Jacks

* Caraval & OUABH
* OUABH

Gives a fatal kiss to all but those who will never love him (except to his true love, Evangeline)
Reads Evangeline's projected thoughts

## Physical description

### **Hair Color**

Gold
Blue (temporarily)

## Relationships

### **Romances**

Evangeline Fox (true love/lover)Donatella Dragna (ex-wife)
Alessandra † (former fiancé)
The Fox † (former love)

## Series Information

### **Appearances**

*Legendary*
*Finale*
*Once Upon a Broken Heart*
*The Ballad of Never After*
*A Curse for True Love*

**Jacks**, also known as **The Prince of Hearts**, is a Fate and the former heir to the Meridian Empire.

## Appearance

Jacks is undeniably attractive with a ruthless, sharp kind of beauty. He is tall with long, lean legs. He has vivid silver-blue eyes and golden-blond hair. His skin is pale and smooth like marble. He has long, slender pale fingers. His real smile reveals a pair of dimples. He has a sharp jaw and sharp teeth with a pointed chin. His narrow, sulky mouth has a slightly fuller lower lip. Jacks often dresses carelessly, with his shirt not tucked in or buttoned all the way. He feels very cold to the touch. He looks bored, rich, and cruel.

As part of his disguise while in the Magnificent North pretending to be a noble named Lord Jacks, he dyes his hair a brilliant blue. It eventually returns to his original brilliant golden-blond.

He used to carry uniquely colored apples that had a dark red juice with him. In *A Curse for True Love* it's alluded that Jacks eats so many apples to control his urges. This has been confirmed by the author. Jacks states at the end of the book that he doesn't need them anymore. In the Waterstones alternate ending Evangeline states that Jacks now prefers to stay away from apples.

## Personality

Jacks appears to be a careless young man who is unbothered with others’ opinions. His reputation as a Fate hints that he is quite the charmer but also a heartbreaker. He can be rude and says whatever’s on his mind such as telling Tella to go away and choose another sky carriage and threatening to push her off when she doesn’t listen. He’s very flirtatious and is always teasing Tella and Evangeline almost never calling them by their names and referring to them by terms of endearment like “My Love” and “Little Fox” respectively.

Also because he is a Fate, Jacks is very possessive and obsessive and will do anything to get what he wants. He was obsessed with Tella and tried to possess and control her emotions many times and even married her without her permission. When she confronted him about it he was quick to let her to sever the bond, but that didn’t stop him as he later on at the end of Finale tried to get her to let him manipulate her emotions for eternity in exchange for rescuing Legend.

Jacks never justifies or condones his actions but he tries to explain them. He told Tella that even though he stopped her heart and threatened Legend that he’d kill her if he didn’t give him his powers back he confessed that he wasn’t actually going to kill her and would never harm her and that “he’s a villain even in his own story”.

In the beginning of Once Upon a Broken Heart, Jacks is yet again careless and blatantly rude to Evangeline when he overhears her in his church calling her speech pathetic but agrees to help her anyways in exchange for three kisses from her. But when she meets him again days after at the Nocte Neverending, he is moodier and colder than before due to Tella’s rejection and wonders why she is there and immediately gets her to kiss Apollo as part of their deal.

He has a tender and caring side that he shows rarely like helping Scarlett find her previous fiancé, carrying Tella in his arms back to her sister and Julian when Legend abandons her at the end of the second Caraval game, holding Evangeline close to comfort her when she was poisoned and crying uncontrollably despite her trying to break free from his hold. Taking Evangeline to the Hollow (even though it is a place he has avoided going to since he turned into a fate) and letting her bite his neck while traveling there, using the arch stones to go back in time to when Evangeline was alive and making sure she is safe and out of the way when he hears Chaos take off his helm.

Jacks can appear reckless, indolent, and careless. The rumors about him while he is Empress Elantine's heir are that he is a "soulless madman who will do anything to get the crown."

## Plot

Jacks was a part of the Merrywood Three known as Archer with Castor Valor and Lyric Merrywood. Aurora, Castor’s sister, was secretly in love with him, and she put the Archer’s curse on him, because her sister could see the future and the future was Jacks will fall in love with a fox. Jacks broke free of the Archer’s curse, but when she kiss her she died.

Aurora wanted Vengeance Slaughterwood and Lyric Merrywood to compete for her to get attention from Jacks. The day at Merrywood Manor when Vengeance attacked. Castor tried to warn Lyric of the attack. Jack wasn’t there wasn't there when it happened. When Jack arrived, everyone was dead except for Castor. Castor was stabbed in the back, and Jack brought him to his mother, Honora, was the greatest healer in all the North. But Castor died, and Honora resurrected him, becoming a monster devouring human blood, he became Chaos.

Long ago, his heart stopped beating, making him incapable of love. However, once he finds his true love, his heart will start beating again, but until then his kiss will be fatal to everyone else. However, in A Curse for True Love, we find out that the true curse is that only a girl who can never love Jacks will survive his kiss.

As the Prince of Hearts, Jacks is cursed, like the other Fates. Jacks has the hope of finding his one true love someday. His story promises that there is one girl who is immune to his kiss. His curse is his kiss. If there is even a hint of attraction to someone, he will be drawn to that girl in the hope that she's his one true love. But he always kills them in the end.

### Legendary

Jacks escapes his card prison and is alive again. He has maneuvered himself into becoming Empress Elantine's heir.

At the opening night ball of Caraval, Jacks appears and asks Tella to dance, much to the induration of Dante. As Tella and Jacks dance, their conversation makes Tella realize that Elantine's heir and her mysterious "friend" are the same person. Since she doesn't have Legend's real name, the requirement for her part of their bargain, Jacks tells her she must now not only bring him Legend's real name, but also must pretend to be his fiancé until the end of Caraval so that his position as heir is not ruined. He tells her that after the game ends, they will say their engagement was only part of Caraval and dissolve it with no harm done. As they dance, Jacks beings to kiss Tella rather indecently so as to sell the charade of their engagement. During their kiss, Tella feels like it is "the sort of kiss she could have lived in. The sort of kiss worth dying for." Immediately she remembers that only one person in the history of the Empire kisses like this, the Prince of Hearts, whose kiss is deadly. As she pulls away, Jacks bites her lip drawing blood. Jacks tells her that if she does not keep up the charade of being his fiancé and bring him Legend's true name by the end of Caraval in five days, his kiss will kill her.

Tella had contacted a mysterious person known to her only as her "friend," who she believes is a lowly criminal who deals in secrets, to help her escape her father. In exchange for getting Scarlett into Caraval, Tella would provide him with Legend's true name.

Towards the end of the game, Tella gets into a fight with Jacks, and as she hits him in the chest she feels a heartbeat. This throws her off at first but ultimately leads her to the conclusion that she must be Jacks's true love, which means the kiss Jacks gave her can't kill her after all.

### Finale

Jacks helps Scarlett, Tella, and Julian rescue Legend from the Fallen Star. Jacks says that he was employed to capture Tella, but he is helping her instead. His task was to manipulate her emotions and use her for leverage against Scarlett. Jacks says he will sneak Tella into the palace to help free Legend on the condition that he has control of her emotions forever. Tella agrees, and Jacks takes control of her emotions. However, Tella breaks free from his spell after Legend is freed, and Jacks disappears.

### Once Upon a Broken Heart

Jacks is in the Prince of Hearts' church in Valenda when Evangeline Fox arrives. She is there to make a bargain with him to stop the wedding between the boy she loves, Luc Navarro, and her stepsister, Marisol Tourmaline. Jacks tries to convince Evangeline not to make a deal with him, but she insists. He agrees to stop the wedding in exchange for three kisses from her, at the time and with the person of his choosing.

After the bargain is complete uses one of his favors from Poison to turn the entire wedding reception into statues. Jack tries to convince Evangeline to not drinks the magical potion to free the wedding guests, but she does it overcome with guilt, and is in turn into stone.

Jack has been exiled to the North after getting into trouble with Princess Donatella from the south. He has concealed his true identity and is pretending to be just another young, insolent aristocrat named Lord Jacks, and changed his hair to a striking shade of dark blue. He has become a close confidant of Prince Apollo.

About six weeks since seeing Evangeline, she arrives at the private dinner held by Prince Apollo the night before Nocte Neverending, she is surprised to find Jacks there as well. Evangeline realizes that Jacks has set her up to be the one who would owe him three kisses and also to be the ambassador for the Meridian Empire to meet Prince Apollo.

### The Ballad of Never After

The book picks up right after the end of the first book. Evangeline is still hurt at Jacks' betrayal and is desperately searching for a way to wake Apollo from his suspended state. After trying but being unsuccessful in finding a cure. She agrees to Jacks' proposition, if she collects the 4 stones and opens the Valory Arch, he would help her wake Apollo. Evangeline still refuses despite the arrival of Lucien Jareth of House Acadian a supposedly distant cousin of Apollo who has now come to be the Crown Prince in his stead as everyone believes Apollo to be dead.

Apollo wakes unexpectedly, but this is due to a curse that was placed on him. The Archer's curse from the tale "The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox" which causes him to desperately hunt for his fox, in this case, Evangeline. In addition to this curse, a mirror curse is also put in place to link Evangeline and Apollo, so any physical harm that falls on one befalls the other.

Apollo begins his hunt but doesn't want to hurt Evangeline. Jacks saves her on various occasions. In the meantime, they search for the four missing stones to open the Valory Arch in Chaos' vampire castle where he has an extensive library. The books, however, are not very helpful as the text on the pages shifts, changes or disappears whenever someone tries to read it. Still, Evangeline gathers enough clues to go looking for the stones of which the Lucky stone is already in Chaos' possession.

Evangeline as a living key is the only person that can sense the stones and feels a pull toward them. Evangeline finds the Truth stone in the grave of Glendora Slaughterwood. Evangeline and Jacks had been at the Slaughterwood Castle because LaLa was betrothed to Lord Robin Slaughterwood and was holding a celebration.

They find the Youth and Mirth stones next.

After Apollo attacks Evangeline once more the same day they were going to open the Valory Arch. Evangeline and Jacks have a conversation in which he finally confesses the truth, he didn't want to open the Valory Arch, he just wanted the stones reunited as they can be used to travel back in time, although just once. He tells her it's because he wants to return to the moment he met Princess Donatella as she is supposed to be his one true love. He wants to fix things so she won't leave him heartbroken for another. Evangeline is sure Jacks doesn't have true feelings for Donatella as Evangeline realizes she loves Jacks and thinks he might reciprocate her feelings. She pleads with him not to go through with his plan as this will alter the course of time and Evangeline and Jacks will never meet. He will remember her but she won't have any memory of him. Jacks insists this is what he wants and Evangeline is respectful of his choice. He doesn't say goodbye and Evangeline goes with Chaos to Wolf Hall, and Evangeline opens the Valory Arch.

Inside the Valory Arch, there are the members of the Valor family believed to have been slaughtered. Chaos turns out to be Castor Valor who had been nearly killed and saved by Jacks who took him to his mother Honora Valor, a great healer. Castor turned into a vampire with an insatiable hunger and a helmet had to be put in place to stop a series of killings. Honora removed the curse of the helmet. Chaos believes himself capable of controlling his urge for blood but in truth, he is not. He attacks Evangeline, biting her neck and draining her blood. Jacks arrives too late to save Evangeline who dies in his arms.

Jacks is devastated at Evangeline's death. He screams and cries tears of blood. He decides to use the stones to return back in time and save Evangeline instead of returning to the moment he met Donatella. He does it and tries to prevent Evangeline from being killed by Chaos. Jacks is the only one who knows the stones have already been used. When they open the Valory Arch this second time he goes with Chaos and Evangeline. After Evangeline opens the Valory Arch and Chaos is inside Jacks hurts Evangeline with hard words to get her to leave. She leaves in tears, thinking it's the end for them and he will use the stones to return in time to when he met Donatella and she will have no memory of him.

While she is crying she thinks that she has to tell him she loves him, and as the stories tell, love triumphs above all things, so maybe if they fight together they will find a way. When she goes back to the Valory Arch to look for Jacks, she finds splattered blood, and when she wants to go inside the Arch to investigate further she finds Apollo at the door. She is scared he will hurt her due to the Archer's curse but he tells her the curse was broken by Honora. Evangeline can't keep thinking and asking about Jacks which angers Apollo. His demeanor suddenly changes and he attacks her, seemingly using magic, he takes away all her memories. When Evangeline comes to her senses she can't remember anything. He feigns to have just found her and introduces himself as her husband, she doesn't have any memory of him but he assures her she is safe with him and he won't let her go.

## Powers

He can control emotions, stop hearts. He is ageless.

As the Prince of Hearts, Jacks is cursed, like the other Fates. His curse is his fatal kiss. His story promises there is one girl who is immune to his kiss his one true love. But the real kissing curse is that any girls who possess feelings of attraction to Jacks will die, only a girl who would never love Jacks could survive (that is why Tella survived). His curse was broken when Evangeline gave him a true loves kiss.

## Relationships

### Donatella Dragna

Jacks and Tella have a fiery relationship. In the beginning, Tella avoids Jacks and even hates him. Jacks forces Tella to pretend to be his fiancé so that his position as heir to the Meridian Empire can remain secure. As punishment for not bringing him Legend's real name as she promised, he kisses her. Jacks tells her that if she does not keep up the charade of being his fiancé and bring him Legend's true name by the end of Caraval in five days, his kiss will kill her. When Tella and Jacks get into yet another argument, she hits him in the chest and feels a heartbeat. As only his one true love can cause his heart to begin beating again, Tella realizes this means she is his one true love and that the kiss he gave her will not actually kill her.

Jacks flirts with Tella constantly, and they begin to grow closer when Jacks comforts Tella after watching Gavriel murder her mother and when Legend abandons her. Jacks develops an obsession with Tella because she is his one true love that he has spent so long searching for. He often shows up out of nowhere to aid her. Tella begins to feel attracted to him as well. Jacks offers to take Tella's grief over her mother's death away. Despite being furious at him for threatening to kill her in order to make Legend return his powers to full strength, she agrees. Jacks has Tella recite words in an ancient language, giving him control over her emotions. Eventually Tella discovers that the ancient words she spoke not only gave him control over her emotions, but married them as well. Tella immediately confronts Jacks and severs their bond, essentially divorcing him. Jacks admits to feeling obsessed with her and after the breaking of their bond, Jacks becomes distant. Near the end, he makes a deal with Tella compromising her feelings to him. He immediately takes advantage of it and proceeds to make her adore him, although Legend breaks his hold on her. After that, Jacks disappears to the North.

### Evangeline Fox

#### Once Upon a Broken Heart

Jacks and Evangeline first meet when she went to his church in search of a solution to end her first love, Luc's wedding with her stepsister Marisol. Jacks agrees, in exchange for three kisses, in his chosen time and place. Evangeline finds out that Jacks stopped the wedding by turning her family into stone, and willingly takes their place by drinking a potion made by Poison. It's later revealed that Jacks asked Poison to save her. Later on, Evangeline encounters Jacks after going to the Magnificent North. He dyed his hair dark blue. Her first kiss is with Apollo. Later on, Evangeline feels like Apollo is obsessed with her, which is the effect of Jack's curse. She confronts him and Jacks agrees, but the second kiss was with the head of the house Fortuna. It is revealed that he was looking for some stones. Afterwards, Evangeline kisses the prince using her third kiss, but he dies shortly afterwards. Jacks saves her and brings her to LaLa's house, where she gets fixed because of the poison that caused her continuous crying. Jacks holds her throughout the night. The two visit Chaos, who tells them about a witch that had purchased some poison from him. Evangeline suspects Marisol. Evangeline sees Luc, her first love, trapped inside a cage, and he is a changeling. Jacks warns her not to open the cage, but she does. Jacks gets bitten and turns into a vampire, and Evangeline spends the rest of the night trying to get him not to bite her. At sunrise, the vampire effects wear off, leaving Jacks exhausted. Evangeline carries him into his home, and he falls asleep there while Evangeline tries to deal with Marisol. It's revealed that Tiberus is Apollo's true murderer, and Evangeline is no longer a fugitive. On her way to meet Jacks, she gets sidetracked by Apollo's guard and finds out that Apollo is actually not dead, but in a suspended state. She is furious about Jacks betraying her and resolves never to help him open Valory Arch.

#### The Ballad of Never After

At the beginning of this book, Jacks’s relationship with Evangeline is fragmented and she does not trust him. However Evangeline must make an alliance with him once more and agrees to help him open the Valory Arch. His relationship with her continues blossoming, as he saves her countless times and takes her to safety even though he continues claiming that she is only a ‘tool’ to him. Eventually, Evangeline is terribly injured through the mirror curse, so he takes her to his former home, the Hollow. Here, he strips her clothes off and bandages the deep wounds on her body gently. He then leaves her, returning a few times as he slowly reveals more about his past. Soon when he comes back though, he has bloody gash in between his ribs, so Evangeline helps to clean and bandage them. She gently tousles his hair, when he suddenly pulls her into the bed with him, claiming that ‘she feels good.’ He convinces her to stay with him for ‘just one night,’ and say she is his, imagining that he is Jacks of The Hollow. They sleep entwined with each other, however Evangeline then has a dream where Lala warns her the Mirth stone is there. In the morning she finds it, and tells Jacks their feelings aren’t real as he affectionately teases her and pulls her into his lap. Jacks tells her that she has no idea what he is feeling, when Evangeline quickly rips the Mirth stone out and puts it in an iron box. Jacks quickly shutters his expression, but we can guess that his feelings were legitimate. He continues acting as insolently as before, however when Evangeline is bitten by Chaos after opening the Valory Arch, Jacks is devastated. As she dies, he cries tears of blood worth more pain than centuries of heartbreaks could bring. He decides to use his one chance to go back in time to save her from death, since there is nothing of equal value to him. Although he prevents her death, Jacks must flatly tell Evangeline that he does not want another ending with her to force her to leave before Chaos comes out of the Valory Arch. We can infer he is torn by this heartbreaking decision though, as he almost seems to agree to her offer. As Evangeline leaves, she realises that she truly loves him, and she wants to tell him that. However, when she returns to the room, all she can see is blood with gold flecks speckled across the room…

## Trivia

* He has gold-flecked blood.
* His favorite phrase is "Little Fox".
* Jacks is Stephanie Garber's favorite fate.
* Stephanie has said that Klaus from *The Vampire Diaries* reminds her of Jacks.

## Gallery

Jacks by GinaJacks by Micheline RyckmanJacks by Micheline RyckmanJacks by Micheline Ryckmanby @ekatdoodlesBy @morgana0anagrom; Jacks as the Three of Pentacles for FairyLootBy @morgana0anagromBy @morgana0anagromThe Prince of HeartsJacks as a Funko PopJacks and DonatellaBy LexaLegend, Donatella, and Jacks by Micheline RyckmanEvangeline Fox and Jacks by Rosiethorns88Evangeline Fox and Jacksby @clarywhyby @lulureadsss@lulureadsssJacks in OUABHcr: @ekatdoodlesJacks by Tabbie
## References

1. ↑ Stephanie Garber on Instagram
2. ↑ *Once Upon a Broken Heart*: page 10
3. ↑ Stephanie Garber Instagram 2023-10-28
4. ↑ *Legendary*: page 122
5. ↑ *Once Upon a Broken Heart*: page 271
6. ↑ *Legendary*: page 134
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Stephanie Garber on Instagram Stories