Stunned, Stefan looked up and saw a shield streaking down from the sky—

Agatha felt Sophie’s hand on hers, pulling her away from him.

“No. Stay with us, Sophie . . . ,” Stefan begged, fading faster. “Stay with your family!”

“I love you, Father, but you have a new family now,” said Sophie, eyes glistening. “The one you always deserved. The one that will make you truly happy.” She held Agatha closer. “I have a new family too. One that can finally make me happy. So don’t worry about me, Father. Please. Don’t look back. Never look back.”

“No . . . Sophie, no . . .” Stefan lunged out a hand for his daughter as the shield slashed between them—

“Wait!”

Light slipped through his fingers.

He was gone.

35

Never Ever After

Sophie rose early to watch the sun.

Wrapped in a wool blanket, she leaned over the rooftop balcony of Merlin’s Menagerie, surrounded by leafy sculptures of her best friend’s love story and gazed out at the brilliant fireball amidst purple shreds of sky. She’d forgotten what the sun looked like, so full and strong, brushing across her like a warm, gold kiss.

In the dawn light, she could see the glittering blue glass towers of Honor and Valor beneath her, the pink towers of Purity and Charity connected by a colored breezeway, and across the bay, the jagged black castles of Malice, Mischief, and Vice. The School Master’s death had restored the School for Good and Evil to balance, even though both the lake and moat sides of Halfway Bay continued to belch with noxious green fog. Merlin insisted the condition would resolve on its own, once Evers and Nevers resumed their classes and the magical wave responsible for sorting students began its rounds.

It had taken the wizard and Tinkerbell most of the night to fly the School Master’s tower from the Blue Forest back to its rightful place between the halves of the bay. For one thing, Tink’s aging fairy dust moved the structure slower than a snail would; for another, Tink was still adjusting to the new wing Merlin had made for her out of a blue butterfly he’d found in the Dean’s office.

The wizard had yet to remand the Nevers to Evil’s castle, preferring they all stay together for the night in the comforts of the Good dormitories. Once the Good and Evil teachers were freed, the faculty spent most of the evening treating injured students and heroes, while the rest of the Evers and Nevers had a full supper of turkey meatballs, carrot-ginger soup, green herb salad, and raspberry pie, catered by Merlin’s hat. If any of the Evil teachers resented the loss of their School Master or having been sealed in their rooms during the war, none of them showed it—perhaps because they saw the extent of the wounds suffered in battle, or more likely because Lady Lesso’s death meant one of them would be chosen the new Dean of Evil. With the School Master gone and Lady Lesso unable to choose a successor, it was soon widely presumed that Professor Manley would take her place. (He’d already spent the night redecorating her office.)