The Ballad of Never After

“Sorry to break your fairytale, Little Fox, but ballads don’t end happily, and neither do the two of us.”

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.

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.

you’ve always known what I am. I never tried to pretend otherwise, you just let yourself believe I was something I’m not.

She held him as if he were hers and she were his, and there was nothing else between them. No curses. No lies. No past wounds or mistakes. She held him as if there was only now, as if nothing mattered but this moment. Then she let him go. S

She wasn’t sure exactly when she’d fallen out of love with Luc. In fact, she wasn’t entirely certain that she had. It felt more like she’d left behind her love for Luc with the version of herself that she’d been before.

“One for luck. One for truth. One for mirth. One for youth.”

She remembered the feel of Jacks’s heartbeat, furious against hers, as he’d dragged her out of the ocean after they had escaped Apollo. For once, Jacks hadn’t felt in control. He’d felt like a feral fairytale warrior, determined to do whatever it took to save her. She knew his reasons for wanting to keep her alive were less than noble. But sometimes reason was no match for feeling. She reasoned that it would be far better to hate him, but she could no longer muster the feeling.

“The stone affects everyone,” he said.

“It didn’t do anything to me,” chimed Jacks.

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

“But I thought you could die?” Evangeline asked.

“Why? Planning on murdering me?” Jacks’s eyes glittered.

Chaos speared him with a glare. “Don’t tempt her.”

“Relax.” Jacks toyed with one of the shackles dangling from the arm of a chair. “I gave her the chance to stab me once, but even then she wouldn’t do it.”

“And I’ll forever regret that,”