The Mirror of Infinite Endings

The fourth installment in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series, this companion novel is set in the Magnificent North, a fantasy realm steeped in fairy folklore and inhabited by immortal beings called Fates. The story follows Evangeline Fox, a young woman who previously endured a disastrous first marriage to Prince Apollo, and Jacks, the Fate known as the Prince of Hearts, whose kiss is fatal to everyone but his true love. Having found each other across the events of earlier books, they now live together at the Hollow, an enchanted inn. A prologue establishes the region's folklore: The wind is believed to be the spirit of a fairy queen who refused to leave the mortal plane, and shifts in its direction carry omens of fortune, upheaval, or unpredictable magic.

Evangeline prepares for the Hollow's Grand Reopening and First Annual Happy Hollowfest Holiday, baking pies and fretting over details. She watches Jacks read a mysterious letter, which he incinerates on a baby dragon named Bruce and dismisses as unimportant. A violent whirlwind tears through the tavern, leaving Evangeline clutching bright red berries that appeared from nowhere. Jacks tells her to throw them away without explanation. Her guidebook then transforms to reveal a chapter on the nearly forgotten Age of Fae, a time when fairies lived openly. The text describes fairies who have pointed ears they can magically disguise after first sight, who cannot lie but twist the truth, and whose bargains are notoriously dangerous. When Evangeline asks Jacks about fairies, he tenses and refuses to speak, suggesting he may be magically prevented from discussing them.

LaLa, a Fate and Evangeline's closest friend, arrives to take her shopping. They discover a postcard advertising the Emporium of Else, a rival establishment, nailed to Evangeline's reopening sign, and LaLa persuades her to investigate. During their walk, LaLa reveals she no longer feels romantic love for Prince Dane, a member of the Valor royal family who can transform into a dragon, despite dragon fire tattoos on her arms connected to him. Evangeline suspects LaLa's real anguish concerns Chaos, Jacks's closest friend, Dane's brother, and a vampire. As they walk, Evangeline rubs the heart-shaped scar on her wrist that Jacks once gave her, a permanent mark linking them.

Deep in Merrywood Forest, the Emporium proves to be a labyrinthine shop blending wild forest growth with fairy magic. Evangeline spots pointed ears on a young man near the entrance before they vanish, consistent with the fairy disguise described in her guidebook. Inside, a creature steals her coin purse and leads her into a fog-filled back room containing the Mirror of Infinite Endings, a massive mirror framed in ash-white wood. Her reflection shifts to show her in a wedding dress, surfacing an unspoken ache: She and Jacks have never discussed marriage or the fact that she will age while he does not. Silver script explains that touching the glass and speaking the words "I'd like to see what else could be" allows the viewer to live one day in an alternate life. Overwhelmed by curiosity and anxiety, Evangeline presses her hands to the glass and speaks.

The narrative shifts to Jacks's perspective. He feels the heart-shaped scar go empty, Evangeline's presence completely severed. A flashback reveals his secret: He has been corresponding with Poison, another Fate, about stopping Evangeline from aging. Poison summoned a fairy who arrived during the windstorm disguised as a child. While Evangeline fetched berries, the fairy offered to bind their lives together, halting Evangeline's aging but linking their fates so that if one dies, the other dies too. The binding required both to pass tests, and Jacks refused, unwilling to put Evangeline at risk. Now, realizing she has entered the mirror, Jacks rushes to the Emporium with Chaos and finds LaLa already there. They watch through the glass as an alternate Jacks who does not love Evangeline interacts with her. The fairy reappears, warning that breaking the glass would trap Evangeline forever and that she must pass the test alone.

Inside the mirror, Evangeline wakes in her parents' old house in the southern city of Valenda, believing she is about to marry Luc Navarro, her childhood love. She has no memory of her real life, and a golden hourglass tattoo has appeared on her wrist, its sand trickling. From her window she spots a disheveled golden-haired stranger tossing a white apple and feels an overwhelming, inexplicable pull. During the ceremony the stranger disrupts the wedding. Her stepsister Marisol distributes goblets of an enchanted drink, and every guest who sips it freezes in place. Marisol confesses she wanted the stranger to kiss Evangeline, which would have killed her, since he is the Prince of Hearts. Luc begs Evangeline to flee, but she refuses to abandon her frozen father and loved ones.

Evangeline follows Jacks through the festival streets, delivering a hopeful speech he calls pathetic. He warns he will be her ending, not her hero. At his gambling den she meets Mistress Luck, another Fate, who tells her she has already found true love. Evangeline challenges Jacks to blackjack, wagering her life against her family's freedom, and loses because Luc taught her the rules incorrectly. Before a rematch, Donatella, a woman from Jacks's past, bursts in claiming she needs him. Jacks dismisses Donatella, then reveals to Evangeline that the freezing enchantment was always temporary. He pushes her away but pulls her close one last time, calling her "Little Fox," a nickname that surprises them both. She walks away feeling she is heading in the wrong direction.

At home, Evangeline's father tells her he wants her to find a North Star love, so steady and bright she never has to wonder which star it is. The Mirror of Infinite Endings reappears, showing her with Jacks's arms around her. She touches the glass without hesitation.

Evangeline passes back through the mirror, and her memories return. The fairy announces both have passed: Jacks passed by refusing to put Evangeline at risk, and Evangeline passed by falling in love with Jacks in an alternate life and choosing to return before time expired. The fairy presents two pale pink sugar cookies shaped like the halves of a broken heart. On the walk home, Jacks confesses everything: If they each eat a cookie, Evangeline's life will be bound to his, stopping her aging but linking their fates permanently. She says yes immediately. Both admit they were afraid to discuss her mortality, and Evangeline says the mirror taught her they will always find each other.

The Hollowfest is a resounding success, with guests including visitors from Valenda who traveled because of a scandal sheet article Jacks secretly arranged. That evening, Jacks leads Evangeline to a private dock, where she eats her cookie without hesitation. Jacks tells her he wants to marry her, insisting everyone know she is his and he is hers. She also discovers a Luckless Coin from the mirror world in her pocket, a tracking device the alternate Jacks slipped her, suggesting that version of him intends to find his Evangeline.

An epilogue shifts to LaLa's perspective. She is haunted by "missingness," a persistent feeling that something essential has been taken from her. She senses Chaos watching from the shadows, and when she accidentally meets his mesmerizing vampire eyes, he seizes her shoulders, commands her never to do that again, and vanishes. Shaken, she wanders to the edge of the festival and finds the young man from the Emporium standing between two mirrors. The Mirror of Second Chances shows her younger, human self meeting Castor Valor, Chaos's human name, for the first time. This mirror can send a person back in time to relive their life with the chance to make different choices, but the cost is everything: all current memories erased, no return. LaLa refuses at first, but thinking of her dead parents, her brother Lyric, and Castor, she touches her fingers to the glass. The story ends on this unresolved moment.