Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 31

"She's turning into a villain!" Agatha choked, rushing with Dot into the Charity breezeway. "And she doesn't even know it!"

"Oh, she knows," Dot snapped. "She's just playing innocent."

"We have to tell Lady Lesso—she'll know what to do—"

"No! You saw what happened with Professor Dovey. We can't put the teachers in danger!"

"But Y/n wouldn't knowingly do any of this—"

"Wait until she does to you what she did to that wolf!"

Agatha wouldn't see Y/n the rest of the afternoon. With challenges complete for the day, their classes diverged until Forest Groups, so while Y/n had Female Talents with Anadil and Hester, Agatha hurried to History of Heroines with Dot.

"You can't be alone with her again!" Dot said as they neared the mass of girls filing into Good Hall. "Hide in Hester's room after classes!"

All Agatha could see was the wolf's gaping eye . . . its blood seeping towards her. . . .

She stopped against a sapphire column, gulping for air. "This is all because of my wish."

"No, this is all because you chose the wrong ending last time."

Agatha looked up at Dot's reflection in the polished glass.

"You heard Hester. Tonight's your last chance to do what your heart really wants," Dot said. "Or Y/n will be a villain forever."

Agatha's throat tightened, afraid to let the words out. "And if . . . if I kiss him?"

"She and Sophie will go home safe, with the villain and the witch locked inside."

Agatha said nothing for a moment. Finally she turned. "How do I escape guard duty tonight? The other girl will tell the Dean—"

"Will she?" Dot took her arm. "Just 'cause I'm popular and wear glitter doesn't mean I'm a better student."

"We're on guard . . . together?"

"If you haven't noticed, I've been failing every challenge worse than you. And I've been trying!"

Agatha looked at her, scared. "But even if I do escape . . . what if I can't get into the boys' castle?"

"You will."

Agatha felt the unspoken ending in Dot's grip.

Because our lives depend on it.

Good Hall had the same briny smell and humid haze as last year, its marble ballroom swathed in emerald algae and blue rust, like a cathedral that had been sunken in seawater. Chipped marble murals on the wall depicted the history of the Great War, ending in the triumph of the Evil School Master over his own Good brother. As Agatha sat down in the pews, she found it odd that the Dean hadn't changed the murals to reflect either the School Master's death or the Boy Eviction. Surely she'd want history revised in her own image?

Odder still, though History was the Dean's class to teach, she failed to appear at all, leaving Pollux fumbling before half the school.

"Our Dean had urgent business, so I offered to present a comprehensive review of Male Brutality through the ages, with pointed emphasis on the persecution of those who do not display conventionally masculine traits."

He pursed his lips. "But the Dean preferred you each introduce your lineage instead."

Agatha tried to focus on paths into the Boys' school, but found herself tuning in to the girls' introductions. All the students at the School for Good and Evil came from fairy-tale families. Agatha remembered that Hester's mother was the now-deceased witch who tried to kill Hansel and Gretel, while Anadil's grandmother was the notorious White Witch, who wore little boys' bones. But now Agatha also learned Beatrix's grandmother was the maiden who outwitted Rumplestiltskin and Millicent was the greatgranddaughter of Sleeping Beauty and her prince.