Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 58

With a gasp, Agatha turned towards the thorn. Just as it hit her heart, she skirted its edge and leapt onto its side, like a hapless Tarzan, as the thorn reared up in surprise over the school gates. Agatha clung to the leathery purple thorn stem for dear life, swinging her legs through the air as she glanced down at the knife-edged gate spikes beneath her. The thorn coiled and flapped higher, about to shake her off. This was her last chance—

Agatha dug her nails into the stem, kicked her legs for momentum and flung herself off the thorn, over the gates, and shielded her head before she landed hard on her tailbone in a pine shrub. She lumbered to her feet, running once more.

Coward.

Agatha ran through deserted halls, foyers, walkways. . .

Until she crossed into the Theater of Tales.

I followed her, quickly and quietly, staying out of sight. As soon as I entered, however, I lost sight and nearly growled.

Then I hugged the wall when I saw who exactly occupied the room.

Inside the dark Theater of Tales, Lady Lesso and Professor Clarissa Dovey were kneeling on the stone stage, hovering over the giant crack, revealing the deep, frozen Brig of Betrayers beneath. Thick, glowing blue mist billowed from inside the glacial dungeon, lighting up the Deans' faces. From my vantage point at the east doors, I could make out Dovey using her wand to melt one of the ice tombs on a dungeon wall, as Lady Lesso tried to extract Professor Emma Anemone from inside it by hacking at the ice with the tip of her stiletto heel.

"Do the part around her mouth last, Lesso dear," said Dovey over Professor Anemone's muffled shouts. "I could do without hearing Emma speak until absolutely necessary."

Dovey's silver bun of hair and beetle-winged, green gown were drenched, no doubt the result of having been freed from her own ice tomb. Yet, her smile was as luminous as ever, as if she'd forgotten her frozen torment the moment she was reunited with her friend and fellow Dean.

Meanwhile, in the back corner of the misty blue pit, I could make out a new addition to the Brig—Aric, tied up and gagged, thrashing on the dungeon's deep, snow-coated floor. Despite his muscles and height, there was nothing intimidating about him now as he whimpered and shivered on his side, "CREEP" still scarred into his forehead.

"Mother, please!" he garbled into his gag, but Lady Lesso ignored him.

"Couldn't we seal him in his dormitory, like we did the other Evil teachers?" Professor Dovey asked, frowning at her sputtering wand. "We just need to keep them out of the way until the war is won—"

"Aric will stay in the Brig," said Lady Lesso.

"Mother, I'm sorry!" he cried, trying to chew through his gag, but Lady Lesso still wouldn't look at him.

"He is your son, even if he is vile," Professor Dovey appealed. "And to leave your son in the Brig all alone seems rather—"

"I'm beginning to doubt my decision to free you," Lady Lesso snapped.

Professor Dovey pursed her lips and refocused on melting the tomb, only to see her wand fizzle again. "Goodness, what did Merlin do to my wand? If I hadn't been frozen stiff, I'd never have let that rodent take it from me—"

"Then I would have taken it from you myself," said Lady Lesso, tightening her braid.

Professor Dovey stared at her.

"Who do you think let the rodent in the Brig, Clarissa? Who do you think showed it where you were!" Lady Lesso groaned. "Really, I hope old age doesn't sap my brain as much as it has yours."