Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 16

"What?"

"Yknow." He rolled his wrist toward me. "With the whole healing yourself thing."

I gaped. "You saw that?"

"No shit."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"We all have our secrets," Tedros replied. "I thought you'd tell someone when you were ready."

I blinked. "Well. . .thank you."

"Don't mention it. But seriously, how the hell did you do it?"

I shook my head as we moved out of the ferns into the dense Turquoise Thicket. "I don't know. The Golden G—er, someone said that it might be because of my heritage, but I never knew my parents."

"Oh. Um. I'm sorry."

"I can't grieve for something I've never known," I said dismissively. "But I think my dad was a villain. Not sure who, though, and I'm not exactly sure where to find the answers."

"Well, Good has an extensive library, if you ever want me—er, um, Agatha to check it out for you."

I smiled. "Thanks, Tedros."

We continued ducking under boughs and flung through tentacles of blue leaves until we glimpsed the edge of the pumpkin patch.

But someone blocked our path. A little girl in a red cape in hood.

Tedros and I drew our weapons immediately.

The red-headed stranger looked up. It wasn't a child at all. She had cloudy blue eyes, rosy blush on her wrinkled, spotted cheeks, and thick gray hair pulled into two ponytails.

Tedros cleared his throat. "We'd like to pass through."

The woman didn't move.

"We need to pass," Tedros repeated.

The crone dropped her red cloak and revealed a hawk's dirty, bloated body. I heard an ear splitting caw and swiveled to two more old bird-women moving toward us.

"Harpies," I muttered, holding my sword out in front of me.

"Yeah, I think I got it," Tedros uttered back.

They pounced with terrible screams, snapping at our necks.

I dodged and swerved as they dived. One's talons caught my cheek and I winced before shoving my sword through its stomach.

Across the way, Tedros was swinging at a Harpy while the third snuck up behind him.

"TEDROS!"

He swiveled. If my sword hadn't cut through the Harpy's neck, its claws would have dug into his.

The three monsters lay dead at our feet.

"Thanks," Tedros panted.

"No problem," I replied, breathing heavily.

"You're hurt," he said.

"What? Oh." I touched the cut on my cheek. "It's nothing. It will heal eventually."

"How do you know?"

"Because—" I cut off, thinking back to all the times it had happened. The Welcoming. The Doom Room. During the battle with Hester's demon. What did they all have in common?

I remembered biting the wolf's hand. The Beast's blood running over my own wounds. A drop of crimson falling from Hester's demon into my mouth.

Blood.