One True Queen (School for Good and Evil Book 2)

Chapter 16

Tedros met her eyes.

"And the truth is . . . you're right," he'd said. "Everything you said about me is right."

Agatha struggled under his gaze, searching for words.

But a warning pounded in her head.

"I've already told you how this story will end. With your fairy tale shattered . . . With everything you thought true turned untrue . . ."

Six months ago, she and Tedros thought their story had ended. They'd been off to Camelot Castle, destined to restore it to glory as queen and king. Good had won, Evil vanquished, with the success of their quests a foregone conclusion.

But now they were atop that castle, admitting they hadn't won after all. That their quests to be that glorious king and queen had failed, no matter how much they loved each other. The End wasn't The End at all . . . but the beginning of something thornier, twistier, where every truth about her and Tedros' love story suddenly seemed untrue, just like the Snake had promised.

Was this the final crack in her and Tedros' fairy tale? A fairy tale that would shatter forever?

Were the Snakes' Lies really the Truth?

Agatha looked at her prince. "Tedros . . . I . . . I . . ."

Shouts exploded near the outer gates.

It happened so fast.

Drawbridge smashing down . . . the witches fleeing across the bridge . . . the scims stabbing soldiers from behind, before the eels turned and flew towards the castle . . .

"RHIAN!" Tedros yelled as he dashed from the balcony and down the stairwell to find his knight, while Agatha chased him, her heart slamming.

"Dovey's barrier—it's still intact—" she called out. "They were inside the gates all along!"

"RHIAN!" Tedros yelled again, leaping down stairs as he drew Lance's sword from his belt.

How did the Snakes get in? Agatha thought, trying to keep up with her prince.

But there was no time to think.

She and Tedros dashed out of the archway and into the courtyard, only to see a slew of scims shoot for their heads—

Someone tackled Tedros and Agatha to the ground, making the scims miss, before the eels circled around and savagely killed a dwarf right in front of them.

Agatha lifted her head from the dirt as Rhian grabbed her and Tedros and pulled them both into an archway behind a stone pillar, where Sophie was already hiding.

Across from them, Hester, Anadil, and Dot crouched behind a second column, with Beatrix, Reena, Beatrix, and Hort's man-wolf behind a third. Reena had a gash in her thigh, her shield dented. Hort let out a growl of pain as he ripped a spasming scim out of his calf muscle and crushed it in his hairy palm.

Agatha peeked out from the pillar to see the once-quiet field in front of the castle turned into a deathzone, with soldiers trampling each other across muddy grass, desperately seeking cover in the dark while scims stabbed them left and right. A Son of the Lion took a scim to the arm a few yards in front of Agatha before one of his friends yanked him behind a bush.

"They're going to find us. All of us," Beatrix said, watching scims easily take down a giant before they went off to search for fresh prey.

"We have to kill as many as we can," Rhian urged. "The scims are their armor. We can strip it away. Kill enough of them and they're nothing but flesh and blood."