She tried to pull away, but Jacks held tight, knotting her hair in his fist and keeping his forehead pressed to hers. "Please, Little Fox, remember."

There was only one way their story ended, and it wasn't happy. Her hope might have been powerful, but it wasn't magic. It wasn't enough.

It was better to hurt her, better to break her heart, to do whatever he needed to do, to keep her alive and to keep her away from him.

That hadn't changed.

But today, Jacks was failing at letting her go. He wanted to keep her pressed to the floor beneath him. He would have set the world on fire and then let it all burn just to keep holding her like this.

"I don't want you near her. Ever."

"I know what I'm doing."

The vampire gave him another hard look. "If Evangeline ever gets her memory back, she'll never forgive you for this."

"At least she'll be alive to hate me."

She scowled. This only made him grin wider. Which was worse. He had dimples. Unfair dimples.

"Wait!" Evangeline called. "What's your name?"

'You already know, Little Fox.'

But once again, his thoughts weren't projected loudly enough for her to hear.

Instead, he gave her the name he'd planned on. He knew she wouldn't remember it, and he needed to make sure he didn't forget it. "You can call me Archer."

Evangeline's reaction to the potential news was immediate. Her expressions were always so easy to read. Earlier he'd seen he unease; then he'd seen her fear, her anger; and now as she bit down on her lower lip, he could see her curiosity. She was the moth and Jacks was still the flame.

"You're right. You keep saying Jacks is the villain. Yet you just let a man attack me with his pet bird in order to hunt another man down and kill him. You also told my guards -who aren't very nice, by the way- not to let me leave the castle, despite promising me you'd never lock me up. So, no, I don't know how much of a threat Lord Jacks is, but I'm starting to see you as one."

Madame Voss's eyes went wide. "Your Highness, are you all right?"

'No!' Evangeline wanted to scream. 'There's something I've forgotten and I need to remember.'

Last night she'd convinced herself she could just let her memories go. But now it was clear that she'd been kidding herself. She knew Apollo had warned that regaining her memories would only hurt her, but some things were worth hurting for, and Evangeline believed this was one of those things.

She needed to remember.