editing the plot of ouabh
--this book has so much lost potential, and by no means am i saying that i am a superior author or writer, but there are some things that i think could fit better into the story (and this is just a tumblr post anyways)
Evangeline Fox's lover, Luc Navarro, is going to marry her step-sister, Marisol. Like any perfectly rational person, Eva thinks that Luc must be under some sort of spell, or even a curse. So, she naively goes to the Prince of Hearts to seek help in stopping the wedding.
He apparently does exist, and tells her that in exchange, she will owe him three kisses from whomever he wishes, at any time he wishes. Desperately, she agrees. And even though he agrees to help her, he doesn't say what he will do. And with all these emotions and what's happened to her, she doesn't even think to ask.
Once she comes back, she finds that everyone at the wedding has turned to stone, including her beloved Luc Navarro. She's the only real person there. She goes up to Luc, and holding his body of stone, cries at his feet. Feeling even more desperate now, she hurries back to the Prince of Hearts, demanding some kind of alternative. He takes her back to the cursed wedding, and tells her if she turns herself to stone, everyone else will be repaired. Of course, she doesn't want to be stone, but she would rather live as a rock until someone eventually breaks her, than everyone she knows be stone forever.
Evangeline wakes up in a hospital, and Pietro (who is Poison and lies about his name, because she doesn't know he's is a Fate yet, and Jacks being the one who brought her to him because he still needs her for the Valory Arch. But, again, she doesn't know this yet, and assumes someone in her step-family brought her), is the one who helped her.
When Eva returns home, the day after, she goes looking for Marisol for some explanation. And in Marisol's room, she finds nothing but emptiness. Obviously, she goes to ask her step-mother, Agnes, and finds out that while she was literally stone, Luc and Marisol got married anyways, and Marisol has already moved in with Eva's ex-lover. Now she isn't so sure he was under a spell. She is angry and confused. Confused because she doesn't know if she's allowed to be in pain, because she did turn them all to stone, after all. She also thinks that maybe she should be happy for Marisol, because if it weren't for Luc, she certainly wouldn't have many options, since everyone has marked her as the Cursed Bride. Evangeline wonders if Marisol knew about her relationship with Luc.
Eva is being drowned in suitors because of her new reputation as some sort of savior. Of course, she doesn't feel this way, really, she feels more like a hypocrite and a liar. Although, she doesn't reject her suitors--a lot of the reason for that is also because of Agnes.
Two weeks later, the number of suitors have only doubled--and Eva didn't even know that this many people her age lived in her area. She's acquainted with a few, and really tries to make it stay that way. It's all being too much for her, especially since she still hasn't gotten over her ex-lover, and the last time she saw him, he was stone and about to marry her step-sister. Even with all this attention, all she is, is pain. But the hopeless romantic she is, she tries to find some kind of connection with the ocean of strangers.
One night, Luc and Marisol come over for dinner. Eva desperately does not want to see them, but she needs to know what happened.
Luc barely glances in her direction, and saves his lovey-dovey looks for Marisol. Eva's fighting tears the whole dinner, plastering fake smiles on her face. In fact, barely anyone regards her the whole dinner.
Before Luc and Marisol can leave, Eva tells Marisol that Agnes has to speak with her urgently, so Eva can get a moment alone with Luc. She tells him to follow her into a room, to which he obliges confusedly, and Eva asks him what the hell happened. Before asking, though, she throws a few insults in his face--and this is possibly the meanest she's ever been in a while, she thinks. But she doesn't care. For once, she doesn't seem to care. And after all this yelling and tears, Luc has no idea what she's going on about, and claims that they were never together in the first place. He doesn't remember us, Eva thinks. And apparently, Marisol was always his true love, Evangeline was never even an option. Now, she wasn't so sure he was under a spell, and perhaps he was just a piece of shit, but now she knows he's been cursed. She apologizes and bids him goodnight before Marisol can return, feeling embarrassed, but also somewhat more at peace for letting all of her emotions out. Although, she is somewhat happy that there's still a chance that Luc is actually cursed. Evangeline is sure it's wrong to feel good about that, but she can't help herself. It almost overshadows her embarrassment. But as she watches, from the window, her first love and another woman leaving, jealousy pricks at her skin, and haunts her the whole night. She is the other woman (couldnt help myself).
And on top of this, she finds out that Agnes has sold her father's Curiosity shop. And out of spite, she rejects half of her suitors. If Agnes doesn't care about Evangeline or what she wants, why should she care about her?
Evangeline goes back to the Prince of Heart's church, seeking some kind of solution for the mess she let him make. ''I knew I wouldn't have to go looking for you,'' he told her. He informs her that the mess between Luc and Marisol would have been there without him interfering, making her believe even more that Marisol or Agnes cursed her first love. And in exchange for helping her, he tells her that she still owes him three kisses. And the first one, he wants it to go to Crown Prince Apollo of the Magnificent North. Evangeline, obviously, thinks this is absurd and he needs to choose someone else. Jacks refuses, and says it's easier than she thinks.
Once they arrive, Jacks pays for an inn for Evangeline.
At one of the palace events, three days later, Eva meets a woman named LaLa, and also runs into a blue-haired Jacks. After Eva is done exchanging pleasantries with LaLa, he brings her into a room and informs her that he's 'Apollo's closest confidante', to which Eva snorts. He scowls at her, and with her permission, puts his blood on her lips so she can kiss Apollo. And if she doesn't kiss Apollo tonight, Jacks will turn her back to stone forever, since she wouldn't have gone through with their deal.
While Eva and Jacks walking towards Apollo, she hears rumors all around that Marisol is a Cursed Bride, and that she must have bewitched Luc. Some guilty part of Evangeline hopes this is true.
They both find Apollo elegantly posing on a balcony, and join him. ''This is my dear friend Evangeline Fox. You may have heard of her,'' Jacks told Apollo, hoping Eva wouldn't interrupt saying she wouldn't be his friend, and judging by her expression, he knew she wanted to.
Apollo, a lot more handsome than imagined, gives Eva a lazy grin, kissing her hand in introduction. And Evangeline knew exactly what kind of man he was. He wouldn't be hard to kiss, of course, it's just that Eva hadn't ever kissed anyone that wasn't Luc Navarro.
Jacks motions his hands from behind, as if to say, ''Get on with it already.''
Nervously, and as a girl who knew she had no idea what she was doing, gives him an abrupt peck and scurries away. ''Oh, I am doomed,'' Jacks said from under his breath.
Apollo is wide-eyed, but runs after Evangeline, needing more. Jacks shrugged. At least it worked. Embarrassingly, but it worked.
Evangeline had left the palace before Apollo could find her, almost tripping over her skirts more times than she could count. Once she is outside of palace grounds, she feels safe enough, and less in a 'I need to get out of here now' state, she starts walking to her inn, not caring enough to go back for a carriage.
The next day, Jacks breaks into her room, abruptly opening the curtains and making loud noises to wake her. ''You still owe me two kisses,'' he said. Evangeline couldn't argue.
They go to the Fortuna matriarch's castle, which greatly bothers the older woman, whose already snappy by nature. Before they arrived, Jacks had already put his blood across Eva's lips. ''You have to kiss her,'' he whispered. Eva's eyes widen. ''I am not kissing this poor old woman.''
''So you would rather be stone?'' he'd retorted. Eva sighs, and quickly kisses the old woman on the corner of her mouth (i did this because it didn't make sense to me that she kissed her on the cheek - did that mean that jacks's kisses were also fatal if he kissed on the cheek? if there was an actual reason, pls lmk lol).
The old woman slaps Evangeline, which would've knocked her to the floor if Jacks hadn't caught her. ''That was unnecessary,'' he told the woman coldly. The woman agrees, demanding that Evangeline let her make up for it.
Jacks's posture straightened, and he said, ''Evangeline has curiosity in your Vault. Isn't that right, my Fox?'' Evangeline has no choice but to agree, and seemingly has no reason to do otherwise anyways. She wants to tell him to not call her 'his Fox', but can't bring herself to, thinking it's too mean.
Walking down the old woman's long hallways, Evangeline fills in the awkward silence with even more awkward small talk.
The old woman opens her Vault, revealing the Valory Arch. Evangeline doesn't think she'd ever seen Jacks's eyes sparkle so much in. . .hope? Why would a creature like him need to feel hope?
''Evangeline wants to know everything there is about this arch,'' he'd demanded. The woman blinks and hesitates, but Jacks nudges his head toward her subtly, as if to say, ''Get me what I want. Go convince her.''
Evangeline hesitantly hugs the older woman. ''Miss, where I am from, there is no such thing as wonder. Here, I've found so many incredible, impossible things, that part of everyone's everyday lives. Please, will you show me? It is all that I ask.'' When the woman hesitantly nods, Evangeline thinks she might've seen a glint of hidden approval in Jacks's expression. Well, Evangeline didn't need his approval. Why should she care about that, right? She needed to focus. She was kissing all these people for Luc.
Before the older woman opens the vault, she said, ''I take it you do not know of the prophecy.'' Evangeline nods. ''It goes something like: 'This arch may only be unlocked with a key that is not yet forged. Conceived in the North, and born in the South, you will know this key, because she will be crowned in rose gold. She will be both peasant and--'' Jacks had cut her off before she could proceed.
