Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 58

"If it does, I'll be there to remind you what you just said, dear."

"You'll be dead, Clarissa."

Dovey leaned over the side of the pit with Lady Lesso and finally pull Professor Anemone from her ice grave, while Aric flailed and sniveled below.

"I still don't see how a Beautification professor is going to help us during war," Lady Lesso panted, as she and Professor Dovey heaved their colleague onto the stone stage before collapsing on their sides.

"Emma is a friend, Lady Lesso," Clarissa puffed, dabbing at sweat. "A friend who actually had the courtesy of telling me her first name."

"Even my son doesn't know my first name and I prefer to keep it that way," said Lady Lesso. "Though if I had a name as bloodless as Emma, that would be reason enough."

Even Professor Dovey chortled.

The wild-haired Beautification professor sat up in a soggy heap and pulled out a pocket mirror, blinking wide eyes at her streaked makeup and sallow complexion. "Is this what it's all come to? Mighty Good reduced to a shadow of its former self?"

"A shadow we will fight for, Emma," Clarissa declared, dragging her up towards the east doors, across the theater from where Agatha was watching. "Now hurry! We have to get to the Stymph Forest and help Merlin. The sun is almost set—"

"Wait," said Lady Lesso.

She paused at the edge of the glowing Brig, glaring down at her son, tied up on the snow-covered floor of the dungeon. "Clarissa, are you sure no one can open the Brig except Evil's Deans?"

"Evil's Deans and their superiors, and only then from the outside. Neither me nor my Good colleagues could open it," said Dovey, looking at Aric sadly. "Nor can we once you seal it. Even if we wanted to."

Aric spat out his gag. "Please! I won't hurt you, Mother!" he sobbed, pulling at his binds. "Please don't leave me alone again! I'll be nice from now on. . . I'll be a good son . . ."

Lady Lesso's glare wavered, taking in his terrified face.

"Are you sure, Lady Lesso?" Professor Dovey asked. "Surely he can change. Surely a mother's love . . ."

"That's the difference between Good and Evil, Clarissa," the Evil Dean said softly. "We know that love isn't always enough for a happy ending."

She looked at her son, jaw clenching.

Aric read her face. "Mother, no!"

Lady Lesso thrust out her finger and the ceiling of the Brig started closing as Aric screamed in horror, with a desperate childlike wail that filled the theater.

For a moment, Lady Lesso started shaking, her eyes glistening with tears. Then she felt Clarissa's hand take hers, so tight and warm. The Evil Dean steadied herself, wiping her cheek.

"Come on, girls," she said sternly, turning away from Aric's cries. "Merlin needs us—"

Green light ripped past her and crashed into the Brig, magically stalling its walls. The impact tore a chunk of ice off Professor Anemone's old tomb, which fell and bashed Aric in the head, knocking him out.

Shell-shocked, Lady Lesso, Professor Dovey, and Professor Anemone slowly turned to see me standing at the east doors, my fingertip glowing green.

"You're not going anywhere, Lady Lesso," I said, dead cold.

"Take Emma and go to the Stymph Forest, Clarissa," said Lady Lesso. "Lady Lesso—" Professor Dovey started.

"Now," Lady Lesso commanded.

Clarissa didn't argue. She grabbed Professor Anemone's hand and hurried out of the theater through the east doors.

Alone in the Theater of Tales, me and Lady Lesso faced off in the green torchlight.

"You said you wanted me to be a legendary queen," I boiled, shaking with rage. "You said you wanted me to make Evil great again. You said you wanted me to be happy."

"And I do," said Lady Lesso.

"Then how could you betray me and the one boy who makes me happy?" I snarled, prowling towards her.

"Because in all of your years at my school, Y/n, I've only seen you happy in the company of one person," said Lady Lesso calmly, holding her ground. "And it isn't Rafal."

"Well, in case you weren't paying attention, Tedros and I never loved each other—"

"It isn't Tedros either."

I stopped my advance. "Then who?"

"With Agatha, your soul is complete, Y/n," said Lady Lesso. "Without her, you'll never be at peace."

"And what of Sophie?" I challenged. "How does she fit into all of this?"

"That's your choice," said Lady Lesso. "What if you had that fairy tale all wrong, Y/n? What if a boy was never your happy ending? What if your happy ending was inside you all this time? To find a happy ending with someone else, first you have to find it alone."

I shook my head, rage building. "Alone? You think my happy ending is alone? I thought you and me were alike. I thought you were Evil."

"And I am. Certainly more Evil than you," said Lady Lesso. "Except the difference between me and you is that I know what Evil means."

I smirked bitterly. "Being a spy for Good?"

"Accepting Good as our equal," said Lady Lesso.

My smirk erased.

"That's what Evil's love really is, Y/n," said the Dean. "Knowing that Good has the right to thrive and fight for happiness, just as much as we do. Because in the end, Good and Evil are two sides of the same story: every Good comes from Evil and every Evil from Good. That is the balance that sustains our world. The balance that let the School Master stay young all those years, loving his Good brother as his equal, even if he was his enemy . . . before he forgot the power of that love. Just like you have forgotten too."

"What would you ever know about love? Look what you did to your own son!" I mocked, blotching red. "All because you were scared he'd kill you—"

"Not me," Lady Lesso said, smiling sadly. "I was never scared he'd kill me. I was scared he'd kill the one real love I have in this world."

I stared at her, disarmed.

"Why do you think I was Merlin's spy in the first place?" said the Dean. "Because it meant when the time came, I'd get to set Clarissa Dovey free. My best friend. My Agatha."

I ashened. "You . . . you betrayed Evil for a friend?"

"Like you must, when the time comes," said Lady Lesso. "Because that friend's happy ending will be your own, if you can let yourself find peace in being alone. That's how this storybook will close. That's your real ending, Y/n. And that's a Never After worth fighting for."

"You're wrong," I whispered. "My Never After is with Rafal. And I will never give him up."

"If only you could see yourself as you are now, Y/n," said Lady Lesso, her voice tender and maternal. "Because you've never been more alone."

I bared my teeth and fired a blast of green glow at the Dean's head.

She fell and didn't stir.

I spun and marched out of the room, set on returning to my real true love.