Never After (School for Good and Evil x Reader)

Chapter 59

Hurtling past tree after tree after tree in the Forest, I finally began hearing the sounds of war: clashing metal, crushing stymph bones, and girls' and boys' screams. Soon, I could make out a few faces, lit by the burning forest—Beatrix atop her stymph, still shooting arrows; Ravan fighting a troll, fist-to-fist; Kiko being chased by a zombie witch, handsome, dark-skinned Nicholas was facedown in mulch, a giant gash through the back of his head—but most of the war was still camouflaged by trees and the blue-black sky.

I have to find Rafal.

I plunged into the war.

The air was so dark and foggy, filled with the smoke of flying arrows and burning zombie corpses, that at first I could only see shadows. Taking cover behind a tree, I squinted and searched the the other trees for Rafal, but all I could find were more students and mentors trying to fight off the Good. The villains seemed to be exclusively targeting the famous heroes now: Gretel and Hester against the witch, Red Riding Hood and Dot against the wolf, Jack and Anadil against the giant. . . With every second, the Good heroes were losing more ground against their villains. The battlefield was littered with fractured stymphs, dead villains and heroes.

Suddenly, in the far distance, I glimpsed Aric rushing at Professor Dovey with a jagged knife. The old Dean tried to shoot him with a spell, but the young Dean was coming too fast. He tackled her to the ground, knocking her out cold. Gripping Dovey by her silver hair, he kneeled over her senseless body—

From behind, Lady Lesso charged in, recovered from my previous spell, and dove on top of Aric, knocking him off wounded Clarissa.

As Lady Lesso clasped the dagger, Aric punched her in the back of the neck and surged over her. His mother collapsed onto her stomach, but lurched forward, grappling Aric by the ears. Both flushed red, mother and son fighting for the knife, the gleam of metal swerving from one to the other, until Aric kicked it away. He and Lesso were both crawling madly towards the dagger now, jabbing and elbowing past each other. Lady Lesso swiped the blade first, but Aric leapt on top of her. His mother flipped over, clutching her son by the throat, their faces touching, the knife trapped between them—

Aric's eyes shot wide as he let out a stunned cry.

Standing over him, Professor Dovey stabbed a broken stymph bone deeper into his back.

Aric's big muscles went limp and he collapsed on top of his mother, blood seeping out of his mouth.

Lesso shoved her son off her, wheezing for breath. Flat on her back, the Evil Dean clutched Professor Dovey's wrist and smiled weakly at her best friend.

I swallowed back my relief at such a horrible human being killed and took off again, running past villains and heroes and death and life and pain and victory—

Until I saw the skyline of Gavaldon.

I ran, faster, past Graves Hill and the church and the market, desperate to find Rafal.

I halted when I spotted a throng of villagers.

Staring at the firelit battlefield, the oldest Elder quivered at the fore of the mob, too frightened to discern who was friend and who was foe. He held out his hands in surrender, backing against his people.

In front of them was Rafal. Tedros sat in front of him, bound and gagged.

I gasped and sped over. "Rafal!"

When he saw me, he broke into a large grin. "There you are, darling." He pulled me into his side and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I sighed with relief.

The Elder whimpered.

"Every four years you ripped our families apart. You took our children! Isn't that enough?" the Elder pleaded. "We'll do anything you want. Please don't kill us—"