“What happened here happened everywhere in the Endless Woods,” Professor Dovey said gravely. “As your story spread like a plague and princesses imagined a world without princes, the men were magically ejected from their castles and left homeless. They appealed to witches to break the curse, but they too had heard The Tale of Sophie and Agatha. Stirred by the power of your bond, witches joined forces with princesses and took control of the kingdoms.”
“Witches and princesses are friends?” Sophie said in disbelief.
“No one thought it possible until your fairy tale,” said Professor Dovey. “And now it is men and women who are enemies.”
Agatha thought back to the Flowerground—the twittering women in groups, some pretty and cheerful, some homely and queer … the few scraggly, lonely males …
“But we don’t want the princes homeless!” Agatha cried. “We don’t want them to be enemies!”
“We certainly don’t want them to smell,” murmured Sophie.
“You made princes irrelevant,” Lady Lesso retorted. “You made them impotent. You made them obsolete. And now you’ve made them turn to a new leader for revenge.”
The girls followed her eyes to the sea of WANTED signs hoisted outside the gates, demanding Sophie’s head at the orders of this leader.
“The School Master!” Sophie broke in. “We saw him—”
“Did you now?” Lady Lesso sneered.
“He’s in the Evil castle! We have to kill him!” Sophie swiveled to Agatha. “Tell her!”
Agatha ignored the fluttering in her stomach. “But he couldn’t have lived,” she said, almost to herself. She looked up. “You were there too, professors. All of us saw him die.”
“Indeed,” said Professor Dovey. “But that doesn’t mean he isn’t replaced.”
“Replaced?” the girls blurted.
“Naturally Lady Lesso and I believed ourselves the best candidates,” Professor Dovey said, smoothing her gown’s beetle wings. “Homeless and hated, the princes needed leaders they could trust. We assured them The Tale of Sophie and Agatha was closed forever. Under our protection, the Storian would restore boys and girls to balance, as it does Good and Evil. But just as we tried to bridge this peace between boys and girls …” Her face dimmed. “Something odd happened.”
She thrust out the last page of their fairy tale and waited for the girls to say something.
“They drew Tedros taller than he is,” Sophie suggested.
“Isn’t something missing?” the Dean moaned.
Agatha remembered the storybook under her bed … the wedded princess and prince …
“‘The End,’” she said. “Why doesn’t it say ‘The End’?”
Professor Dovey glared at her and slowly lifted the book to the light. Beneath the last line of their fairy tale, the two girls could see faded ink spelling those very two words …
Before they had been erased.
“What happened?” Sophie breathed.
“It seems your book has reopened,” Professor Dovey said, guiding their eyes to all the other versions of their story splayed across the desk. ‘The End’ had disappeared off each of them too.
Sophie rifled through the pile. “But how can we lose a happy ending!”
“Because one of you wished for a different one,” Lady Lesso lashed, not looking at her. “One of you wanted a new Ever After. And now, one of you has put our school on the brink of war.”
“That’s ludicrous,” Sophie huffed. “I know I wanted to be a princess—but I can’t, can I? I saw what this place did to me and have no desire to spend more time in it, even if Gavaldon smells like horse bottom and has no endurable men. So if I didn’t make the wish, then surely it’s a mista—”
But now she saw who Lady Lesso was staring at, and her cheeks lost all blood.
Sophie slowly turned to her friend, shadowed in the corner. “Aggie, at the hollow, you said … you said you made a … That’s not what you meant, right?”
Agatha couldn’t look at her.
Sophie’s hands were trembling. “Aggie, tell me it’s not what you meant.”
Agatha tried to find words—something to redeem herself—
“All of this …,” Sophie gasped. “Everything that happened … is because of you?”
Agatha burned scarlet. She spun to Lady Lesso. “How do I fix it? How do I get Sophie home safe?”
The Evil teacher let the question dangle while she inspected her sharp red nails.
“It’s simple,” she said finally, lifting her eyes. “You must wish to end with each other, at the same time. Wish for each other and only each other, and the Storian will write ‘The End’ once more.”
“And we’ll leave the Woods?” Agatha pressed.
“Never to be hunted again—as long as your wish is true.”
Agatha let out a rush of air. “We can fix it.” She turned to Sophie. “We can get our ending back! The village won’t hurt us!”
Sophie backed away. “What ending did you want?”
“Don’t do this,” Agatha said.
“What else could you possibly want?” Sophie demanded.
“It was a mistake, Sophie—”
“Answer me.”
“Sophie, please—”
Sophie locked her gaze. “What did you wish for?”
“We can fix this now,” Agatha begged.
“I’m afraid you can’t.”
Both girls turned.
“The Storian must write ‘The End’ to seal your wish,” said Professor Dovey. “And at the moment, it is unable.”
“What do you mean?” Agatha flushed angrily. “Where is it?”
“Where it always is,” said Lady Lesso, scowling back. “With the School Master.”
“Huh?” Agatha said. “But you said he was replace—”
The flutter in her heart.
The face she couldn’t see.
Agatha slowly looked up.
“Who doesn’t want your ending sealed?” Lady Lesso purred. “Who wants a new ending to your fairy tale?”
She held up their story’s last page … a boy walking into fog all alone …
“Who heard his princess’s wish?”
Agatha whirled to the window. Lightning exploded over the School Master’s tower across the bay with a whip crack of thunder, and she saw the silver-masked shadow in its flash—
Golden hair, a body of muscle, a glinting sword sheathed …
The sky went dark, and he was gone.
Agatha felt faint. All the attacks … all the destruction …
“Him,” Sophie whispered, crumpling against the wall. “You wished for … him.”
Agatha searched for something to say, but one look at Sophie, curled up in a grubby pink heap, and she knew. There was nothing to say.