Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 54

I didn't know where I was going; I just had to get away from that house. Clumping across the moors in steel-blue twilight, I took a long, full breath and noticed, for the first time, the air was warm. Gone was the raw winter chill, replaced by a humid breeze.

Nothing loomed ahead except flat, lucid evening and sky maps of stars and I knew I could go on walking, forever and ever, never finding an end.

I slowed to a stop and took a seat. I peered back towards the house. Beyond it, animals commingled, with a few pigs amongst the sheep and cows, while horses chased each other in the moonlight.

That's when I saw them. Two figures by a small oak grove. One with gold locks and the other with a head of thick black hair. Agatha and Tedros.

A sick, primal loneliness reared its head. Slowly I let it in, holding it, studying it as it clawed at my heart like a monster at the door.

I longed to be back home with Rafal. Lying in his hold at night, catching him staring at me with those glacier blue eyes, flying over the bay with him.

When the first tear fell, it was like a dam had broken.

I wept and wept, lamenting all that I'd lost. A kingdom, a purpose, a love.

"I'm sorry, Rafal," I whispered into the night sky.

Pain flooded my heart. I closed my eyes, unable to breathe, as if I was drowning—

"Heard I took you to the Snow Ball and didn't even know it," a voice said.

I turned to see Hort, barechested in long underpants, his hair dripping wet.

Maybe it was the red in my cheeks from crying, but Hort awkwardly covered his chest. "Uh, she's washing my clothes," he mumbled.

I looked away from him, wiping my eyes. "Why are you even here?"

"Where else would I go? Into the forest with Tinkerbell? Yeah, no thanks."

"I mean here!" I exploded, jumping up and whirling to him. "What the hell made you jump into that cloak with us back at the School for Evil?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yeah. It does."

He stared at me for a long time. Then he sighed. "Fine," he said. "I came with you because I wanted to make sure you were going to be okay."

I wasn't sure how to take that. Hort had never shown any interest in me first year. Hell, we'd barely talked at all. And second year I was a completely different person, someone he thought was his best friend.

"Well I'm not," I said. A single tear escaped past my lashes. I didn't wipe it away.

I started walking away.

"I found something you won't believe."

I stopped walking and turned.

The weasel flashed a wicked grin. "Want to see?"

***

"What is it?" I asked, trying to track Hort's muscled frame in the dark. "What'd you find?"

"You'll see. You all think I'm such a weenie. Big mistake," said Hort, itching at his long underpants as we treaded deep into the oak grove. "Huge."

"This doesn't involve you turning into a werewolf, does it? You never last more than ten seconds—"

"Man-wolf. And it's better than that. Trust me. Besides, haven't practiced my talent in a while, so I only last five seconds now. I don't get it. How do other man-wolves last so long? Is there some special diet or potion for stamina? I asked Professor Sheeks, but she sent me to the Doom Room for being cheeky."