A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,145

it. You wouldn’t trust anyone to protect it but yourself. Especially not Robin Hood.”

The Sheriff met Japeth’s eyes. Sophie waited for the Sheriff to laugh . . . to show he’d outwitted his opponent . . . to prove Robin still had the ring, like he’d said. . . .

“Think you’re smart little arses,” the Sheriff spewed, reddening. “You and your brother. You’ll never win. Killin’ me won’t do a thing. Only the ruler of Nottingham can burn the ring. If I die, it goes to the next in line, and Dot ain’t burnin’ it, no matter what you do. Her friends will protect her—”

“I’m afraid your memory fails you,” said the Snake. “If you die, that ring transfers to your successor, who according to Nottingham law should have been your daughter, until you changed the law so that your successor would be Bertie, your jail attendant, instead. According to the Nottingham News, you did it in quite the fit of rage after Dot rescued Robin from jail. I take it you and your daughter have a spotted history? In any case, Bertie’s been basking at a new estate in Camelot, paid for by my brother. Which means Bertie will gladly burn your ring before your body makes it to a grave.” Japeth’s eyes flashed. “Betraying your own blood has costs, it turns out.”

The Sheriff roared and charged the Snake like a battering ram. The Sheriff hit him so hard that Japeth went flying to the ground, knocked out cold. In an instant, the Sheriff was on him, beating him with both fists, gashing open the Snake’s ghost-white cheeks, the Sheriff’s punches fueled by a fire so deep Sophie wasn’t sure he would ever stop. But something was moving on Japeth’s thigh: a single scim still wiggling . . . struggling to peel itself off the Snake’s suit. . . .

Sophie lunged too late—

The eel stabbed into the Sheriff’s ear.

The Sheriff screamed in pain, writhing onto his back and mauling at his ear spouting blood, before he finally yanked out the scim and tore it to shreds. He crawled to get up, but Japeth kicked him in the chest, then delivered a hammer blow to the Sheriff’s head with both fists, crushing him to his knees.

A blast of yellow light shot past the Snake’s head.

Japeth turned to see Kiko sprinting towards him.

Scims shot off his suit, aimed for Kiko’s face—

Sophie sprang to her knees. She fired a flare of hot pink glow that bashed into Kiko’s chest, blasting her like a cannonball into the darkness of trees.

It was the strongest stun spell Sophie could muster, powered with the resolve to keep Kiko alive. Wherever Kiko was, she’d be slow to recover, but hopefully Beatrix and Reena would find her before any of Rhian’s men did.

Meanwhile, the Snake had glimpsed the spell hitting Kiko and wheeled in Sophie’s direction, but he couldn’t see anyone there—

The Sheriff took advantage of Japeth’s distraction and clubbed him in the neck, throttling him to the ground. The Snake flipped over and kneed him in the groin, climbing on top of the Sheriff with lightning speed and pressing his hands to his throat.

Wrapped in snakeskin, Sophie scrambled to her feet, rushing for Japeth, another stun spell at her fingertips—

Then she stopped.

Or rather, something stopped Sophie.

Her dress.

It flayed at her body, the white lace hardening like a corset, tighter, tighter against her skin, burning hotter, hotter, until beneath the snakeskin, her white dress began to turn black.

What’s happening? she gasped, stuck in place.

The entire dress morphed as shiny and dark as obsidian, hugging her body like a second skin, the once white ruffles hardening, elongating, sharper, sharper, into spiny, needling . . . quills.

Sophie’s stomach dropped.

This dress.

She’d seen it before.

In a crystal.

The first time she went inside the ball: a vision of her clad in this porcupine dress as she climbed a tree.

She’d pooh-poohed the scene back then. The thought that she’d wear such a travesty. And not just that, but to wear this spiny-quilled dress in the middle of the Woods and then to start climbing trees—

Sophie’s eyes quivered.

Oh no.

Like a gale wind, the dress began moving Sophie towards the nearest tree, an invisible force so strong she couldn’t fight it. The dress dragged her up the trunk, so she wasn’t climbing as much as ascending, being pulled past branches to the top, where the quills of the dress gouged into the thick bark, securing Sophie in place like a straitjacket, far away from the Snake