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СКАЧАТЬ “So much for your team.”

      The prince tensed. “She knows I’m safe too. Otherwise she’d be here to fight with me.”

      “Are you sure about that?” Hester said, black eyes flashing.

      “That’s what makes us Good, Hester. We trust. We protect. We love. What do you have?”

      Hester smiled. “Bait.”

      She thrust out her glowing and red fingertip and the tattoo peeled off her neck, swelling with blood. Tedros backed up in shock as her demon engorged with blood, tighter, tighter, about to burst. Hissing an incantation, Hester’s eyes grayed and her skin lost all color. She sank to the ground in agony and howled in fury as if tearing her own soul apart. Then the demon’s body parts detached from each other … head, two arms, two legs.

      Five fractured pieces, each one alive.

      Tedros turned snow white.

      The five demon pieces blasted towards him, conjuring daggers instead of fire bolts. He bludgeoned the stabbing head and leg with his shield, but an arm sank a dagger into his thigh. With a cry, he batted the arm away, pulled the knife out of his leg, and clawed up the only tree in the glen—

      Agatha’s shrub whipped to Sophie—“Help him!”

      “And end in five pieces?” Sophie shot back.

      “He needs you!”

      “He needs me to be safe!”

      A demon leg hurled a knife at the prince’s head and he jumped just in time to a higher branch. The other four limbs ripped toward him, daggers raised—

      Trapped, he glanced down at Hester, weak on her knees, directing the demon fragments with a glowing finger. Tedros’ eyes widened, spotting something through the leaves.

      Red silk. In her boot.

      The fragments unleashed five knives point-blank, all aimed for his organs. Just as they pierced his shirt, he jumped out of the tree and landed on his wrist with a sickening crack.

      Hester saw him scraping towards her. She circled her finger savagely, bringing the demon parts back around with new knives. Tedros held her glare as he crawled towards her. Sneering, Hester raised her finger high and the demon limbs coiled back to kill him. This time there would be no mistake. She roared and the knives stabbed down—the prince lunged for her boot—

      Hester’s mouth opened in horror as Tedros pinned her red handkerchief to the ground. The knives clinked limply to dirt and the demon parts vanished. Then Hester vanished too, eyes shocked wide.

      Tedros collapsed on his back. Heaving for breath, he squinted into the pink sky. The sun was coming.

      “Sophie,” he croaked.

      He took a deep breath.

      “SOPHIE!”

      Agatha’s leaves drooped in relief. Then she saw Sophie’s shrub pruning its leaves.

      “What are yo—Go, you fool!”

      “Agatha, I don’t have clothes.”

      “At least call to him so he know—” Agatha stopped.

      On the ground, a demon arm hadn’t fully vanished. It was flickering in midair, willing itself to stay.

      Then it slunk over the grass and picked a knife off the ground.

      “Sophie—Sophie, go—”

      “Sun will be up any minute—”

      “Sophie, go!”

      Sophie’s shrub swiveled and saw the knife rise over Tedros’ shoulder. She gasped and hid her eyes—

      The blade plunged. Tedros saw it hit his heart too late.

      A shield suddenly smashed the arm down. With a screech, the demon limb shriveled and disappeared.

      Dazed, Tedros stared at the shallow wound in his chest muscle, the bloody knife on his sternum. He looked up at Agatha, covering her body with his shield.

      “Still haven’t figured out the clothes bit,” she mumbled.

      Tedros leapt to his feet in shock. “But … you’re not even in … what are you …”

      He saw a shrub quivering behind her. Tedros stabbed his glowing gold fingertip—“Corpadora volvera!” Sophie fell forward and hid her body behind a shrub—

      “Agatha, I need clothes! Teddy, could you turn around?”

      Tedros shook his head. “But the library—that book … You did cheat!”

      “Teddy, we had to. … Agatha, help!”

      Agatha pointed her seared, glowing finger at Sophie to wrap her in vines but Tedros stayed her hand.

      “You said you’d fight with me!” he cried, eyes locked on Sophie behind the shrub. “You said you’d have my back!”

      “I knew you’d be fine—Agatha, please—”

      “You lied!” he said, voice breaking. “Everything you said was a lie! You were using me!”

      “That’s not true, Tedros! No princess would risk her own life! Even your truest love—”

      Tedros glowered, red hot. “Then why did she?”

      Sophie followed the prince’s eyes to Agatha, raw with burns.

      Agatha saw Sophie’s eyes slowly widen, as if discovering a knife stabbed into her back. But just as Agatha tried to defend herself, sunlight exploded into the glen and washed her body in gold.

      Wolves howled at the gates. Sounds of children and footsteps thundered through the Forest.

      “They did it!”

      “They won!”

      “Sophie and Tedros won!”

      Bodies burst into the glen. Panicked, Agatha lit up her finger and her dove flew away just as students flooded into view—

      “Ever and Never!” shouted one.

      “Witch and prince!” shouted another.

      “All hail Sophie and Ted—”

      The Forest went quiet.

      From a tree, Agatha looked down at the unchosen Evers and Nevers surge in, then the fallen competitors, healed and cleaned by magic—all frozen as they took in the scene.

      Sophie cowering behind a bush. Tedros glaring down at her, eyes on fire.

      And they knew there would never be peace.

      Evers СКАЧАТЬ