Months earlier, on a rainy day in her family’s shop, Evangeline Fox used a strange fountain pen labeled for finding dreams that did not yet exist. The pen led her to draw an intimate wedding vision: Evangeline and Luc Navarro alone on a candlelit dock, writing vows on their hands and keeping them over each other’s hearts. The memory contrasts sharply with Evangeline’s present wedding, which is public, extravagant, and shadowed by fear rather than simple love.

In the present, Evangeline prepares to marry Prince Apollo at Wolf Hall while wearing an enormous winged bridal gown. Outside, nobles wait for the ceremony beneath a gold-flecked ice arch, and Evangeline dreads the moment after the vows, when Jacks is supposed to break Apollo’s spell and Apollo may stop loving her. Apollo’s tenderness the night before has made the choice harder because Evangeline no longer wants him to fall out of love with her.

Evangeline also worries about the Valory Arch prophecy, though she has decided not to trust everything she has heard about it. Marisol, now free of her Cursed Bride reputation and enjoying her place at court, notices Evangeline’s nerves and tries to reassure her. When Evangeline blurts out her fear that Apollo may decide the marriage was a mistake and cast them both out, Marisol tells her that Apollo’s devotion makes sense because Evangeline has already become the heroine of fairytales.

Marisol urges Evangeline to love Apollo with the same fearless hope with which she lives her life. The encouragement helps Evangeline realize that although she does not love Apollo yet, she may be able to love him if given time. Evangeline chooses to set aside the prophecy until later and leaves her suite determined to fall in love with her prince.

At the ceremony, Evangeline’s memories blur as if the day itself is cursed or affected by the story curse. She finds herself in the snowy yard before the court, then holding Apollo’s hands as the wedding master binds their wrists with silk cords and declares their hearts joined. Apollo whispers that he would gladly bleed for her, and Evangeline hopes that some real spark in him will remain after Jacks breaks the spell.