The Last Ever After (52 page)

Don't give up
.

Cinderella's voice echoed inside of her like a heartbeat.

For the both of us.

Air slowly came back into Agatha's lungs. Her mentor was right. Either she helped her Good friends win this war . . .

Or she would die with them.

But first she had to get past that shield.

Steeling with determination, she sprinted towards the Woods. As she tore through town, she passed a father sending his wife and son up a ladder to hide in a chimney . . . a mother and daughter sealing themselves in a barrel . . . and one of the Elders, herding children into the schoolhouse, with Radley amongst them, balancing a fishbowl as he scooted inside. Agatha scanned the scattering villagers for Stefan or Honora, but there was no sign of either of them.

Hurtling past the mills and lake into grassy fields, Agatha started to hear the sickening roar of the war: clashing metal, crushing stymph bones, and girls' and boys' screams. Soon, she 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—but most of the war was still camouflaged by trees and the blue-black sky. As she got closer to the trees, Agatha began to glimpse small holes in the air: hundreds of them, each no bigger than a grapefruit. No one had ever seen the shield from inside Gavaldon, magically diverted before they could reach it, but Agatha could see the
gaps
in the barrier now, which meant she could figure out exactly where the shield was. Racing towards these holes,
she noticed that the colors outside the holes were brighter and more vibrant than the colors inside them, and for a moment, she marveled at how thin the line between stories and ordinary life really was.

Skidding up to the shield, she reached out her fingers and felt the bubbly, invisible surface between the holes. Before the war, each fairy tale that Evil had rewritten in its favor had punctured holes in the shield over the Reader World, just as it had punctured holes in Readers' faith in Good. But with Good's greatest heroes still alive, none of these holes were big enough to let the shield fall yet, nor let Evil pass into their protected realm. Which left only one question . . .

How am I supposed to get through?
Agatha thought, panicking.

Through the shield, she could see snatches of heroes past the trees, trying to hold the line against the Dark Army. If the villains pushed them back any farther, they'd have them cornered against the shield—

Suddenly, Agatha glimpsed a flash of golden hair and broad shoulders.

Tedros?

He was already gone.

There was no time to think about her prince. If she wanted to help him, she had to get through the shield and find Sophie.

Agatha refocused and reached a hand through a hole, probing its edges. Breaking barriers was a personal talent. She'd gotten through the one on Halfway Bay every time she'd tried;
surely she could get through this one too. But there was no gatekeeper to fool, nor any way to get through holes this small or—

Something nipped her finger.

Agatha recoiled in surprise and saw one of Anadil's black rats planted on the Woods' side of the shield, tiny claws clasping the edges of the hole for support.
“Rat #3,”
Agatha remembered, the only one still perky enough to get this far, for the other two had yet to recover from retrieving Dovey's wand and zip-lining chocolate fog. Now, Rat #3 tittered sternly at Agatha through the hole, ordering her to pay attention, before it started crawling through the hole into Gavaldon . . .

The instant its nose crossed the plane between the Woods and the Reader World, the rat was assaulted by a fiery shock that sent it flying to the ground.

Through the shield, Agatha watched Rat #3 jerking in the dirt, still alive despite the magical shockwave.

So the shield won't let it through
, she thought. She slipped her own hand through the hole again easily.
But then why does it let me?

Agatha shook off the thought.
What does it matter? The hole's still too small for me to fit int—

Something bit her again.

Agatha looked at Anadil's rat, who'd crawled up the shield again despite its obvious pain, and was still glowering at her. Agatha glowered right back. What did the little pest want—

She gasped.

Little.

It's showing me how to get through
.

Mogrify.

It wants me to mogrify.

And there was only one animal Agatha knew how to be.

Instantly she closed her eyes and visualized the spell, feeling her fingertip glow hot gold. In a flash, she shrunk to the ground, her clothes flopping on top of her, before she crawled out from under them, a skinny black cockroach. Antennae quivering, Agatha the Roach skittered up the side of the shield, leaving her clothes behind, and scooted through one of the holes, before she followed the rat down the side of the shield and into the Woods.

The second Agatha pattered through the first trees, a green fireball scudded past her, nearly incinerating her and the rat. Petrified, she chased after Anadil's pet, zipping through the war in full flight; but as a cockroach, she was so small that all she could see were crashing feet and falling bodies and the glow of flaming arrows and magical spells shooting back and forth above her. She needed to look for Sophie, but with all the fighting around her, she'd never find her as a bug—

An arrow sheared over her tiny carapace. Spooked, Agatha accelerated behind the rat, leading her intently towards a pine bush. Agatha motored through the bush behind him, pine needles pricking her thorax, and came out the other side. She stopped cold.

Handsome, dark-skinned Nicholas was facedown in mulch, a giant gash through the back of his head. As the roar of war echoed beyond the bush, Agatha gazed at the young
Everboy, her insides crumbling. Valiant, sweet Nicholas . . . dead? Because of
her
fairy tale? Sadness and guilt rushed through her, big bug eyes filling with tears—

Anadil's rat hissed.

Agatha turned to see it glaring at her and pinching at Nicholas' uniform.

It wants me to take his clothes.

There was no part of Agatha that could do what she was about to do, and yet she had no choice.

Don't think. Don't think. Don't think.

Sick to her gut, she reverted back to human form and forced herself to change into Nicholas' uniform, while she crouched behind the pine bush. As she shoved on his big boots and pulled on his cloak, the rat nudged over Nicholas' bow and quiver of arrows, which lay by his side. Agatha leaned in and touched her shaking hand to Nicholas' black hair.

Find Sophie
, she gritted.

Find her now.

From the rat, she took his weapon into hand and rose from the bush, suited in all black, her eyes darkening and jaw clamped. With a deep breath, Agatha plunged into war.

The air was so dark and foggy, filled with the smoke of flying arrows and burning zombie corpses, that at first she could only see shadows. Taking cover behind a tree, she squinted and made out Hort and Peter Pan twenty feet away, both trying to fend off Captain Hook with sticks, rocks, and whatever else they could find on the ground. Meanwhile, Tinkerbell frantically showered fairy dust over Hook, trying to fly him
away, but the Captain spun and sliced into her wing with his blade, sending Tink plummeting to the ground. As Tinkerbell crawled through the grass, looking for a place to hide, Hook stabbed harder at Peter and Hort. Hort tripped backwards over Peter's feet trying to defend him and Hook bashed him aside, bolting towards Pan—

Behind a tree, Agatha knew she only had one shot to save him. With her fingerglow, she lit her arrow tip on fire and aimed it right at Hook's heart. As he launched towards Peter Pan, hook ripping towards his neck, Agatha let the arrow fly—

It missed Hook's heart but speared his cheek instead, lighting his face on fire.

As Hook staggered back in surprise, trying in vain to put out the flames, Hort and Peter didn't even look to see who'd saved their lives. Both ran for cover, as Agatha watched Hook succumb to the fire and collapse into the dirt.

One down
. Even if it was by accident.

Agatha stepped out from behind the tree, another arrow drawn. She searched the trees for Sophie, but all she could find were more students and mentors trying to fight off zombie villains, who 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, steadily being pushed out of the trees towards Gavaldon's shield. The battlefield around them was littered with fractured stymphs, dead villains, and moaning students, nursing wounds and broken limbs.

Suddenly, in the far distance, Agatha 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—

Agatha bleached white. If she tried to shoot Aric from here, she'd have to be dead on-target or she'd hit Dovey instead. She'd barely even managed to hit Hook and he'd been twenty feet away. Instinctively she started dashing towards Aric, fumbling for an arrow, trying to get close enough to get a better shot. But it was too late. Aric raised his knife over Professor Dovey's throat, about to finish her. Agatha screamed—

From behind, Lady Lesso charged in and dove on top of Aric, knocking him off wounded Clarissa. Agatha choked with relief, but now Aric was on top of his mother, the two of them flailing for the dagger in the dirt. Agatha ran faster, trying to get within shooting range—

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. Agatha aimed her arrow from afar, trying to get a clear shot at Aric's head, but 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.

Agatha dropped her arrow and throttled towards Lesso and Dovey, thankful they were both safe—

Something crashed into Agatha and yanked her behind a tree.

“Where is she!” Hester barked over the chaos. “Where's Sophie!”

Agatha shook her head. “I don't know!”

Hester seized Agatha's shoulders. “Look.”

Agatha followed her eyes through the trees to a fleck of light, half-buried into the horizon.

“Ten minutes. That's all we have. You have to find Sophie—” Hester commanded.

“Where's Tedros?” Agatha breathed.

“Merlin's trying to keep kids alive as long as he can,” Hester said, pointing at the wizard, darting from wounded student to wounded student, treating their injuries with dust from his hat.

“Where's Tedros?”
Agatha pressed.

They heard a high-pitched scream and whirled to see
Pinocchio chased by twenty ogres and trolls across the Woods. Just as the villains snagged him, a horde of animals burst from the forest and slammed into the zombies, dislodging Pinocchio from their grip. Princess Uma swung down from a tree and pulled the old hero up to safety in its branches, alongside Yuba and the White Rabbit, while Uma's animal army fought the zombies below.

Another yell rang out and Agatha twirled to see Lancelot battling Rafal near the first line of trees. The knight's shoulder was drenched with blood, but he was deftly deflecting the young sorcerer's spells, despite his snarls of pain.

Agatha paled.

Tedros wasn't with him.

“Agatha, listen to me,” Hester hissed. “Hook's dead. Ani killed Briar Rose's fairy and I killed my zombie-mother, pretending like I was happy to see her. All that's left is Jack's giant, Riding Hood's wolf, and Cinderella's stepmother. We'll do everything we can to keep that shield from falling. But you have to find Sophie—”

“WHERE'S TEDROS!”
Agatha demanded.

“HE'S FINE. PRINCE LOSER IS FINE,” Hester lashed. “Lance is keeping him away from the School Master, all right?” She pointed across the forest at Tedros, brandishing Excalibur and barreling at ogres the way he once barreled at Lancelot on the moors, while Chaddick flew over the prince on a stymph, taking out wounded ogres with fiery arrows. “But you don't have time to help him or check on him or get anywhere near him, so don't even try it,” Hester berated. “We need you to find
Sophie
now
. Ten minutes, Agatha.”

Agatha met her eyes. “Ten minutes.”

“Hurry,”
Hester begged before running to help Dot and Riding Hood.

On a breath, Agatha tore in the opposite direction, eyes peeled for Sophie, as she leapt over fallen students and zombies. A boom echoed behind her and she spun to see Jack's giant fall to the ground, leveled by Kiko, Beatrix, and Reena who'd firebombed him from the height of the trees, while Anadil, Jack, and Briar Rose distracted him from below. Behind them, the wolf was advancing on Red Riding Hood, with Dot seemingly hurt on the ground. But just as the wolf's jaws closed over Red Riding Hood's head, Dot thrust out her glowing fingertip and turned the wolf's jaws to chocolate. His chocolate teeth sunk into Red Riding Hood, crumbling down to the gums. When he recoiled in shock, Hester had a fire-tipped arrow waiting for him.