The Last Ever After. Soman Chainani

students.”

      Agatha and Tedros looked up at Princess Uma, studying them intently.

      “You should be asking why her grave is empty.”

      Uma circled her finger at the sky and the firefly cloud swept over their heads, illuminating the slope Agatha and Tedros were standing on. A bank of cracked and moldy headstones glowed in the alien green light, jutting from ragged black mounds.

      “Necro Ridge,” said Tedros. “It’s where the worst villains are buried.”

      “Sophie’s mother was a Never?” Agatha asked, disoriented.

      “Not according to our findings. The League of Thirteen has no evidence of a Vanessa of Woods Beyond attending the School for Good and Evil, being mentioned in a fairy tale, or having her body buried here at all,” said Uma, pocketing gooey gray meerworms off a tomb. “And yet, she has a grave amongst our most famous Nevers.”

      “You keep talking about this League,” Tedros rankled. “I’ve never heard of them—”

      “As you shouldn’t,” said Uma, even more unhelpfully than before. “Listen to me, Agatha. There are no words to ease the pain you’re in right now. But your mother died before she could give the League the answers we needed. Think back. Do you have any idea why Vanessa’s name is carved into a headstone on Necro Ridge? And where her body might be?”

      “I don’t see why we should help a League we know nothing about,” Tedros grouched.

      But Agatha’s head was still swimming. Her own mother, Callis, had moved between the two worlds as a witch without anyone in Gavaldon knowing, including her own daughter. And yet, her mother fit all the traits of a Never—unmarried, mysterious, reclusive … If anything, Agatha should have seen the clues. But Sophie’s mother? Sophie had spoken only rapturously of her mother, doting on her wicked, unfaithful husband until her dying day. There was no hint of her being anything other than a radiant, loving caretaker and wife. So how could her name be on a villain’s tomb? Agatha shook her head, at a dead end … until her eyes suddenly flared wide.

      “The Crypt Keeper will know!”

      Quickly she scoured the horizon for the blue-skinned, dreadlocked giant she’d learned about at school, responsible for digging and filling graves. “Hort said he buries everybody himself. Never lets anyone interfere. That’s why Hort’s dad’s been waiting for a coffin all these years. So the Crypt Keeper has to know why Sophie’s mother has a headstone here …” But the hills were deserted, except for a few hovering vultures nearby. She turned to Uma. “Where is h—”

      Agatha stopped cold, seeing Uma’s expression.

      Slowly Agatha turned back to the vultures.

      Lying on the ground beneath them was a massive, blue-skinned body crumpled in a spray of dirt. His bones were broken and his throat split open, the blood staining his neck long dried out. Agatha could see the whites of his wide-open eyes, as if the shock of dying paled to the shock of what killed him.

      Agatha felt Tedros squeeze her hand with his sweaty palm, telling her she hadn’t seen the worst of it. Dread growing, she tracked his gaze past the dead Crypt Keeper and across the 200 graves on Necro Ridge, marking the resting place of famous fairy-tale villains. But now Agatha saw why there were so many mounds of dirt, blacking out the grass. Every single one of the famous villains’ tombs had been dug up, the insides of all of them …

      “Empty,” said Agatha. “The villains’ graves are empty.”

      Legs shaky, Tedros gaped at the bodiless graves. “Red Riding Hood’s wolf … Jack’s giant … and a whole lot worse …”

      Agatha whitened, remembering who the wolf said they worked for. “And they’re all under the School Master’s control.”

      Princess Uma came up behind them. “For hundreds of years, Evil lost every story because Good had love on its side. Love gave Good a power and purpose Evil couldn’t match. But those happy endings held only as long as Evil wasn’t able to love. Things have changed, students. The School Master has found someone who loves him and who he loves in return. He’s proved Evil deserves a chance to rewrite its fairy tales. Now every old villain gets a new turn at their story. Every dead villain is reborn.”

      True love? The School Master? Agatha shook her head, trying to understand. How could anyone love him?

      Suddenly Agatha noticed Vanessa’s empty grave again and her heart seized. “Wait—Sophie’s mother … body missing … means she’s … she’s—”

      “She wasn’t buried here, remember?” Uma said, cutting her off. “We don’t even know if her body was buried at all. And yet, the Crypt Keeper saved this grave for Sophie’s mother amongst the famous Nevers—the Crypt Keeper, who answers to no one but the Storian itself. Why he saved a villain’s grave for her could be our greatest clue to understanding how the School Master came to choose his new queen.”

      Agatha felt a cold darkness rip through her stomach. She had a thousand questions: about her mother and her best friend’s mother, about letters and Leagues, about empty graves and undead villains … but only one mattered.

      “Queen?” she whispered, slowly looking up. “Who?”

      Uma met her eyes. “Sophie took the School Master’s ring. She is his true love.”

      Agatha couldn’t speak.

      “But … but we came to rescue her from him,” Tedros said, stunned.

      “And you must. But it will not be an easy task,” said Uma. “Sophie’s kiss may have brought him back to life—but it is his ring on her finger that makes the power of that kiss last. As long as Sophie wears his ring, the School Master remains immortal. And yet, there is a way to undo the kiss, children. A way to destroy the School Master once and for all. And it is our one and only hope.” Her voice was fiery, urgent. “You must convince Sophie to destroy the School Master’s ring by her own hand. Convince Sophie to destroy his ring and the School Master will be destroyed with it forever.”

      Agatha was still lost in a fog.

      “But beware,” Uma added. “While you seek your true ending to The Tale of Sophie and Agatha, the School Master seeks his too.”

      Tedros could see Agatha staring into space, no longer listening. “And what ending is that?” he asked.

      Uma leaned in, her soft features hardening. “The wolf and giant were no accident. War is coming, Son of Arthur. As long as Sophie wears the School Master’s ring, all of Good is in terrible danger, past and present, young and old. Either you and your princess bring Sophie back to Good … or Good as we know it will be wiped out forever. That is the ending he seeks.”

      Agatha’s heartbeat swirled in her ears.

      Once upon a time, she and Sophie had slain a deadly villain who’d torn them apart.

      Now her best friend had given her heart to that villain.

      “But he’s Evil. She knows he’s Evil … and Sophie isn’t Evil anymore,” Agatha breathed, looking up. “Why would she want to be with him?”

      “For the same reason you and your prince want to be with each other.” Uma gave her a wistful smile. “To be happy.”

      Agatha and Tedros watched the Princess circle her finger, extinguishing the fireflies, and hasten towards the dark Woods beyond the hills. “Quickly, Evers,” she said, snatching a few more meerworms off a grave. “It’s a two-day journey to school and we must get to Sophie before they find you.”

      Tedros frowned, lagging behind. “Before who finds us?”

      “Who?” Uma glared back, incredulous. “Whoever else was in those graves.”