Chapter 30

Evangeline flees the spinning revelry of the couples ball and avoids Jacks, aching from his apparent betrayal. Petra intercepts her with an offer of fresh air and a secret exit, guiding Evangeline through a concealed door into bright, torchlit corridors lined with uncanny sculptures.

As they walk, Petra slips, revealing she’s attended such parties for longer than Evangeline has been alive. Heat flares from the stone beneath Evangeline’s dress, and she realizes she’s wearing the truth stone, not mirth. Alarmed, Evangeline tries to return to the ball, but Petra draws a knife and attacks.

During the struggle, Evangeline tears off Petra’s moonlit wig, revealing rose-gold hair like Evangeline’s. Pressed by the truth stone’s power, Petra confesses she is also a key: once married to a prince, falsely accused, then recruited into the prophecy. She worked with Chaos, found him the luck stone, and later discovered the youth stone, faked her death, and stayed young. She claims Chaos kept the luck stone locked away, says the four stones together can do more than Evangeline has been told, and insists she must kill Evangeline to keep her own stone safe.

Petra refuses to relent, reclaiming a dagger and closing in. Cornered and pleading for peace, Evangeline grabs the other blade. When Petra lunges again, Evangeline thrusts her knife into Petra’s chest. As Petra dies, she bitterly tells Evangeline they are alike now, leaving Evangeline shaken, newly aware of the truth stone’s power, Chaos’s secrets, and the peril surrounding the hunt for the remaining stones.