Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 58

Merlin let out a piercing wolf whistle and with a rousing war cry two- hundred strong, the students leapt astride the birds and dive-bombed the birds off the trees, launching flaming arrows at the old villains—

Arrow blades ripped through their targets, igniting zombie bodies on fire.

Chaddick spiraled his stymph straight into the Dark Army, skewering three ogres with a single arrow . . . Beatrix managed a flying loop before she sparked fire to Snow White's witch with an arrow to the neck . . . Arachne took out a cyclops' eye with a straight shot and spinning dive . . .

I watched a fleet of Nevers spray arrows into more zombie heads, utterly flabbergasted. Neither stymph-flying nor archery was ever taught at school. How had students as bumbling as Brone or Mona or Millicent become bird-riding, weapon-firing warriors in a week?

But it was only when I saw Kiko, flying wildly with absolutely no direction, her hand puttering on her bow, unleashing an arrow miles off target, that I realized what was really happening. For all of a sudden, Kiko's stymph magically leveled and her arrow magically veered, before tearing through a troll's throat and setting him aflame.

Slowly I looked up to see Merlin high up in his tree, waving his palms like a symphony conductor, managing the stymph and arrow flights of his Ever-Never army with a sorcerer's touch.

He swished his arms once more and four unmanned stymphs with bows and fiery arrows in their mouths throttled towards the ground, scooping Hester, Anadil, Dot, and Hort onto their backs, who immediately began taking aim at zombie targets and letting arrows fly.

The old heroes were trying to charge into the fray, but were held back to the trees by Princess Uma, Yuba, the White Rabbit, and Tinkerbell, who knew even one of their deaths would break the Readers' shield. Meanwhile, Lancelot yelled for the wizard to help him off the tree, but Merlin was so distracted trying to orchestrate his army that he flicked his hand in the knight's direction and accidentally buried the sword deeper into his shoulder.

From the beginning, I had gone crimson with rage, firing spells at stymph birds and crashing them with their riders to the ground. I sensed something and froze still, before I turned and saw Agatha glowering at me . . . at the ring on my finger . . . her jaw set with determination. Slowly we locked eyes.

Then I sent a spell at her.

Then another, then another, until Agatha was stumbling backwards, further into the forest, blocking every one of my attacks.

Eventually, she gave up, and ran as fast as she could, dodging my spells as they flew at her.

Where was she going?

But then I saw it, through the gaps of skeletal branches overhead . . . the outlines of the two school castles.

The two of us broke out of the Woods and into a grove of purple, giant-thorned trees separating the Stymph Forest from the School for Good and Evil. The lethal-sharp thorns stirred languidly, as if woken from a deep sleep, and I knew Agatha only had seconds before they spotted her. Ahead, she was nearing the school gates.

Agatha hurdled and dodged thorns, feeling the ground caving in as more and more thorns smashed holes around her. A thorn sliced from the left and she slid beneath it, only to have one gash her arm from the right.

I slowed down.

I was the Queen of Evil. The school listened to me.

So why not let her onto my turf?

Agatha fumbled forward as the gates magically opened for her.

A thorn lashed down like a wave, about to impale her against the closing gates—