“Agatha and Tedros will live at Camelot, obviously,” Anadil pointed out, “and first years and teachers will stay here at school, Nicola, Bogden, and Willam included. Willam was officially invited to be an Ever by Professor Anemone.”
“A lot of our classmates want to go back to their quests, like Ravan, Vex, and Brone,” Dot added. “And Beatrix, Reena, and Kiko are planning to sail the Igraine across the Savage Sea to chart the unmapped realms . . .”
“Which leaves us,” said Hester, glancing at her coven mates.
“You’d be perfect as Deans of Evil,” Sophie proposed sincerely. “Patrolling halls. Managing curriculum. Disciplining students. I mean, you almost took as much delight in dumping those Mistral Sisters back in the Camelot dungeons as I did. Almost.”
The witches stared at her. So did Agatha.
“But if they’re the Deans . . . what about you?” Agatha asked.
Sophie smiled at her friend. “Thought I could come live at the castle with you and Teddy.”
Agatha hesitated, looking tense, and Sophie instantly flushed, with Hester jumping in to stop the awkwardness—
“Appreciate you thinking of us as Deans, but we’re not meant for office jobs,” Hester touted. “Besides, now that Manley has the title, it’ll have to be pried out of his cold, warted fingers.”
“He and Professor Anemone already brought in sorcerers to dismantle Sophie’s suite in the School Master’s tower,” said Anadil. “Looks like they have both schools well in hand.”
“So what will you do, then?” Agatha asked, fixing on Dot. “Still thinking about being a witch doctor?”
“Our coven had something else in mind, actually,” Dot volunteered. She peeked at Hester and Anadil, who nodded at her, urging her to go on. “Well, with Daddy gone, there’s no Sheriff in the Woods anymore,” said Dot. “No one protecting law and order. As king, Tedros will have his knights, but if we’ve learned anything, Good has a blind spot to the worst kind of Evil. More Snakes could pop up. The Woods needs a real Sheriff. Like my dad was. So we thought maybe . . . we’d do it. Be the new Sheriff. Be the new law and order.”
“Go searching for villains that don’t play by the rules,” Hester explained, her demon twitching on her neck. “And bring them to justice, our way.”
“Hell hath no fury like three witches who think you’re giving Evil a bad name,” said Anadil, rats poking from her pocket with a hiss.
Agatha smiled, looking at Sophie, but there was still tension between them, Agatha quickly turning to assure the witches: “That’s a magnificent idea. Tedros will give you any resources you need—”
“No, no, no. Covens don’t work on behalf of kings,” Hester retorted. “We are independent witches, with no master or patron or affiliations, working in the shadows on our own missions. You will reap the benefits of our work, but you won’t hear about it and we intend to keep it that way.”
Dot whispered to Agatha: “I’ll send postcards.”
“Did you hear?” Kiko gushed, cramming in. “Reena’s boyfriend is coming from Shazabah!”
“Jeevan is not my boyfriend,” Reena objected behind her.
“If a boy’s flying in on a magic carpet for you, he’s your boyfriend,” said Beatrix. “Speaking of, who is that?”
From the South Gates came a sultry boy in a gray suit, with a pompadour of blue hair, a gold earring in one ear, and thin, intense eyes.
“That is Yoshi,” Kiko ogled. “She found him in Jaunt Jolie.”
“She?” said Beatrix.
But now they saw the girl on his arm, coming through the gate: Nicola, nuzzled against him, in a matching gray dress.
“Rebound boys are the best,” Dot marveled.
“How do I get one?” Kiko complained. “I figured out Willam doesn’t like girls like me.” She paused. “He only likes tall girls.”
Everyone else groaned.
All this talk of boys made Agatha remember the days when she didn’t believe in princes or castles or fairy tales.
She, the new Queen of Camelot.
She, who dreamed of an ordinary life, only to have the most extraordinary one of all.
Then she noticed Sophie, as the other girls dispersed into their groups, her best friend shifting in her boots, as if she didn’t have a place to go. Agatha knew the pain Sophie was feeling: deep in her heart, Agatha would always be the old Graveyard Girl.
The castle clock sounded five, strong and bold.
Agatha breathed a sigh of relief, touching Sophie’s wrist.
“Come and help me get ready, will you?” Agatha asked.
HOW THE TABLES TURN, Sophie thought, following Princess Agatha through Valor Tower.
Once upon a time, it was Sophie with a prince, eager to get rid of Agatha as a third wheel. Now Agatha had the prince to herself and was leaving Sophie out in the cold. For Sophie, there would be no royal triumvirate, no busying herself at the castle with her best friend, no escaping her deepening loneliness. She had never wanted to end at Camelot, of course. But she had nowhere else to go to feel loved. And she thought Aggie of all people might understand that. Until she saw the way Agatha hesitated when she’d proposed it . . .
Not that Sophie blamed her. Of course Queen Agatha wouldn’t want Sophie swanning around the castle, stealing focus away from her and King Tedros. Sophie would have been a good girl and done everything possible to cede the stage . . . but Agatha knew her friend too well. The spotlight always found Sophie, especially when Sophie felt lost and scared like she did now.
Where to go? What to do?
She was so caught up in her thoughts she hardly noticed Agatha lead her up a staircase and through an office door, already cracked open. Agatha closed the door, while Sophie glanced at the cramped room with a single window and broom closet and a mess of soggy books, scraggly-written scrolls, and moldy food crumbs.
“Professor Sader’s old office?” Sophie asked. “You want to get ready for your wedding in here?”
“Don’t want Tedros seeing my dress. Bad luck,” Agatha said, peering around. “No mirror, though.”
Sophie frowned. “Where are the nymphs? Who’s helping you get ready?”
Agatha pulled a small mirror from her dress. “Brought one with me in case,” she said, handing it to Sophie. “Show me what I look like, will you?”
Sophie stared at her.
Agatha who used to hide from mirrors.
Now carrying one with her.
Sophie shook her head. You really have changed, she thought, reflecting her friend in the glass—
Only then did Sophie look at the mirror closely.
A mirror she’d seen before, in a land far away.
Agatha’s eyes reflected yellow.
Then Sophie was falling through them.
AGATHA’S SECRETS.
She was inside Agatha’s secrets.
That’s all Sophie had heard about the mirror. It revealed the things a person wanted to hide.
But now Sophie was in a familiar place, dank tunnels melting into view around her, a river of sludge rushing past . . .
The sewers.
“Sophie, is that you?” a voice called.
Sophie spun to see Agatha hustling towards her, barefoot in her blue dress—