Tedros was speechless.

“But now it’s time for all of us to face the truth. It’s time for the last Ever After,” Sophie pressed, cornering him. “Don’t you want to know who your princess is without a doubt, Teddy?” She stared into his eyes. “Wouldn’t your father want you to look closer one last time?”

Tedros’ turned away, gritting so hard she could see the bones of his jaw. “You know nothing about my father,” he said.

“Teddy, listen to me. I’ll leave Rafal, just like you ask,” said Sophie gently. “I’ll destroy his ring and commit my heart to Good forever. I’ll follow you and Agatha to your kingdom, fully accepting you might choose her and I’ll end up alone, the sidekick to your happy ending. All I ask of you is a simple promise: that you’ll give me another chance before picking your princess forever.”

Slowly Tedros looked back at her . . .

“Sounds like quite a deal,” said a voice.

They spun to the window.

Rafal glared at Sophie, Excalibur to Agatha’s throat.

But his expression wasn’t nearly as surprised as Agatha’s.

Hort woke up when he heard teachers’ muffled shouts upstairs. He couldn’t make out more than a few words: something about Aric attacked? An intruder on the loose?

His first thought was to check if Sophie was safe. Then he remembered she was in the old cretin’s tower, far away from the castle, and he’d been so good at not thinking about her and now wasn’t the time to regress.

He glanced at Chaddick and Nicholas asleep in their beds, handsome, beloved Everboys who girls once drooled over.

Hort smirked. Now the girls all wanted him.

He saw the way they goggled at his new muscles and flirted shamelessly in the hall, sizing him up like a lamb shank. He could have anyone at this school, Ever or Never.

And yet, as he leaned against the window, staring at the School Master’s spire over the Blue Forest, Hort found himself wondering what it would be like to live there with Sophie. The two of them, ruling all of Evil together . . . A hot, burning feeling edged through his body as he imagined her in his arms for a perfect kiss—

He flushed pink, smearing away sweat.

No.

She hurts you.

She only hurts you.

You don’t love her anymore.

Tearing his eyes away from the Forest, he clenched his teeth, sank to his pillow—and bolted back up.

A small pinpoint of gold glowed from the School Master’s window.

Not just gold. Buff, brassy gold, halfway between flaxen and amber.

He knew this because he knew everything about Camelot’s prince, down to the precise hue of his glow.

What he didn’t know is why that prince’s glow was in the School Master’s tower.

Tedros grabbed Sophie by the waist and held his glowing finger to her throat. “Hurt Agatha and I kill your queen,” he warned the young School Master, only to see Rafal press Excalibur deeper into Agatha’s neck.