The Ballad of Never After

On their way to Slaughterwood Manor, Evangeline and Jacks’s carriage passes through a dead, gray landscape with the charred remains of trees and buildings. A sign proclaims that it was once the sight of Merrywood Manor. Jacks tenses, losing the light in his eyes, and Evangeline feels any happiness seep out of her when he informs her in a dark tone that “this is where they all died” (160). Long ago, Lyric Merrywood, one of the brothers, fell in love with Aurora Valor, who was betrothed to Vengeance Slaughterwood. On her wedding day, Aurora ran away to be with Lyric, and Vengeance burned down the Merrywood Manor, killing everyone but the unnamed archer from Evangeline’s book.

Evangeline thought the combined stones destroyed Merrywood Manor, and Jacks asks where she heard that and is angered when she reveals her visit to Tiberius. Jacks vows to kill anyone who tries to harm her, but Evangeline refuses to let anyone die at LaLa’s party, to which Jacks says that “someone is going to die. It will either be one of them or one of us” (168).