Agatha’s eyes were as big as saucers, her heart rattling against her rib cage. She glanced at Tedros, expecting him to be just as shaken, but he was curled up, asleep on the cloud, a trail of drool on his cheek.

Merlin pulled a wisp of cloud over the prince like a blanket and turned back to Agatha. “Why your mother fled to the world of Readers or how she got there we do not know. All we know is that just before her death, Callis sent a note with her cat, instructing the League of Twelve to protect you and help you rescue your best friend from the School Master. How Callis knew of the League’s existence remains a mystery to me. I would let you keep the note she sent us, but I myself never saw it, for it was intercepted by the wolf and giant who almost took your lives.” Merlin smiled wryly at Agatha. “But as I’m sure you know, Reaper is smart enough to read the contents of a note before he carries it.”

“Reaper?” Agatha breathed. “Reaper was . . . here?”

“He managed to locate Yuba in the Woods, who unfortunately didn’t speak a word of Cat. Luckily, Yuba had been hiding out with Princess Uma, who found the gnome after he’d barely escaped being burnt alive by Evelyn Sader. Once Uma translated Reaper’s message, Yuba urgently reconvened the League, with Uma added to the ranks, despite the others’ prejudice against youth and superstitions against thirteen as our final number.”

“Where’s Reaper now?” Agatha pressed. “Can I see him?”

“He’s away on League business, I’m afraid, which you’ll learn about in time,” said Merlin. “But that is where the story ends for now, Agatha, as it’s time for you to sleep.”

Agatha tightened. “But—”

“Any more questions will have to wait until the morning, my dear . . . except for two that I invite you to ponder in your dreams.”

Agatha looked up as Merlin leaned in, his dark eyes reflecting the stars.

“If your mother is the Never the Storian wrote about . . . if your mother is the Never who made it into a storybook . . . then why is it Sophie’s mother who has a villain’s grave in our world?” Merlin leaned closer, his face no longer friendly. “And if it’s your mother the School Master wanted, then why, after all these years, is it Sophie who’s the School Master’s queen . . . and not you?”

Agatha locked eyes with him as the cloud caved in beneath her and she plunged like an angel sent back to earth. Gasping, flailing, she looked up for Merlin, for Tedros, but her eyes were already closing, and soon she was lost to the dark, falling, falling, and never hitting ground.

15

The Magician’s Plan

Agatha dreamt of Reaper in the toilet, trapped in the bowl, unable to be pulled out. Her only choice was to flush him down and swim into the toilet after him, which seemed a perfectly logical choice at the time, so follow him she did, into swirling, funneling water, then a dim, snaky passage, and finally into open sea.