Agatha could see the unswerving belief in Sophie’s face and her gut twisted deeper. Something was wrong. For how could she and Tedros be The End if everything in her heart told her she’d never make a queen to Camelot, while everything in Sophie’s heart told her she would?

Maybe that’s why she and Tedros never sealed their happy ending, Agatha thought. Because something was broken between them. And maybe that something couldn’t be fixed. Because that something was . . . her.

“Mmmm, now it’s getting interesting, isn’t it?” said a chilling voice.

All eyes went to the young School Master, his sensual lips in a twisted grin.

“Evil’s queen, ladies and gentlemen, still vying for Good’s throne,” Rafal said, Excalibur’s blade reflecting him. “But trust her at your peril, because in the end, she’ll end up right back here, my ring on her finger, her heart belonging to me.”

Sophie felt his placid stare and sweat trickled down her side.

“You don’t know what will happen any more than we do, Rafal,” said Agatha, still looking at her best friend.

“You’re trying to talk reason to a murderer?” Tedros blurted.

Agatha’s eyes never left Sophie. “Maybe she’s right, Tedros. Maybe we have to think twice about our happy ending if we’re ever going to find it.”

Sophie looked at Agatha, stunned.

Tedros brightened instantly. “Wait . . . Agatha, you’re saying that you’re okay with Sophie’s terms? That you get what I’m proposing? That—”

“—we question our happy ending, Tedros, just like you said,” spoke Agatha, still looking at Sophie.

“That we all wipe the slate clean,” Sophie said eagerly, looking at Agatha.

“The three of us,” said Agatha. “This time with no secrets, no hiding, no guilt. We go in with eyes wide open and let the truth lead us to The End. That’s the only way we’ll know how each of us can be happy.”

Tedros glanced between them, baffled. “Okay . . . this got a little deep for me . . .” He smiled lovingly at Agatha. “But I knew you’d understand.”

Agatha smiled back at him sadly.

He couldn’t see she meant it for real.

Midnight tolled from distant castles, a deadline come and gone.

Agatha took a full breath, looking at her prince. “To new beginnings.”

Tedros smiled at his princess. “New beginnings.”

They both turned to Sophie.

Sophie smiled at Tedros. “New beginnings.”

The three students’ eyes held for just a moment . . . then all at once moved to Rafal.

The young School Master’s smirk vanished. In a flash, he seized Agatha tighter to the sword, about to slice her throat—

“Now!” Tedros yelled.

Sophie shot Rafal’s hand with a scorching pink spell and he dropped Tedros’ sword in shock. Agatha caught it and rammed the hilt into his gut, sending him reeling into a bookcase, which crashed on top of him along with hundreds of colorful fairy tales. Agatha flipped Excalibur to Tedros, who slid the hilt into the back of his shorts, the flat of the blade against his spine. Instantly he, Sophie, and Agatha sprinted to the window and climbed onto the ledge—