The Last Ever After. Soman Chainani

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СКАЧАТЬ we have to close our eyes,” said Tedros.

      “Or do a rain dance in pajamas while singing ‘Ring Around the Rosie,’” Agatha grumped, Reaper fast asleep in her lap. “It’s past dinnertime and I’m starving. How many times can we try this?”

      “Oh I’m sorry. Do you have somewhere better to be at the moment?”

      Agatha watched a roach mosey by, cram under the double-locked front door, and disappear. “You have a point,” she said, and shut her eyes.

      “All right,” Tedros sucked in, closing his eyes. “One … two … three!”

      Agatha scrunched up her face, Tedros did too, and both of them thrust their index fingers at the other. They exhaled at the same time and opened their eyes.

      Neither of their fingertips was glowing.

      Tedros peered closely at Agatha’s. “You bite your nails too much.”

      “Oh for crying out loud. We can’t get into the Woods unless our magic comes back,” she barked, shoving her hand in her pocket. “Magic follows emotion. That’s what we learned at school. You said it yourself! If we both make the wish at the same time, the gates should open—”

      “Unless one of us is having doubts,” said Tedros.

      “Then I suggest you get over them,” Agatha huffed, standing up. “Let’s try in the morning. Mother’s never this late. She’ll be here any second—”

      “Agatha.”

      She saw Tedros giving her that lopsided grin … the one that said he knew exactly what she was thinking, even if she was doing everything she could to keep it from him.

      “You’re smarter than you look,” she groused, sitting back down.

      “And you’re the one famous for not judging books by their covers.” He scooted next to her. “Look, if you want to say goodbye to your mother first—”

      “That’ll just make the doubts worse,” mumbled Agatha. “How do you tell your mother you’re leaving her forever?”

      “Wouldn’t know. My mother left me without saying goodbye,” Tedros replied.

      Agatha looked at him, suddenly feeling very stupid. Tedros slid closer. “What is it, my love?” he asked. “What are you really afraid of?”

      Agatha felt panic rising, something coming up she couldn’t keep down—

      “What if I’m the problem?” she blurted. “Every time I try to be happy, it goes wrong. First with Sophie, then with you, and all I can think of is that it’s not us who’s broken … it’s me. The girl who ruins everyone’s story. The girl who’s meant to be alone. That’s why I’m afraid to leave my mother. Because what if I’m not supposed to be with you, Tedros? What if I’m supposed to end here, just like her, never finding love at all?”

      Tedros froze, taken aback.

      Slowly Agatha felt the air return to her lungs, as if a boulder had lifted off her chest.

      Her prince traced his finger between bricks in the floor. “We only see the finished storybooks, Agatha. How do we know every Ever After doesn’t take a few tries? Think about it. Each time you left the Woods, you tried to come back to your old life. But this time is different, isn’t it? When we get to our true ending, you’ll have a new life with me. We’ll have my kingdom to protect, until we’re old ourselves and it’s time to pass it on. Just like my father did and his father and all who came before.”

      Looking at him, Agatha realized how selfish and small-hearted she’d been by keeping her prince here.

      “I promise,” he said, squeezing her hand. “This time, we will be happy.”

      “All right, say we do get back to the School for Good and Evil,” Agatha allowed. “What’s our plan?”

      “Make things right, of course,” Tedros puffed. “Rescue Sophie, kill the School Master, take back Excalibur, free the other students, and you and I go to Camelot in time for my sixteenth birthday, and coronation as king. The End.” He paused. “The real End.”

      Agatha made a sound halfway between a cough and a sneeze.

      “All right, Sophie can come too, if you’re going to be difficult about it,” he sighed.

      “Tedros, my love,” said Agatha cuttingly. “You think we can just waltz through the school gates and kill the School Master like we’re buying bonbons from the bakery?”

      “I think buying anything from the bakery would pose far more obstacles at the moment,” said Tedros, eyeing the triple-locked door.

      Agatha let go of him and braced for a fight. “First off, the School Master is an all-powerful sorcerer who last we saw came back from death, turned young again, and stabbed you with your own sword. Second, for all we know, he’s killed the Evers and has everyone on his side. And third, you don’t think he’ll have guards and traps and—”

      “Merlin had a saying: ‘Worrying doesn’t solve problems. Just gives you gas,’” Tedros yawned.

      “I take back the smarter than you look thing,” Agatha groaned. Her cat stirred and staggered out of her arms, but not before spitting in Tedros’ lap. The prince backhanded it and Reaper fled, throwing Agatha a horrible scowl at her choice of mate.

      “He used to love me,” Agatha said, watching her cat gnaw the head off a dead canary.

      “Agatha, look at me.”

      “Tedros, you don’t even have your sword, let alone a plan. We’re going to die.”

      “Agatha, please look at me.”

      She did, with folded arms.

      “You can’t plan your story any more than you can plan who you’re going to fall in love with. That’s the point of a story,” said Tedros. “And even if you could, what’s the fun of living through it if you know what’s going to happen? All we know is that Good always wins, right? So if Good hasn’t beaten Evil yet, our fairy tale can’t be over. As soon as we make our wish, we’ll be back where we belong, chasing our happy ending. Trust our story, Agatha. We’ll know what to do when the time comes.”

      “And what about Sophie?” Agatha asked. “What if she hasn’t forgiven us?”

      Tedros thought for a moment. “Everything Sophie did, she did to get closer to you or me. We’ve all made mistakes, that’s for sure. But Good or Evil, Boy or Girl, the three of us are in this tale together.” He leveled eyes with her. “So how can Sophie be happy until we are?”

      Agatha fell quiet, aware of the dark room hemming her in with her prince and yet keeping them apart.

      Long before she ever met her best friend, she’d secretly read storybooks from Mr. Deauville’s, buying them right after the shop opened, when no one else was inside, and paying for them with the coins her mother had given her for sweets. She drank in the lesson of those fairy-tale books more than any СКАЧАТЬ