Agatha saw Japeth hesitate, the scim in front of Sophie wavering.
Then, slowly, it settled back into his body.
The Celestium was quiet, all eyes on Sophie and the Snake.
Japeth spoke, his voice soft. “I choose . . .”
He went slack in Sophie’s arms.
“Love.”
He broke free and sprinted across his cloud, kicking against Hort’s chest, running up the man-wolf like a wall and vaulting high for Agatha, the Snake blacking out the moon like an eclipse, scims flying off him too fast for Agatha or Merlin or anyone to stop.
Agatha thrust out her hands in terror, eel tips grazing every part of her—
Then a scream.
A scream so terrible and piercing that it shattered the scims to pieces against Agatha’s skin. Agatha quailed, fingers in her ears. So did Merlin and Hort and all the knights, defending themselves against the sound.
Only one was powerless.
Japeth crashed down in front of Sophie, the exposed flesh of his torso tightening against his ribs, cracking at the edges.
Sophie screamed louder, lording over him, fists clenched like stones, eyes pooling with blood, her veins throbbing red.
The Snake crumpled at her feet.
Sophie screamed with the power of a thousand lives, mist rising into her pupils, as if her whole body might burst into flames.
Blood spilled from Japeth’s ears and nose, his skin flaying off his bones.
Agatha watched, shell-shocked.
He was dying.
The Snake was dying.
Sophie was killing him.
Not to save Camelot or make Tedros king.
But for her.
For Agatha.
Evil fueled by love.
Real love.
Japeth curled to a fetal ball, blood pooling under him. Sophie’s scream only got louder—
Agatha’s heart lifted.
They had won.
The story finished as it began.
No prince needed.
Two souls, bonded forever.
Two friends, at the End of Ends.
Two girls, the One True King.
But then . . .
Sophie’s scream stopped.
She clutched at her throat, as if she couldn’t breathe.
Agatha, too, couldn’t find air. She heard her friends choking, wheezing—
The Celestium.
They’d been up here too long.
In a flash, the purple sky began to vanish, like a scene being erased.
She felt a blast of hot, thick air . . . smelled the dry, dune dust . . .
The desert. They were going back to the desert—
Except Japeth was still moving.
Japeth was still alive!
Sophie looked at Agatha in horror. She tried to force out a scream, to gasp a fatal blow—
Too late.
The Snake looked up at them with his last ounce of life . . .
Then the sky and everyone in it was gone.
SAND WHIPPED AGATHA’S face, her feet back on the ground. She couldn’t see, the dust storm too strong to yield more than glimpses of ink-blue night. But she smelled tones of lavender and vanilla, swirling somewhere near.
“Sophie?” she croaked, her throat filling with dust. “Are you there?”
A warm hand gripped her wrist.
The two girls endured the punishing wind, palms at their faces, until all at once the storm dispersed. They lowered their hands from sand-caked cheeks.
“Agatha?” a boy’s voice called.
The last veils of sand swept away, revealing her prince and his mother, standing in the open desert, the Cave of Wishes disappeared.
Tedros smiled at Agatha—then his eyes flared. “Wait . . . you’re not supposed to be here!” He glimpsed the cuts and welts on her arms and saw Sophie on the verge of tears. Behind the girls, the other knights were silent and shaken. Witches. Jacinda and Marian. Hort and Nicola. Merlin, too.
“Where’s Dean Brunhilde? Where’s Nightwind?” Tedros questioned. “This isn’t what we planned. You were to hide in the Celestium until I made my wishes and called Merl—”
“He got in, Tedros,” said Agatha.
Tedros blinked. “What? Who?”
“The Snake,” she said. “He got in.”
Shouts echoed in the distance.
Tedros turned sharply to the north. Miles downhill, the twin armies of Shazabah and Camelot were circling around. Agatha’s heart stopped. The Snake’s men must have ridden on when she and her friends disappeared . . . but now they’d been spotted. Camels and horses thundered back towards them.
“Tedros?” Sophie rasped.
The prince tracked her gaze in the opposite direction.
From the south came a lone figure in the night.
Limping, blood-soaked, his blue-and-gold suit shredded.
Japeth picked up his sword from the sand.
Then he set his sights on Agatha.
“At the ready!” Queen Jacinda called.
Her knights fanned out, covering Agatha and her prince from the north, while Tedros shielded his princess from the south. Sophie rushed to Agatha’s side, trying to summon another scream, but mustered only a hacking cough. She lit her fingerglow, but it, too, was weak. Hort’s wolf snatched Sophie onto his back. “Put me down!” Sophie demanded. “And watch you die? Not a chance,” said Hort. Behind them, a pink beetle scampered to Uma’s piled clothes and instantly reverted to the lithe princess, who joined with the knights.
The Snake and his armies closed in, Agatha suffering a dark sense of déjà vu.
“How could Japeth find the Celestium? He’s not a wizard!” Tedros pressed her. “And why isn’t Brunhilde with you—” The prince went rigid, reading his princess’s grief. “I don’t understand. I sent you all there to be safe. Until I could finish the plan to beat him. The second half of the plan . . .”
But Agatha knew better.
Death cared nothing about plans.
The Snake moved across sand like a shadow, picking up speed, what strength he had left focused on killing her. Behind them, two armies swarmed the knights, faster, faster, about to smash through them—
Six dunes erupted under the Snake’s armies like volcanos—camels buried in sand, now launching to their feet. Familiar camels. Faithful camels, who’d had their own plan to help their friends. The camels jammed straight into the stampede, bleating calls of alarm, sending enemy steeds bucking in confusion. Instantly, Shazabah camels and Camelot horses began dumping their riders and fleeing to the north. In the chaos, Tedros’ knights saw their chance and escaped south. “Hurry, Aggie!” Sophie yelled as Hort wolfed her away—
Agatha grabbed Tedros, but her prince didn’t move.
He was still watching Japeth, stalking right at them. Tedros gripped Agatha’s palm. “Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.”
Her prince faced the Snake dead-on.
Tedros had no weapon.
He had no defense.
Whatever his plan to beat Japeth, it couldn’t work.
Tedros felt her resisting. “Trust me, Agatha.”
Agatha knew she should. That was Arthur’s test. To trust his son with her life. But she couldn’t. Not like this. “We have to run!” she fought, pulling Tedros away.
Her prince held her in place. “Trust me.”
Japeth started sprinting at them.
“He’ll kill us, Tedros!” Agatha cried. “We have no move to make!”
“Except this one,” said her prince.