The Last Ever After. Soman Chainani

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ under the School Master’s control.”

      Princess Uma came up behind them. “For hundreds of years, Evil lost every story because Good had love on its side. Love gave Good a power and purpose Evil couldn’t match. But those happy endings held only as long as Evil wasn’t able to love. Things have changed, students. The School Master has found someone who loves him and who he loves in return. He’s proved Evil deserves a chance to rewrite its fairy tales. Now every old villain gets a new turn at their story. Every dead villain is reborn.”

      True love? The School Master? Agatha shook her head, trying to understand. How could anyone love him?

      Suddenly Agatha noticed Vanessa’s empty grave again and her heart seized. “Wait—Sophie’s mother … body missing … means she’s … she’s—”

      “She wasn’t buried here, remember?” Uma said, cutting her off. “We don’t even know if her body was buried at all. And yet, the Crypt Keeper saved this grave for Sophie’s mother amongst the famous Nevers—the Crypt Keeper, who answers to no one but the Storian itself. Why he saved a villain’s grave for her could be our greatest clue to understanding how the School Master came to choose his new queen.”

      Agatha felt a cold darkness rip through her stomach. She had a thousand questions: about her mother and her best friend’s mother, about letters and Leagues, about empty graves and undead villains … but only one mattered.

      “Queen?” she whispered, slowly looking up. “Who?”

      Uma met her eyes. “Sophie took the School Master’s ring. She is his true love.”

      Agatha couldn’t speak.

      “But … but we came to rescue her from him,” Tedros said, stunned.

      “And you must. But it will not be an easy task,” said Uma. “Sophie’s kiss may have brought him back to life—but it is his ring on her finger that makes the power of that kiss last. As long as Sophie wears his ring, the School Master remains immortal. And yet, there is a way to undo the kiss, children. A way to destroy the School Master once and for all. And it is our one and only hope.” Her voice was fiery, urgent. “You must convince Sophie to destroy the School Master’s ring by her own hand. Convince Sophie to destroy his ring and the School Master will be destroyed with it forever.”

      Agatha was still lost in a fog.

      “But beware,” Uma added. “While you seek your true ending to The Tale of Sophie and Agatha, the School Master seeks his too.”

      Tedros could see Agatha staring into space, no longer listening. “And what ending is that?” he asked.

      Uma leaned in, her soft features hardening. “The wolf and giant were no accident. War is coming, Son of Arthur. As long as Sophie wears the School Master’s ring, all of Good is in terrible danger, past and present, young and old. Either you and your princess bring Sophie back to Good … or Good as we know it will be wiped out forever. That is the ending he seeks.”

      Agatha’s heartbeat swirled in her ears.

      Once upon a time, she and Sophie had slain a deadly villain who’d torn them apart.

      Now her best friend had given her heart to that villain.

      “But he’s Evil. She knows he’s Evil … and Sophie isn’t Evil anymore,” Agatha breathed, looking up. “Why would she want to be with him?”

      “For the same reason you and your prince want to be with each other.” Uma gave her a wistful smile. “To be happy.”

      Agatha and Tedros watched the Princess circle her finger, extinguishing the fireflies, and hasten towards the dark Woods beyond the hills. “Quickly, Evers,” she said, snatching a few more meerworms off a grave. “It’s a two-day journey to school and we must get to Sophie before they find you.”

      Tedros frowned, lagging behind. “Before who finds us?”

      “Who?” Uma glared back, incredulous. “Whoever else was in those graves.”

      

      afal never slept in his chamber, so when the pen finally began to write, in the first hours of dawn, it was Sophie who was there to see it.

      She’d been ill for six nights, ever since she took his ring—so ill, with a scorching fever and bone-numbing chills that she’d yet to leave her bed. Curled up in blankets, she imagined Tedros and Agatha gallivanting about town, snacking on Battersby’s cupcakes (maybe he’ll get fat, she hoped) and watching the sunset by the lake (maybe he’ll drown), while here she was cooped in a sooty tower, sniffling and shivering like a snotty Rapunzel, and no one liked Rapunzel because she was boring.

      “You said—I could—see the school,” she’d babbled to Rafal in a sweaty fit this morning. “I want to see—Hester—Anadil—”

      “And infect them with whatever plague you’re carrying?” he teased, wrapping her in a fresh blanket.

      She’d have pressed her case, if only he hadn’t been taking such good care of her. He barely left her side during the day: sponging her forehead, feeding her bone-marrow soup, bringing her baggy, black nightdresses that she could hibernate inside, and enduring her inane blathering about Tedros and Agatha and how little or much fun they must be having, depending on whether her jealousy was at a peak or a valley in any given moment. Soon Sophie began to dread the nights, when Rafal would go away, just as she once dreaded those first mornings when she was afraid he’d come. In her delirious haze, she began to crave the marble cradle of his arms … his fresh, teenage scent … his cold touch on her burning skin … his silvery voice pulling her out of nightmares …

      “I bet you … made me sick … so I’d need you …,” Sophie slurred as he’d left.

      The young School Master looked back and smiled.

      As her fever deepened, Sophie’s nightmares grew clearer. Tonight she’d been dreaming of a pitch-black tunnel with a halo of light at its end. Floating in the dark tunnel was a giant gold ring, lined with razor-sharp teeth, spinning in midair and blocking her path. As she moved towards it, the ring spun faster, until she could see her reflection in the mirrored blur of teeth. Only, as she drew towards the ring, Sophie realized the reflection wasn’t hers at all. It was a face she’d never seen before—a strange man’s, with wild brown hair, dark, leathery skin, and a fat, hooked nose. Confused, Sophie leaned in to see him … closer … closer … until the man lifted black, bloodshot eyes, with a dangerous grin—

      Then he stabbed out his hands and slammed Sophie into the guillotine of teeth.

      Sophie gasped awake, scared out of her wits—

      She froze dead still. Someone was in the chamber. Scratching and rustling, like a black cat sharpening its nails.

      Chest СКАЧАТЬ