let her go. This was what she wanted, and she refused to believe that he didn’t want it, too.

“You could never look awful,” he said faintly.
She looked up again. For a second, he looked almost shy and incredibly young, barely older than her. Blond locks of hair fell over his eyes as he slowly leaned in closer.

“This dance is already taken.”
“Yes, by me.” Luc flashed his fangs.
Jacks merely laughed. The sound was musical and very much at odds with the voice Evangeline heard in her head. I’ll give you a choice. Dance with me, or watch me use one of my swords to chop off his head.

“I didn’t think you cared.”
“I don’t. But you still owe me one more kiss, and until I collect it, you’re mine, and I do not like to share.”

“I suppose it’s going to heal on its own?”
“Yours did.”
“After you tended to them.”
His mouth twitched up at the corner. “Only because I wanted to take off your clothes.”

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.

Evangeline found herself squeezing Jacks’s hand harder, feeling thankful he’d not let her go.
Chaos tilted his head, eyes landing on their intertwined hands. “Interesting.”

“Jacks is unnecessarily cruel,” said LaLa. “He used to do things like this all the time. You don’t know this Jacks because he’s always been different with you.”

“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.”

“Get your hands off her, you son of a bitch!”
Jacks ran across the cavern and punched Apollo in the face. Then he punched him again and again.

“Glad to know you’re thinking about me when you kiss your husband.”
Heat flushed her cheeks. “I’m not thinking nice things.”
“Even better.”

There was a different kind of pain tightening his jaw and making the muscles in his neck pulse as he stood there, holding her gaze as if he wished he could be holding her instead, crushing her to him like he had in her memory.
Married.
Married.
Married, she reminded herself.

He held on to her as if she were a grudge, his body rigid and tense, as if he really didn’t want her there, and yet his arms were tight around her waist as though he had no intention of ever letting her go.

“That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”
The Fate gave the queen a look more vicious than any curse.
“There is nothing of equal value to me.”

“You’ll really start to hate me.”
“Perhaps I look forward to hating you.”
The corner of Jacks’s poisonous mouth twitched as if the idea vaguely entertained him.

He held her with the type of intensity that only happens when a person wants something that isn’t quite theirs.
But she was. She just needed to tell him she loved him.
“Evangeline—” His voice was hoarse. “Come back to me…”

From that first day in his church, Jacks had wanted to watch her. He wanted to know what her voice sounded like, what her skin felt like. He’d followed her, listened to her prayer—hated her prayer.

“Stop flashing your fangs. I’m the only one who gets to bite her.”
Jacks nipped at Evangeline’s ear, cold and sharp. She felt the sting of it everywhere, covering her with gooseflesh, which somehow turned to blush when it reached her cheeks.

Evangeline had once heard a tale about a pair of doomed stars, drawn across skies toward each other’s brightness, even though they knew that if they drew too close, their desire would end in a fiery explosion. This was how Jacks looked at her now.

“Being yours does not make you mine.”

“Don’t look at me like that. I saw the way you looked when you arrived here with your arm around her shoulders.”
“How did I look?”
“Like you would kill for her.”

“Not really thinking about later.” He licked her, one languorous stroke up the column of her neck.
She gasped, “You don’t even like me.”
“I like you right now. I like you a lot.” He gently sucked her skin. “In fact, I can’t think of anything I like more.”

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.

There was blood on his hands, and his eyes were shot through with it as well. Yet she’d never wanted anyone more. She must have lost her mind sometime during the night because she wanted him to move closer. She wanted his hands on her.