Soman Chainani - The Last Ever After

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First published in hardback in the USA by HarperCollins Children’s Books , an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 2015

First published in paperback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2015

This electronic edition published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2015

The School for Good and Evil: The Last Ever After

Text copyright © 2015 by Soman Chainani

Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Iacopo Bruno

Cover Design © HarperCollins Publishers 2015

Cover Illustrations © Iacopo Bruno 2015

Soman Chainani and Iacopo Bruno assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007502868

Ebook Edition © JULY 2015 ISBN: 9780007502851

Version: 2016-12-08

Now, in their love, which was stronger, there were the seeds of hatred and fear and confusion growing at the same time: for love can exist with hatred, each preying on the other, and this is what gives it its greatest fury.

T. H. White, The Once and Future King

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Part I

Chapter 1: The Master and the Queen

Chapter 2: After Ever After

Chapter 3: The New or the Old

Chapter 4: Death at an Execution

Chapter 5: A Princess Returns

Chapter 6: A Forest No Longer Blue

Chapter 7: Evil Is the New Good

Chapter 8: When Good Rescues Go Bad

Chapter 9: The Worst Evers Ever

Chapter 10: The Missing Thirteenth

Chapter 11: Appointment with the Deans

Chapter 12: Find the Spy

Chapter 13: Too Many Boys

Chapter 14: Where Wizards Go to Think

Chapter 15: The Magician’s Plan

Chapter 16: Edgar and Essa

Chapter 17: Missions Impossible

Chapter 18: Tedros in the Sky with Chocolate

Chapter 19: Old School Reunions

Chapter 20: Last Stop on the Fairy Dust Express

Part II

Chapter 21: Peer Pressure

Chapter 22: Everything Old Is New Again

Chapter 23: Two Queens

Chapter 24: Who Do You Belong With?

Chapter 25: The Scorpion and the Frog

Part III

Chapter 26: In Darkness Comes a Queen

Chapter 27: Rebel Hearts

Chapter 28: Who’s Helping Who

Chapter 29: Failed Assignments

Chapter 30: Apologies and Confessions

Chapter 31: Spies in the Stymph Forest

Chapter 32: The Meaning of Evil

Chapter 33: An Unexpected History Lesson

Chapter 34: The War of All Things

Chapter 35: Never Ever After

Read more School for Good and Evil

About the Author

About the Publisher

IN THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

A SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

TWO TOWERS LIKE TWIN HEADS

ONE FOR THE PURE

ONE FOR THE WICKED

TRY TO ESCAPE YOU’LL ALWAYS FAIL

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS

THROUGH A FAIRY TALE

t is natural to doubt your true love when you do not know if he is young or old.

He certainly looks young, Sophie thought, peering at the lean, shirtless boy as he gazed out the tower window, bathed in faded sunlight. Sophie studied his hairless white skin and snug black breeches, his thick spiked hair the color of snow, his tight-veined arms, his glacier-blue eyes … He didn’t look a day more than sixteen. And yet somewhere within this beautiful stranger was a soul older than sixteen—much, much older than sixteen. For the last three weeks, then, Sophie had refused his ring. How could she bond herself to a boy with the School Master inside of him?

And yet the more Sophie looked at him, the more she couldn’t see the School Master. All Sophie could see was a fresh, ethereal youth asking for her hand, with sharp cheekbones and full lips—more handsome than a prince, more powerful than a prince, and unlike Prince You-Know-Who, this boy was hers.

Sophie reddened, remembering she was all alone in this world. Everyone else had abandoned her. Every desperate effort to be Good had been punished with betrayal. She had no family, no friends, no future. And now, this ravishing boy in front of her was her last hope for love. Panic burned through her muscles and dried out her throat. There was no choice anymore. Sophie swallowed and slowly stepped towards him.

Look at him. He’s no older than you, she soothed herself. The boy of your dreams. She reached shaking fingers for his bare shoulder … until she suddenly froze in her tracks. It was only magic that had brought this boy to life, she thought, pulling her hand back into her sleeve. But how long does magic last?

“You’re asking yourself the wrong questions,” came the smooth voice. “Magic thinks nothing of time.”

Sophie lifted her eyes. The boy didn’t look at her, his focus on the sallow sun, barely a force through the morning fog.

“Since when can you hear my thoughts?” Sophie said, unnerved.

“I don’t need to hear thoughts to know how a Reader’s mind thinks,” he replied.

Sophie took her place beside him in her black cloak, feeling the chill off his marble-colored skin. She thought of Tedros’ skin, always sweaty and tan, with the warmth of a bear’s. A hot flash bolted through her body—rage or regret or something in between. She forced herself closer to the boy, her arm brushing his pale chest.

He still didn’t look at her.

“What is it?” Sophie asked.

“The sun,” he said, watching it flicker through the mist. “Every day it rises weaker than the one before.”

“If only you had power to make the sun shine too,” Sophie murmured. “Every day could be a tea party.”

The boy shot her a sour glare. Sophie stiffened, reminded that unlike her once Good best friend, her new suitor was neither Good nor friendly. She quickly looked back out the window, shivering at an icy breeze. “Oh for heaven’s sake, suns weaken in the winter. Don’t need a sorcerer to know that.”