A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,144

real villain was about to get away. Sophie struggled to keep up, losing ground. The Sheriff was clawing up the last group of gnomes, reaching out his meaty palms and forcing open the heavy stump, the chill of the forest flooding the hollow. With a snarl, he thrust his big belly and hips out the hole, letting the lid fly closed. Gasping, Sophie swung between gnomes, her soft slippers dancing on their shoulders. She dove for the last sliver of moonlight—

Brisk night air kissed her face before she yanked her last leg through and the stump slammed shut.

THE WOODS WAS silent.

Sophie lay only a few inches from the Sheriff, flat on her stomach, but he couldn’t see her with the snakeskin coating her body. She stayed dead still as the Sheriff rose to his feet.

“I know you’re out there,” he growled, his eyes roaming the darkness, weakly lit by the stump’s fireflies. “Hiding like the coward you are.”

A leaf crackled—

The Sheriff spun.

Kiko froze, her rosy face and pigtailed hair painted in moonlight. “Beatrix and Reena heard noises and went to investigate and left me on guard, but I had to pee so I did it over there because those fireflies on the stump watch everyth—” She stopped.

The Sheriff had a finger to his lips.

“Hide,” he mouthed.

Kiko ducked behind a tree.

The Sheriff listened closer, the silence widening around him. He prowled forward, his boot about to crush Sophie—

Then his eyes chilled.

Slowly, he turned around.

Japeth snaked out of the shadows, the orange glow of the stump reflecting in his scaly black suit like flames.

“Clever, clever. Giving Robin Hood your ring so he could sneak into the Council meeting undetected,” the Snake said, face unmasked. “But why? What did he do there? Leave a message for a princess, perhaps?”

He held up his eel-covered hand, the scims pulling apart over his milky skin like ants fleeing a nest, revealing a blank card in his palm. Japeth bit hard into his own lip, drawing blood. Then he dipped the tip of his finger in the blood and streaked it across the parchment, the blood countering the magic, making words visible.

The Sheriff didn’t flinch.

“It had to be your ring that Robin used, because Robin doesn’t have a ring,” Japeth pointed out. “Sherwood Forest left those duties to Nottingham, where the forest lives. Ironic, isn’t it? Robin Hood, a subject of his mortal Nemesis? Which means it’s not Robin who can save the day this time. It’s the dear, misunderstood Sheriff.”

The Sheriff snorted. “So that’s why your brother sent his half-wit pirates to kill me in Nottingham. Thought they could get my ring. Got some smashed bones instead.”

Sophie’s heart shuddered so hard under the snakeskin she thought it’d fly off. So I was right about Robin having a ring, she thought. Only it wasn’t Robin’s. That’s why Reaper wouldn’t let the Sheriff fight. He was protecting the Sheriff. He was protecting his ring.

“Only three rulers still wear their rings. Three out of a hundred,” said Japeth crisply. “And when tonight’s attacks on two of those kingdoms are over, those three will be down to one. You, the last man standing.”

“And so here you are to kill me,” the Sheriff grinned.

“Didn’t think it’d be so simple, to be honest,” said the Snake. “I thought I’d have to kill Agatha, Tedros, and all the rebels to get my chance at you. Figured once you knew my brother was onto you, your friends would hide you well—”

He saw the Sheriff’s face twitch.

“Ah, I see. They don’t know you’re here. They don’t know you left your hiding place to come and fight me,” Japeth mused. “Pride is the deadliest sin.”

“Oh, there are deadlier ones,” said the Sheriff. “Killin’ a fairy godmother. Stealin’ the Lady of the Lake’s powers. Playin’ henchman for a lying mongrel.”

Japeth’s eyes slashed through him. “And yet, the Lady of the Lake kissed me. The Lady of the Lake wanted me. That’s how I stole her powers. Would Good’s greatest defender fall in love with a henchman?”

The Sheriff had no answer. Neither did Sophie, trapped on the ground.

“Let’s see it, then,” Japeth ordered. “Show me your ring.”

“Robin still has it. You’ll have to fight him for it,” the Sheriff replied calmly. “Good luck surviving in Sherwood Forest. Bet my boots you won’t.”

“I see,” Japeth cooed. “It’s just . . . I don’t believe you. I’d bet my boots, as you say, that you wouldn’t let that ring out of your hands, now that you know my brother’s after