Willam lay crumpled against a branch, his face a mess of blood, wounds on his arms and legs.
Tedros held Willam’s skinny torso and put his head to the boy’s chest, tracking the weak pulse of his heart.
Bogden grabbed Tedros. “Is he . . .”
“Leave me,” Willam breathed. “Save Agatha.”
Tedros gazed at the soft redheaded lad and thought of a boy just like him, once upon a time, clinging to life in a tree. Tedros hadn’t been able to save Tristan that day. Aric had made sure of it. But the Pen gives the best men second chances.
“Get him to the forest,” Tedros ordered Bogden. “Hort’s there. Tell him to ride you and Willam to school. The teachers will heal him.”
Bogden stared at Tedros, then at the fleet of guards coming for the prince—
“Now!” Tedros lashed.
Bogden flung Willam over his shoulder and hoisted him down the tree.
“Aggie, look out!” Sophie echoed above.
Tedros squinted high and watched Agatha fall from the top of the tree, landing hard into branches below and vanishing behind leaves. Immediately a cluster of scims swarmed where her body had fallen, their monstrous shrieks resounding.
“Aggie, you okay?” Sophie yelled.
As guards converged on him, Tedros waited for Agatha’s reply. Or a glint of her glow. Something to tell him she was alive.
It didn’t come.
Fire ripped through his heart, a Lion on the hunt.
Anyone in his way didn’t stand a chance, Tedros bashing guards aside or clasping hold of their shirts and knifing legs or hands with his stake to disarm them, before flinging them off the tree. He was lethally high above ground, climbing closer to where Agatha had fallen, when he glimpsed another squall of activity. Robin and Betty at war with a shadow balanced on a limb, gripping a gilded sword with two fists—
Kei.
Bettina whipped at him with a long branch, trying to swipe him off the tree, while Robin grappled Kei from behind, straining for the captain’s sword. Betty caught sight of Tedros below. “Help me up!” Tedros whispered.
“No! We need you safe!” Betty hissed back.
“I need Agatha safe,” Tedros steeled, glaring at her like he did when they fought as children.
Bettina wavered under his stare . . . then surrendered her branch towards him.
Across the tree, Robin had Kei in a chokehold.
“Listen to me—” Kei wheezed, fighting Robin, but Hood stripped Kei of his sword and stalked towards him, gold blade pointed, Kei stumbling as he retreated.
“Agatha . . . It’s about Agatha . . . ,” Kei pressed.
Tedros vaulted off Betty’s bough, landed in front of Robin, and slammed Kei against bark. Before Kei could speak, Tedros’ hands were around his throat. “What about Agatha?” Tedros dug his fingers in harder—
But something in Kei’s eyes stopped the prince. He’d seen it before. The night Tedros caught him burying Rhian. A look that said whatever side Kei had been fighting for, he was on his own side now.
“Agatha has the answer,” Kei panted. “I saw it in her hand. The pearl with the beard. Swallow it before Japeth gets it. That’s how you learn the second test.”
Tedros was speechless.
“He’s a monster,” said Kei. “He always has been, since we were in school. He killed Rhian. My best friend. The real king. That’s why I burned the tracking map. That’s why I’ve been protecting you. I pretended to be loyal to that snake as long as I could. So I could avenge Rhian when I had the chance.” He glanced high into the tree. “Stabbed him before he could get the beard from Agatha. Before he could kill them. He escaped or I would have finished him off.” He turned to Tedros. “Go. Quickly. Find the pearl. I’ll help you figh—”
A gold sword impaled him.
Kei didn’t make a sound. His face went the color of clouds. Then he keeled out of the tree, revealing Betty behind him . . .
. . . locked under the Snake’s arm.
Japeth’s eyes were cold. His torso gleamed with blood through his torn king’s suit, now morphing to black scims. One of his hands squeezed Tedros’ friend by her neck. The other carried Kei’s sword, greased with the captain’s blood.
The sword, Tedros realized.
Robin had it just moments ago.
Which meant . . .
Tedros swiveled—
Robin was hanging from the branch, his neck noosed by scims, his face purpling, seconds from death.
“Let’s play my favorite game,” Japeth said, gripping Betty. “You can only save one.”
Tedros stiffened.
There was no time to think—
He ran for Robin, ripping the noose. Robin crashed down onto a lower bough, barely catching himself in time. But Tedros was already sprinting for Bettina, reaching out for her—
Japeth held Betty close.
“Rules are rules,” he said.
He threw her off the tree.
“No!” Tedros yelled.
Bettina fell backwards, arms flailing, with a scream—
Darkness swallowed her.
Tedros froze, midstride.
A friend dead, in the width of a moment.
Like the Sheriff and Lancelot and Dovey and more before her.
Another worthy soul he couldn’t save.
Slowly, Tedros looked up at the Snake, separated from him by the length of the branch.
“Now you know how it feels,” Japeth spoke. “Those you love taken from you.”
“Says the brother killer,” the prince spat with rage.
“Rhian lied to me. He broke an oath,” Japeth replied evenly. “Where you see Evil, I see justice. You think you’re the hero of this tale. You think you’re the true king. But you are mistaken. Only I know the truth.”
“The truth that you’re the liar? That you’re the fraud?” Tedros blasted. He could hear Robin below, struggling to regain breath. “You have Rhian’s blood, which showed my father as yours. Except you’re not my brother. You said it yourself.”
“And yet the tournament is between us. Your father’s tournament,” the Snake replied, clear-eyed. “So who am I?”
Tedros had no answer, still at a loss.
“Or maybe that isn’t the question,” said Japeth, taking him in. “Maybe we should be asking . . . who are you?”
The words chilled Tedros’ bones.
He’d assumed his father wanted him on the throne.
That’s why his dad left him his ring.
Yet that dad had also given the Snake a chance. A monster. A murderer.
Why?
“Sophie?” Agatha’s voice called weakly.
“Where are you!” Sophie cried back.
Tedros’ focus flew upwards. Agatha. She had the pearl. He needed to get to her. Win the first test and he’d be on to the next.
Get to Agatha, he told himself.
And yet . . .
His eyes lowered to Japeth.
Kill the Snake now and there would be no more tests.
The Snake seemed to read his thoughts, his pupils glimmering in the dark. He fixed on Tedros’ ring.
“Maybe you are my brother,” he said. “Because you’re as much a fool as the last one.”
Tedros stormed at him across the tree.
Japeth charged, scims curling off his suit—
Robin launched up from below, landing in front of Tedros like a shield.