The Ballad of Never After

The following night is a costume ball, for which LaLa gives Evangeline a costume of the fox from “The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox.” Given the curse, the costume feels morbid, but Evangeline wears it, not wanting to hurt LaLa’s feelings. Jacks is supposed to collect her to go to the ball, and when he doesn’t show, Evangeline goes to his room, finding the door cracked open and Jacks standing with one hand “clenched into a white-knuckled fist” (222).

LaLa is in Jacks’s room, and she reveals that it’s common knowledge that Evangeline is at Slaughterwood Manor and that Tiberius has escaped from prison. Jacks wryly asks whose fault these things are, and in a hard voice, LaLa says, “I did what I had to do” (224). Strange coincidences and LaLa’s odd behavior crash together in Evangeline’s mind, making her wonder if LaLa cast the curse on her and Apollo. LaLa tells Jacks to protect Evangeline but not to kill her with a kiss since it seems that he wants to kiss her. Jacks shrugs off the warning, saying all he wants from Evangeline is the arch opened, and Evangeline flees, feeling hurt and confused by the conversation.