Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 43

Agatha choked a laugh.

Standing between them, I stood helpless, watching true loves reunited . . . more invisible than I'd ever been.

A blast of purple light flew past Tedros like a warning shot—

Lady Lesso stormed out of the trees, smoking finger raised menacingly at Tedros.

"Agatha, Y/n, get away from him now!" she hissed, backing towards the south gate. "I'll hide you in the Woods until it's safe!"

We didn't move.

"What are you doing!" she spat. "The other boys will be here any sec—"

But now Lady Lesso's eyes widened, for Agatha was backing away from me towards the prince, who took her protectively into his arms. Clutching each other, Tedros and Agatha glared at me in my boy's uniform, standing in tree shadow, all alone.

"What's . . . what's happening . . ." Lady Lesso said, head whipping back and forth.

"I didn't know what I was doing," I wept. "I just—I didn't want to lose you. I couldn't go back."

I saw even Lady Lesso retreat from me now, violet eyes chilling with understanding. "A boy killed . . . students hurt . . . a Trial to the death . . . because of . . . you?"

"Come on," said Tedros, taking his princess's arm. "Let her fend for herself."

My face slackened, betrayal stabbing through my core. "I never meant to hurt anyone—"

"Let's go, Agatha," Tedros said harder.

As I cried, I saw Agatha look up at her prince, then across the glen at me, and I understood.

This time the choice was for real.

A jet of red fire rocketed into the middle of the glen, sending Agatha and Tedros reeling back in a cloud of red smoke.

Red and white fireworks blasted through the sky from every direction, ricocheting out of control, like a raining meteor shower. Instantly, the fireflies on the boy's scoreboard combusted to flames, scorching all the remaining names, TEDROS' and PETER's included. . . .

With a deafening crack, the board erupted in a blinding fireball. Across the forest, the girls' scoreboard detonated in another shattering explosion, billowing black plumes of smoke over the west gate.

"What's happening?" Agatha breathed, ears ringing.

I sensed a low, dull rumble, growing louder. . . louder. . .

Face draining, I slowly looked up.

The enchanted haze over the castles broke like mist, revealing the boys' and girls' schools overrun with roaring, descending bodies like swarming ants. Charging girls leapt onto broken Halfway Bridge from the balconies, wielding weapons and glowing fingertips, clamoring at the edge of the severed gap. Across the bay, hundreds of rabid boys and mercenary princes thundered onto the Bridge from the other side, lethally armed and bellowing for blood.

"They know I'm here," said Lady Lesso, her violet gaze fixed on the castles. "I broke the terms. Trial's over."

Agatha swallowed. "What does that mean?"

I peered up at four hundred boys and girls raring to kill each other, separated only by a hole in a bridge, and knew it could only mean one thing.

"War," said Tedros. "It means war."

Over our heads, the willow branches began to glimmer brighter like blue tinsel until the glimmer detonated like a storm cloud, sweeping down over the trees. In the moon's glow, I saw the sparkles were butterflies, thousands of blue butterflies, that had given the willows their neon glow. Like locusts, they swarmed through the glen in a violent gale. I shielded my face—