Merlin let out a piercing wolf whistle and with a rousing war cry two- hundred strong, the students leapt astride the birds and dive-bombed the birds off the trees, launching flaming arrows at the old villains—
Arrow blades ripped through their targets, igniting zombie bodies on fire.
Chaddick spiraled his stymph straight into the Dark Army, skewering three ogres with a single arrow . . . Beatrix managed a flying loop before she sparked fire to Snow White's witch with an arrow to the neck . . . Arachne took out a cyclops' eye with a straight shot and spinning dive . . .
I watched a fleet of Nevers spray arrows into more zombie heads, utterly flabbergasted. Neither stymph-flying nor archery was ever taught at school. How had students as bumbling as Brone or Mona or Millicent become bird-riding, weapon-firing warriors in a week?
But it was only when I saw Kiko, flying wildly with absolutely no direction, her hand puttering on her bow, unleashing an arrow miles off target, that I realized what was really happening. For all of a sudden, Kiko's stymph magically leveled and her arrow magically veered, before tearing through a troll's throat and setting him aflame.
Slowly I looked up to see Merlin high up in his tree, waving his palms like a symphony conductor, managing the stymph and arrow flights of his Ever-Never army with a sorcerer's touch.
He swished his arms once more and four unmanned stymphs with bows and fiery arrows in their mouths throttled towards the ground, scooping Hester, Anadil, Dot, and Hort onto their backs, who immediately began taking aim at zombie targets and letting arrows fly.
The old heroes were trying to charge into the fray, but were held back to the trees by Princess Uma, Yuba, the White Rabbit, and Tinkerbell, who knew even one of their deaths would break the Readers' shield. Meanwhile, Lancelot yelled for the wizard to help him off the tree, but Merlin was so distracted trying to orchestrate his army that he flicked his hand in the knight's direction and accidentally buried the sword deeper into his shoulder.
From the beginning, I had gone crimson with rage, firing spells at stymph birds and crashing them with their riders to the ground. I sensed something and froze still, before I turned and saw Agatha glowering at me . . . at the ring on my finger . . . her jaw set with determination. Slowly we locked eyes.
Then I sent a spell at her.
Then another, then another, until Agatha was stumbling backwards, further into the forest, blocking every one of my attacks.
Eventually, she gave up, and ran as fast as she could, dodging my spells as they flew at her.
Where was she going?
But then I saw it, through the gaps of skeletal branches overhead . . . the outlines of the two school castles.
The two of us broke out of the Woods and into a grove of purple, giant-thorned trees separating the Stymph Forest from the School for Good and Evil. The lethal-sharp thorns stirred languidly, as if woken from a deep sleep, and I knew Agatha only had seconds before they spotted her. Ahead, she was nearing the school gates.
Agatha hurdled and dodged thorns, feeling the ground caving in as more and more thorns smashed holes around her. A thorn sliced from the left and she slid beneath it, only to have one gash her arm from the right.
I slowed down.
I was the Queen of Evil. The school listened to me.
So why not let her onto my turf?
Agatha fumbled forward as the gates magically opened for her.
A thorn lashed down like a wave, about to impale her against the closing gates—
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."
"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.