Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 42

Every muscle in my body froze as I watched Agatha's name light up on the girls' board over the Blue Forest once the Trial had begun.

She's inside.

Agatha's inside.

All the fear and self-loathing I had bottled up for the past day, since I'd seen the red lantern blazing, since I'd trapped myself in this execrable Trial, rushed out of me like a wind, and I nearly buckled to her knees. Whatever I'd done to bring us both here, at least we were both alive and in the same place.

I looked out at the dense Forest in front of me, lit up for the Trial with a snowy white-blue glow, like a psychotic winter wonderland.

"Hurry up, Peter," Tedros frowned, glancing back as he waded through the tangled Turquoise Thicket, round steel shield and sword Excalibur in hand.

Going through the Trial was going to be difficult. Usually I relied on my ability to heal to get me through things like this. But now? I couldn't do that, or Tedros would know it was me. If I broke my ankle, it would have to stay broken. No blood to heal me this time.

The last day in the School for Boys had barreled by in a blur of panic. Desperate to answer Agatha's alarm, I waited until nightfall, hoping to abscond to the girls' castle, but Castor slept right outside the Doom Room to ensure the boys' team leader stayed in his cell and got his rest. Not that I could rest if I wanted—Tedros spent the entire night drawing detailed maps of the Blue Forest, sharpening his father's sword, which Manley had grudgingly returned, and blustering strategy like he once had as Good's army captain.

It was a smart thing to do, and part of me was relieved that Tedros and I were back where we had been a year ago, in the Trial by Tale, fighting as allies once more.

But nothing could last forever. Eventually, when all this was over and Agatha made her choice, Tedros would have to know. I just hoped I could explain myself and let him know that he wasn't being used again. That I really did enjoy having my friend back.

"We'll be our own group, Pete. Let Aric and the princes take on the other girls while we go straight for Y/n and Agatha. No doubt they're fighting together, just like me and you," he said. "We have to slay them on the spot, or they'll kill us first."

"Are you really willing to do that?" I said, peering at him. "Kill your Love?"

"I have to," Tedros replied coldly. He peered up at each turquoise oak appraisingly before jumping onto the tallest trunk in the batch.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"Agatha just entered at the west gate," Tedros said, monkeying up the tree. "First thing she'll do is cross the Fernfield and find Y/n. Come on, we'll have a good view of the ferns up here."

We climbed up together until we reached the highest boughs.

"Can't see any of the girls," Tedros said. "Can you?"

I peered through leaves at a wide view of the north Forest. The Fernfield, Pine Shrubs, and Turquoise Thicket were amply lit with the same wintry glow, but I couldn't see any of the girls' sapphire uniforms—just a few shadowy boy cloaks prowling through the shrubs.

I felt a sharp sadness at not seeing Agatha, then relief that Tedros couldn't either.

"She and Y/n must be hiding scared," Tedros said. "We'll wait here until one of them moves—"

A blast of white fireworks shot up into the sky from the south Forest, signaling the first surrender. Tedros and I swiveled, almost careening off the branch, and saw treetops rustling far away, near the pumpkin patch. Screams echoed, boy and girl, along with a monster's shrieks, as blue pumpkins flew over the trees like kicked balls, followed by a flurry of red and white fireworks in one long, frightening detonation.