Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 23

I stared at the illustration. "You're joking."

"I am not."

"Then—why—how—" I sputtered. "Why did he give me up? Why did he send me to Gavaldon?"

"Because he was dying," the School Master said. "Poisoned by his own love, Wendy Darling, in efforts to escape his hold over her. I can only assume he gave you up, as well as his magic, so that it might live on in you."

I stared at the image of the boy. He looked so young, so carefree. . .so childlike.

"There's still something I don't understand," I said. "In Gavaldon and Good's library, Pan is written as a hero. But Lady Lesso and the Golden Goose told me he's a villain. He can't be both."

"Can't he?" The School Master sent the book away to its home on its shelf. "Is Good and Evil really so black and white?"

"I'm not here to philosophically debate. I'm here to find out why the hell there are two versions of Peter Pan's tale."

The School Master sighed. "Because the world can't decide. History is all relative, you know. Some say Pan was a hero for vanquishing the captain of the pirates. Some say he was evil for using the Lost Boys to stay young."

"And. . ." I looked up at him. "What do you say?"

The School Master grinned. "Would a hero really torture his true love with isolation from the rest of the world?"

"All this. . ." I gestured to the book on the shelf. "The debate about Pan's tale, my powers. . .what does it mean for me? I mean, you put me into Evil. But I don't. . .I mean, I'm not really Evil, am I? I know I'm not Good either. I fall somewhere in between, like. . .like my dad."

The School Master smiled and crossed the room. "You're right. You don't belong with either school."

My brow furrowed. "Then where do I belong?"

The School Master lifted my chin.

"With me."

I only stared, open-mouthed.

"Why do you think I brought you to this place? I thought you could finally give Evil a fighting chance. I gave you a riddle whose answer would bring you to me. . .I interfered in your fairy tale because I knew how it must end."

"But that means you're—" I stumbled away from him. "You're Evil?"

"I cared for my brother very much," the School Master said tensely, peering at the schools' raging war. "We were entrusted the Storian for eternity because our bond overrode our warring souls. As long as we protected each other, we would stay immortal and beautiful, Good and Evil in perfect balance. Each as worthy and powerful as the other."

He turned. "But Evil cannot be but alone."

"So you killed your own brother?" I said.

"Much as you killed the Beast who tortured you."

I looked away. "That was different."

"Was it?" The School Master smiled and continued his tale. "But no matter how much I tried to control the Storian . . . Good now emerged triumphant in every new tale."

He caressed the symbols on the pen's skin. "Because there is something greater than the purest Evil, Y/n. Something I cannot have."

"Love," I said softly.

"It is why Good wins every story," the School Master said. "They fight for each other. We can only fight for ourselves.

"My only hope was to find something stronger, something that would give us a chance. I hunted every seer in the Woods until one gave me my answer. One who told me that what I needed would come from beyond our world. And so I searched all these years, careful to keep the balance, as my body and hope weakened . . . until at last you've come. The one that can tip the balance forever. The one more powerful than Good's Love."

He touched my cheek.

"Evil's love."

His fingers were frigid on my skin. "But. . .I'm not Evil," I breathed.

"You're telling me you didn't enjoy the power that rushed within you when you leeched off of Hester's demon? That you didn't feel unstoppable when Hester was afraid of you? That you didn't enjoy knowing you had the power to decide whether someone lived or died when you dealt with the Beast?"

I looked away, giving him his answer.

The School Master's lips curled into a smile. "Sader knew you would come. A heart as dark as mine. An Evil whose beauty could restore my own." His hands moved to my waist. "If we unite with each other to seal the bond of Evil. If we marry for the purpose of hurting, destroying, punishing . . . then you and I finally have something to fight for."

The School Master's breath grazed my ear. "Never After."

I looked up at the man before me. Not a shining knight, fighting for Good. Not someone Good at all.

But someone powerful.

The School Master reached up and pricked his finger on one of the tines on his crown. A drop of crimson beaded on his fingertip.

He smeared it across my lips.

The moment my tongue touched blood, it was unlike anything I had ever felt. There was power, so much of it, shooting through my veins. This was so much more than when I had felt with Hester's demon. This wasn't magic power. This was godlike power. And I was drunk on it.

Drunk on him.

"A kiss," the School Master whispered. "A kiss for Never After."

At that moment, someone climbed through the window to the tower. Someone in a billowing blue gown with black curls and dark ladybug eyes creased in terror.

Agatha reached out. "Y/n, no!"

But it was too late. The School Master crushed my mouth to his.

The kiss was cold, colder than anything I'd ever felt, but somehow it ignited a fire within me. Green light exploded across the room. The Storian spilled rivers of ink across the parchment, capturing our embrace. I heard Agatha scream—

And then it was over.

The School Master gazed at me with his clear, glacier blue eyes.

I reached out to cup his face—

But paused when I saw my hand.

It was fading.

The skin was translucent, bathed in a golden glow.

The School Master's brow creased. "What's happening?"

And then I realized.

True Love's Kiss.

Either Sophie or I had to get True Love's Kiss.

Then we'd go home.

Startled, I looked up, just in time to see the School Master reach for me, disintegrating into an explosion of gray dust—

Then I was gone.