All Jacks could see was smoke. Thick and gray, it burned his eyes and his throat. But he needed to find her.
“Jacks! Help me! Jacks!” He could hear her voice. It was tiny and terrified. He’d never heard her sound so small before.
It didn’t even sound like her after the initial few cries.
At first her voice had been like the smoke—he’d heard it everywhere. Screaming his name, calling for him. But then no matter where he went, Evangeline sounded farther away.
“Jacks!”
“I’m coming, Little Fox!”
Sweat dripped down his neck as he ran through the smoke. “Jacks—over here—” She broke off with a hacking cough. But she sounded closer now.
He chased the sound of her cough, farther away from the burning tree, away from the smoke.
The air was still thick with dirty soot. But he could see again through all the grimness, through the ash. He could make out a tree in the clearing that hadn’t caught fire. An ordinary oak tree with a violet-haired girl leaning against the bark, hand on one hip of her iridescent dress as she brought the other hand to her lips and feigned another cough.
Aurora.
Not Evangeline.
“I’m guessing I’m not who you expected,” Aurora said sweetly.
He hated the sound of her voice. He had never liked it before, but now he wished that he could grab hold of the voice and toss it into the flames of the burning phoenix tree behind him.
“Where is she?” Jacks snarled.
Aurora pouted. “Why do you think I would know?”
He slowly clenched and then unclenched his fists. He was trying to be nice because this was Castor’s twin sister. But how many times had he done that? Made excuses for Aurora because of who she was? Told himself she wasn’t dangerous because she had something he wanted? He knew she wasn’t the one who’d set fire to the phoenix tree, but she’d just lured him away from Evangeline. And whether she knew where Evangeline was or not, he wanted to hurt her—badly.
“I’m going to give you one more chance.” Jacks reached out and took Aurora by the throat. “Where is Evangeline?”
Aurora pursed her lips.
“Do you want to die?” Jacks squeezed lightly. “Is that what you want, Aurora? Because I’m this close.”
“You won’t kill me,” she said. “From what I hear, strangulation isn’t really your style. You’d have to kiss me, and I don’t think your precious Evangeline would like that very much.”
“I could always make an exception.” Jacks put a little more pressure on her throat. “Just tell me where she is.”
Aurora sniffed. There were tears in her eyes now, though Jacks imagined they were about as real as her cough.
“Tell me why you picked her,” she said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but for the life of me I don’t understand the fascination. Is she prettier than me? Is that it?”
“Are you really this petty?” “Yes.”
“And you wonder why I don’t love you.”
Aurora flinched at this, and when a tear fell, this time it looked real. “You’re never going to save her, Jacks of the Hollow. Apollo has taken her to the Tree of Souls.”
