A Curse for True Love

“King Roland often told his son Apollo, ‘If you are nice, it means you are not enough of anything else. People are nice because they must be, but as a prince you must be more.’

As a boy, Apollo had taken this advice as a license to be careless with life and with others. He was not cruel, but neither did he embody any of the other virtues his father extolled. Apollo had always imagined he had time to become clever, formidable, wise, or shrewd. It never occurred to him that, in the meantime, he was becoming something else.”

These lines from Apollo’s first point-of-view chapter set up his character, motivations, and actions for the entire book. Apollo is angered to find his subjects didn’t even miss him when they thought he was dead and, like Evangeline, relies on others’ experiences to define how he views himself. These lines also show how unaware Apollo is of who he has become. As a result, he doesn’t see the harm in his actions, which keeps him from being able to care about those around him.

“Until that moment, Evangeline hadn’t really thought much about the North’s story curse, but her mother had told her all about it when she was a little girl. Every fairytale in the Magnificent North was cursed. Some stories couldn’t be written down, others couldn’t leave the North, and many changed every time they were shared, becoming less and less true with every telling. It was said that every Northern tale had started as actual history, but over time, the Northern story curse had twisted them until only bits of truth remained.”

These lines introduce the mechanics of the North’s story curse and its significance to the story. More broadly, this passage also explores how lies become truth, which then can become history. Though the story curse itself is fiction, it twists facts so a nugget of truth remains while the surrounding support veers far from the original tale. Before this excerpt, Evangeline saw the story curse change her true love story with Jacks into a falsified love story with Apollo. Despite this change, many of the events in the falsified tale matched those Evangeline experienced in Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After, showing how easily facts become fiction when retold a certain way.

“Evangeline pinched her lips shut. She would argue with him, he had no doubt. But whatever she said next didn’t matter. This was all to protect her.

He stroked her cheek. ‘I hope you understand.’

‘I do understand, and I hope you understand that as long as you treat me like an untrustworthy captive, I will act like one instead of like your wife.’”

Up until now, Evangeline has been mostly content to let things play out and see where they went. Here, just after Apollo has broken Evangeline’s trust, Evangeline realizes that his treatment doesn’t match the kind of person she’d want to be with. This moment is also where Evangeline starts to fight back against Apollo’s control over her life. Since she knows she has little power, she does so in the ways available to her—specifically not playing into Apollo’s games. Evangeline shows here how defiance is its own form of battle.

“The dying fire smoldered in the hearth. He considered setting the room ablaze just so that he’d have a reason to pick her up and carry her out, to save her one last time, before he left her for good.

Of course it wouldn’t really be saving her if he was the one who put her in danger by starting a fire.”

These lines come from Jacks’s perspective while he watches Evangeline sleep. Jacks has convinced himself he cannot love or be loved without dooming his partner. Thus, he believes she would be safer and happier without him, which he shows here by acknowledging he has to leave her. However, Jacks’s hopeful side also shines through in his reluctance to leave and in what he is willing to do to give love one last try. This excerpt also exemplifies Jacks’s dueling hero and villain natures. Jacks wants to rescue Evangeline from danger (hero) but is also willing to create that danger (villain).

“Once more Evangeline looked at the dagger Archer had given her. What she remembered of it didn’t give her much to go on, so perhaps it was more like a bread crumb than a proper piece of a memory, but every lover of fairytales knew that bread-crumb trails were always worth following.”

These lines again show how Evangeline makes sense of her world based on what she’s learned from fairy tales. While she still has not gotten her memories back, she now realizes that this does not make her helpless. Rather, the clues she gathers (such as Jacks’s dagger here) are things she can use to propel her toward the truth. Her references to breadcrumb trails here references fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, in which paths lead both to answers and more danger. Like such stories, Evangeline knows her future might hold pleasure and pain, but she is willing to take that risk to find her truth.

“The Court of Columns was one of Wolf Hall’s more impressive rooms, with a three-story domed glass ceiling that provided an excellent view of the stars. Eight enormous columns formed a circle in the center of the room. The columns were carved in the likenesses of the Forgotten Saints. Apollo thought they were far more spectacular than the carvings of the Valors that sat in the bay, as these statues still had their heads. They were also carved of rare starstone, which glowed at night, adding an otherworldly quality to the court that he hoped would delight Evangeline.”

Here, Apollo admires the ballroom, both showing his softer side and building the novel’s world. Details like the domed ceiling and glowing stone show how the architecture of the North is both magical and made to impress. The columns carved in the likenesses of saints call to the kingdom’s past, and Apollo’s comparison to the Valor statues shows how both sets of figures are important to the North. Apollo’s hopes that Evangeline will be dazzled by the room’s beauty reveal that he does care for her in a way, even if it is not always a healthy one. However, this caring also has a darker side, as Apollo knows that, if Evangeline is enchanted by the palace, she will be less likely to make attempts to leave.

“Now Evangeline had never thought of herself as a reckless person. Others might argue with this. But Evangeline would say to them that she was merely hopeful of what could be, whereas others were fearful as to what could go wrong.”

These lines cut to the heart of who Evangeline is. Throughout the series, she has stayed staunchly happy and positive in the face of adversity. Even now without her memories, Evangeline keeps this quality, showing that personality and memory are not mutually exclusive. This section also offers hope and fear as the difference between optimism and pessimism. As an optimist, Evangeline holds hope in the highest regard, whereas pessimists would fear more than hope.

“Apollo felt a moment of sadness. He wasn’t really a monster. He just did what had to be done. A boy this trusting and this cowardly wouldn’t have made it long in this world; his family was all dead now, anyway. And Apollo would make sure his sacrifice was put to good use.”

Apollo has just killed the last member of the great house, and these thoughts reveal how he justifies his actions to suit his narrative. Apollo feeds himself misinformation until he believes his version of events, and in doing so, convinces himself he has not just committed a monstrous act. Apollo putting the boy’s death to good use confirms Apollo has no empathy for the family or guilt for what he’s done. This confirms he truly is monstrous and reveals that Apollo is a villain.

“The Valors had originally cast the story curse to protect their son, Castor, when he’d first been turned into a vampire. It was supposed to affect only stories about vampires. But the curse had been cast out of terror, and curses that come from a place of fear always turn out a little twisted or become far more terrible than intended.”

Here, Jacks considers the true purpose of the story curse and how the curse, like the stories it affects, is twisted and unrecognizable from what it was intended to be. The curse’s history implies a relationship between emotions and spells in the magic system of the story world. The terror inherent in the casting of the story curse made the curse darker and more dangerous than intended, much like how fear turns people bitter and desperate. These lines also foreshadow the true nature of the Valors and how far they will go to protect themselves and get their way.

“Some say this curse was the forest’s way of trying to make others love it the way that the Valor family had loved it—for the curse of the forest was a peculiar sort of curse. At first it didn’t even seem like a curse, it seemed a bit like a wonder. Until more and more Northerners went into the forest and never came out.

And so in true Northern fashion, it was decided that all paths to the Cursed Forest should be cursed as well, so that Northerners would stop disappearing inside of it.

Unfortunately, there were disagreements on how best to bewitch the roads, so several sloppy spells were all cast at once.”

These lines introduce the Cursed Forest and how all paths leading into it are cursed to constantly rain. The history of the curse also explores the problems that arise when those in power don’t listen to one another. Instead of discussing the forest and finding the best way to make it safer for the people, they cast a variety of spells they thought were best. These choices made a mess of the Cursed Forest, highlighting how good intentions can fall apart under poor communication.

“It was tempting to give up a year of time just for a hug, just to be held by people she loved, who loved her back and who she knew without a doubt wanted nothing but the best for her. She wanted to forget for a moment that all she had was a mysterious husband, that people kept trying to kill her, and that the one person she was inexplicably drawn to was the most dangerous murderer of all.

A year didn’t seem like such a bad price to pay to escape from all of it.”

Evangeline is in the midst of the cursed forest, desperately trying to find her parents, and these lines show how she has changed since the beginning of the book. When she first realized her memories were gone, Evangeline wondered if giving them up was a price to pay for her happy ending. Now, after everything she’s experienced, Evangeline is far more cautious about accepting these costs. While she thinks a year isn’t a bad price for feeling comfortable and safe, she now knows that comfort and safety would be a lie and not worth the price. Rather than the pliable princess she was several chapters ago, Evangeline is now a fighter, if still one who wishes everything could just work out the way she wants it to.

“‘Let’s just hope this pet bird is living its best day full of fat rabbits and not focusing on us.’

‘Thank you,’ said Evangeline.

‘I don’t think I really did you a favor.’

‘But it was what I wanted.’”

This exchange between Evangeline and Jacks comes when they notice one of Apollo’s hunting birds nearby in the cursed forest. Jacks immediately wants to kill it, but Evangeline stops him because the bird has not attacked, illustrating the difference between them. In keeping with Jacks’s jaded view of the world, he believes any unfriendly force is automatically a threat. By contrast, Evangeline only views things as dangerous when they actively threaten her. Though this bird has harmed her in the past, it is not doing so now. This also shows how much Jacks truly cares for Evangeline. He is willing to go against his nature to make her happy. Though given how dedicated he is to protecting her, his decision is partly based on realizing how the forest lessens the threat here.

“When Jacks averted his gaze and turned to go, she grabbed his wrist with both her hands. ‘I’m not letting you leave. You said you were my monster. If you’re mine, why bring me here just to leave me? None of this makes sense.’

He gritted his teeth. ‘Being yours does not make you mine.’”

Jacks has rescued Evangeline from the Cursed Forest and prepares to leave her. Evangeline’s reaction shows both that she trusts Jacks and that her heart remembers, even if her mind does not. Jacks has said he is hers, and deep down, Evangeline knows this is the truth. She knows he is the answer to her missing memories and her happy ending. Jacks’s response shows his tendency to make decisions for Evangeline instead of letting her choose what she wants. He has no problem admitting he is hers, but he refuses to let her think of her as his because he fears doing so will only lead to her demise.

“The cures left Apollo suddenly untethered. His connection to Evangeline had been severed and he wanted it back. He didn’t want to be cursed, but he wanted her; the wanting didn’t end just because the curses had.”

These lines from Apollo’s perspective offer additional insight into his character and motivations. In The Ballad of Never After, Apollo was cursed to hunt Evangeline, though he consistently claimed he didn’t want to hurt her. Here, he shows this by wanting Evangeline even though the curse is gone, he is still entitled and power-hungry. Specifically as involves Evangeline, the curse influenced his interest in her to morph from romance into obsession, which shows how Apollo has changed without him even realizing it. He thinks that he now wants Evangeline the same way he did before, but before, he was not willing to violate her as he is now.

“If they were truly meant for each other, shouldn’t it have been easier? Shouldn’t there have been less bloodshed and heartbreak and people trying to tear them apart? […] Evangeline had once heard that Fates were not capable of love in the same way as humans. She’d taken it to mean they couldn’t feel the emotion. But she wondered if this also meant that Fates didn’t believe in love in the same way. Maybe they believed love with humans was doomed, and then acted in ways that brought that doom about.”

These lines from Evangeline’s thoughts come after she has remembered her past and what Jacks (a Fate) means to her. The first section suggests that a relationship between love and simplicity doesn’t exist. Regardless of how strongly she feels or how she believes she’s meant for Jacks, life still happens, which means there are obstacles to what Evangeline wants. Evangeline’s nature means she will overcome these obstacles, as evidenced in the second portion of this quote. Evangeline now understands that Fates feel emotions differently than humans, which makes her realize that, if she truly wants Jacks, she has to approach loving him differently than she would loving a human. The final lines refer to the destructive power of belief. Throughout the series, both Jacks and LaLa have acted in ways that bring about the destruction of love. Allegedly, both are cursed to never find love, but Evangeline’s thoughts question whether this is true or whether the Fates use their true natures as an excuse to push love away.

“There had to be a way to change this. To fix this. To stop Aurora from forever changing Jacks’s heart or giving him another heart entirely. Who would Jacks even be if that happened?”

Here, Evangeline has learned Jacks traded his loving heart to Aurora and realizes that Aurora is motivated almost solely by claiming Jacks’s love. Evangeline’s questions here mimic those the book has posed about her own experience with her lost memories. Even without her memories, Evangeline has remained the same type of person because her heart is still her own. This suggests that Jacks could become an entirely different person without his heart, which is later shown by how Jacks acts without his heart.

“One of the things Evangeline loved about Jacks was his determination, his drive, his intractable pursuit of the things that he wanted most. But she didn’t want to believe that what he wanted now was to feel nothing. That he could disdain his heart so much. That he could give up on love, on everything, entirely. […] Jacks was the Prince of Hearts—he’d been searching almost all his entire life for love. And now here she was—and he was giving up?”

Evangeline thinks this as she realizes how much losing Jacks would hurt her. After everything they have been through and how much her love for him has grown, Evangeline wants to believe Jacks feels the same way, and the idea he doesn’t leaves her feeling almost hopeless. These lines also show how pain changes a person. Evangeline admires Jacks’s persistent nature, so when that nature feels disrupted, she is hurt by his betrayal of who she believes he is. For Jacks, this reveals what he is willing to do to keep Evangeline safe. He loves her enough to realize he can’t bear to harm her. Again, Jacks makes decisions for her, leaving Evangeline to override those choices and make her own for the two of them.

“Evangeline had changed as well since the first time she had entered this clearing on her first night in the Magnificent North, when she had believed that marrying a prince could make all her dreams come true. Looking back, her dreams had felt impossible and she had felt so courageous for believing in them. But now she realized those were never her dreams, not really. They had been dreams borrowed from stories, dreams she had clung to because she had yet to imagine her own dreams.”

Evangeline enters the Phoenix Tree’s clearing, the first place she saw Apollo and realized life as a princess was in reach. Her understanding here shows how much she has changed and grown up. The Evangeline of Once Upon a Broken Heart fully relied on fairy tales to inform who she was and what she wanted. Now, after everything she’s been through with Jacks and learned about Apollo, Evangeline knows that fairy tales are not as complex as real life. She still wants a happy ending, but she is less stringent about its terms. Her experiences taught her she wants Jacks—imperfect and dangerous as he may be—rather than Apollo—the prince who seemed perfect on paper but has become a villain.

“He loved her so much he’d rewritten history. He’d given up what he had believed was his only chance at love. And now he had finally broken the spell that he never thought he’d escape.”

This passage of Evangeline’s thoughts comes after she kisses Jacks and doesn’t die as a result. Her realization that Jacks rewrote his history echoes the story curse and how tales change. Where the curse twists stories from a place of fear, making it nearly impossible to separate fact from fiction, Jacks’s rewritten history comes from a place of love. Thus, Jacks’s new story offers hope, rather than harm. This section also defines Evangeline’s idea of a happy ending. She simply wants to be with Jacks and to know he wants to be with her. Finding that here finishes her story arc, even though the book itself is not over.

“She tried to say she was sorry. She knew it would have been the smart thing to say just then. But she couldn’t bring herself to apologize for kissing Jacks.”

After Evangeline and Jacks finally kiss, Apollo finds them, sets the Phoenix Tree ablaze, and kidnaps Evangeline. As Evangeline struggles against Apollo, she thinks she should apologize, which shows the unhealthy ideas she has about being beholden to what Apollo wants. Evangeline’s urge to apologize shows Apollo still holds power over her and that part of her thinks of herself as lesser to him. Evangeline’s ultimate decision not to apologize reveals she is finding her inner strength. She refuses to give in to Apollo’s threats and chooses to stand up for what she wants, again showing how defiance is a form of fighting.

“‘I’m sorry, son. But I can’t let you go to her.’

‘You can’t stop me,’ Jacks roared. He tried to throw Dane and Lysander off his arms, but all the Valors were so much stronger than they should have been.

‘She’s his wife,’ Wolfric said, as if that somehow made this all right.

‘He’s going to sacrifice her to a tree!’ Jacks screamed.”

This exchange between Jacks and Wolfric Valor (the former king of the North) offers insight into the novel’s world and the power the Valors still hold. The Valor boys holding Jacks back are too strong, suggesting they have used some kind of magic to build themselves up. Jacks fighting them despite their advantage shows he is done keeping away from Evangeline or making choices for what he believes is her safety. Jacks understands now that all the terrible things he has done are nothing compared to what Apollo will do. While this doesn’t excuse Jacks’s behavior, it gives him perspective and reveals that isn’t the villain he’s always thought he was.

“Evangeline knew that Jacks had told her heroes didn’t get happy endings. But that didn’t mean they were supposed to give them to the villains.”

Here, Evangeline struggles as Apollo drags her toward the Tree of Souls. These lines offer an observation about heroes and villains and the endings each is “supposed” to have. Jacks’s past suggestion that heroes don’t get happy endings is a direct contradiction to what fairy tales teach—that heroes emerge victorious while villains are vanquished. Evangeline thinking the villain (Apollo) would get his happy ending illustrates how heroes and villains are a matter of perspective. Apollo is the villain in Evangeline’s story, but he is the hero in his version of the tale. To him, Evangeline’s sacrifice is simply what he needs to do to get his happy ending while, to Evangeline, it is Apollo’s ultimate villainous act.

“The story could have ended there, with the villain defeated and the happy couple about to go off to some ambiguous happily ever after.

Unfortunately, the fight did not simply cease because Apollo was now trapped inside of a tree for eternity.”

These lines come after Apollo unwittingly sacrifices himself and shows how story focus shapes events. Apollo’s story has ended, but that does not mean all other stories just stop. Without Apollo, the focus goes back to the rest of the story—namely Jacks’s fight with the Valors and his continued anger at what he thought they were going to do to Evangeline. The tree taking Apollo instead of Evangeline doesn’t eliminate Jacks’s anger or his rage at the Valors. Thus, though the main plot of A Curse for True Love has ended, there is still conflict, showing how a story’s beginning and end points are subjective.