Once Upon a Broken Heart

The evening’s festivities take place in a wood burnished with the colors of autumn. A phoenix tree stands in the center of the clearing, and Evangeline remembers the tree from her mother’s stories. It takes 100 years to mature so all its leaves turn to gold, and if a single leaf is plucked before then, the entire tree will burst into flames. Evangeline searches for the prince and mingles amid the party guests, most of whom look comfortable, as if “attending events where princes chose their brides were as common as family bruncheon” (95).

The guests form cliques that Evangeline can’t manage to infiltrate. She approaches the only other guest on their own, a beautiful girl named Lala dressed in a ruby gown and gloves with flame patterns. Lala points out Prince Apollo high in the phoenix tree posing for a portrait while he studies the guests below. Evangeline is gazing at him when a spike of icy cold runs up her back which she takes to mean “that the Prince of Hearts had just entered the party” (98).

Jacks looks colder and less human than the last time Evangeline saw him, and her senses warn her to avoid him. No matter how she tries, she can’t draw her attention from him, and she feels “like the tide drawn by the tremendous force of the moon” (100). Jacks climbs stairs up to where Prince Apollo poses, ignoring everyone at the party even as they gape at him.

A reporter from the Daily Rumor approaches Evangeline and LaLa. LaLa distracts him while Evangeline escapes, only to bump right into Jacks. He hasn’t forgotten her or their deal, and Prince Apollo is the first person he wants her to kiss. He enchants her lips with his blood and tells her, “[If] you don’t kiss Prince Apollo before tonight’s party is over, you’ll die” (108).

All through dinner, Evangeline puzzles over why Jacks wants her to kiss Apollo and if she’ll really die if she doesn’t. By the time a servant calls her for her private meeting with the prince, she’s a nervous wreck. She doesn’t want to force herself on Apollo, and part of her is sure that Jacks gave her the power of his fatal kiss, meaning she’ll kill Apollo. Jacks escorts her up the stairs alongside the phoenix tree, reassuring her no harm will come to the prince. Evangeline demands to know what will happen when she kisses Apollo, and Jacks’s only response is that it “depends on how good at it you are” (111).

When she meets Apollo, she’s struck by his good looks and has the urge to kiss him. Still, she can’t keep from looking at Jacks, and the prince notices, which makes him lose interest in her. Evangeline seizes the chance to kiss Apollo, who returns the kiss with a surprising fervor that feels like “something lost that should have stayed that way” (117).

Evangeline starts to lose herself in the kiss’s heat, but Jacks pulls her away from Apollo, telling her not to look back. She ignores him and sees Apollo staring hungrily after her. Evangeline asks Jacks what he’s done, to which he replies that he did nothing, but she did—and she will “get to do even more” (118).

Chapter 15 is an article in the Daily Rumor about the night before. It describes how Evangeline was wrapped around Jacks and labels her as “a risky bet” (119).