The End — Chapter 44

Evangeline watches a clock in Jacks’s room and feels dread quicken time, fearing that nightfall will erase her memories and this version of her life. Chaos arrives, armored and ready, saying Jacks will not join them and that he will bring Jacks the stones after Evangeline opens the arch.

Jacks then appears with a beautiful, enthralled girl intended as a post-helm “snack” for Chaos. Evangeline feels jealousy and confusion. Chaos rejects the plan, and Evangeline insists the girl not come. After a tense exchange—including a pained look from Jacks and a brief, barbed thought-trade—Jacks dismisses the girl.

They depart by carriage for Wolf Hall in heavy silence. Evangeline hopes Jacks will choose her and abandon the plan but refuses to beg him; Jacks avoids her gaze, seeming resolute to end the night and change the past.

As they near their destination, Evangeline’s sense of time fractures—moments vanish as if the hourglass has cracked. She does not recall arriving, only that suddenly they stand at Wolf Hall, and then, in a blink, at the library door marked by a wolf’s head, ready to enter the room with the Valory Arch.