Chapter 1

In the dead of night, Evangeline slips into Wolf Hall’s royal library to confront a centuries-locked door marked with a crowned wolf. She hopes it hides lost tales of the Valors—especially Honora Valor’s healing lore—to rouse Apollo from his suspended sleep.

Before she can attempt the lock, Jacks emerges from the shadows. He admits to poisoning but not killing Apollo, dismissing Evangeline’s outrage as human sentiment. He argues that his interventions improved her life, while revealing his unrepentant, Fate-born amorality.

Jacks presses a bargain: help find the missing stones and open the Valory Arch, and he will wake Apollo—and then leave her forever. Evangeline, recalling the chaos their first bargain caused and his manipulations in the crypt, rejects him and vows never to open the Arch.

After Jacks departs with mocking laughter, Evangeline commits to her plan. Using Jacks’s abandoned dagger, she pricks her finger and unlocks the door with a drop of willing blood. The ancient mechanism yields at once, confirming her rare gift and her resolve to save Apollo without Jacks.

As the door finally swings open, Evangeline instantly understands Jacks’s dark amusement—the threshold conceals peril rather than simple answers—signaling that her chosen path to save Apollo may be far more dangerous than she hoped.