“So what do we do, then?” said blond Bert.
“How do we win?” asked blonder Beckett.
“How else? Make Tedros kill Agatha,” a voice said.
The crowd turned to Hort.
“It’s the second test, ain’t it?” he groused, waving his cup, splashing cider everywhere. “Dear ol’ Teddy spears her and he wins. Then all he has to do is finish the third test and the Snake’s dead. Trade Agatha’s life for ours. That’s what a king would do.”
Agatha gaped at Hort, speechless.
“What you get for hoardin’ Sophie to yourself,” Hort murmured.
“You have a girlfriend!” Agatha hissed back.
“You have a girlfriend and boyfriend!” Hort scorched. “You kiss everyone!”
“Enough!” Professor Sheeks boomed. “As long as Agatha and Tedros are students at this school, there will be no killing!”
“But Agatha’s not a student anymore,” hairy, three-eyed Bossam pointed out. “And Hort’s right. If Agatha dies, we’re all safe—”
“You don’t think ‘King Japeth’ will destroy the school the first chance he gets? Along with everyone in it?” Professor Anemone assailed. “As long as Agatha’s sitting here, she’s a student. And our best one at that.”
“If she’s the best, then why did she mess things up?” Bossam pushed.
“Yeah,” said Aja angrily, “why do we have to die defending her because of her mistake?”
More Nevers rumbled. Evers too.
“Because it wasn’t a mistake, you fools,” a voice declared from a tunnel, followed by Sophie flouncing into the clearing, hair styled, makeup done, her white dress molded into a glittery winged kimono. “Sorry, I’m late. The hex to fix Aggie’s leg picked one of my own bones to break in return.” She held up her right hand, wrapped in bandages. “Could have been worse, of course, but beautifying with one hand is about as enticing as a night with Hort.” She smiled at the weasel, as if she’d overheard everything he’d said to Agatha in her absence.
Hort went pink.
“Oh right, and this so-called ‘mistake,’” Sophie said, fluttering her good hand at the crowd. “Agatha swallowed the answer to stop Japeth from claiming it first. Tedros had plenty of chances to win, but as usual, he didn’t get the job done. It was Agatha who saved him from losing. It was Agatha who saved us from the Snake being ahead in the race. If anything, it was she who acted the king.”
Agatha blushed with love. Sophie. Her knight in shining armor. Sophie, who’d broken herself to heal her best friend. Sophie, who’d found the Good in her, even when Agatha thought herself Evil. Her friend was never a witch. Just like Agatha wasn’t a princess. They were both, always both, the line between princess and witch as thin as the line between stories and real life.
Tedros eyed Sophie stonily. “So I’m to blame, then. My own princess interfering in my test is my fault. My father telling me I have to kill her is my fault.”
“Do you think I’d have done it if I’d known what would happen?” Agatha stood up, the baby bobbing against her chest. “I was trying to save us. I wasn’t thinking—”
“That much we can agree on,” said Tedros.
“Because you’re the model of calm, deliberate thought,” Sophie chirped, flanking Agatha.
Students and teachers peeked between the prince, his princess, and her best friend, three points of a triangle.
“What should I have done, then?” Agatha challenged Tedros, emboldened by Sophie. “Let Japeth win?”
“You didn’t give me a chance to win!” Tedros said, jumping to his feet. “I’m the one fighting for the throne. I need you to help me. Not stand in my way!”
“I’m not trying to stand in your way! I want you to have a head!” said Agatha.
“So rarely used, though,” Sophie chimed.
Merlin clapped with glee.
“This is why the Snake will win,” Tedros muttered, sinking to his stump. “Because he doesn’t have anyone holding him back. Because he fights for himself!”
“I thought that’s what made us Good,” Agatha replied. “We fight for each other.”
Tedros looked at her.
“And you’re wrong. Japeth isn’t fighting for himself,” Sophie added. “He wants to raise someone from the dead. That’s why he wants the Storian’s powers. That’s why he wants your ring. For love. Just like you.”
“Don’t compare him to me,” Tedros lashed, still riled up. “He wants his mother back. That horrible Sader woman. We already know that.”
“No. Not Evelyn,” Sophie said, starkly. “That’s who Rhian loved. It’s why Japeth killed him. The Snake wants someone else back. His best friend. His true love.”
Sophie’s words hit Agatha like a blow. She turned to Tedros, who’d understood too, his fire dissipating.
“Aric?” he said. “That’s what he wants? To bring Aric back to life?”
Agatha could feel the whole school tense up, contemplating the return of Lady Lesso’s son, a sadist with a black hole for a soul. The only thing worse than a Snake was two of them, united by love.
Tedros and Agatha locked eyes, the prince’s gaze plaintive, as if the time for blame was over.
“There’s nowhere we can go that Japeth won’t find you,” he said to her. “There’s no solution to the test. Not that keeps us both alive.”
“But you can stay alive,” Agatha answered, damp with sweat, her neck red. Merlin gripped her shirt with small fists. “You can still win the test.”
Tedros’ expression changed. He leaned forward, looking very much a man. “Listen to me, Agatha. I will never hurt you. Never. I will fight until my last breath to keep you safe.”
He spoke with such strength, such clarity, that even with death hanging between them, Agatha felt a rush of love. She didn’t want to die. But she needed to hear her prince say it. That they were in this together. That she still meant everything to him. That he loved her, no matter what.
Tedros smiled sadly at her. Even love couldn’t save them now. They were cornered, with no way out. He sighed and glanced at Sophie, as if for once in his life, he’d take suggestions from her. But Sophie, too, was at a loss.
The three of them were trapped.
Their story at a dead end.
Until a deep voice broke the silence.
“There is a way.”
For a second, Agatha thought it’d come from the sky or from the child in her arms.
Then she saw Professor Manley, standing inside the mouth of Evil’s tree tunnel, his pale, lumpy flesh and the glare of his eyes reflecting through darkness.
“Come with me,” he said, heading back into the tunnel.
Everyone in the Clearing stood up—
“No. You.” Manley pointed a sharp, dirty nail at Tedros and Agatha. “Only you.”
Agatha and her prince exchanged looks. They hurried after him, Merlin at Agatha’s breast—
Sophie blocked her path, facing off with Manley. “Where she goes, I go.”
Manley was about to retort—
“I still am Dean of the school in which you teach, Bilious, given I never resigned the position,” Sophie clipped.