A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,165

she left because of him . . . that she loved you more—”

“Did she?” said a voice.

Rhian stopped cold.

Slowly he turned to see his twin standing against the wall of the corridor, bloody and beaten in his tattered suit of scims.

“Well, then. Give Mother my regards,” said Japeth, walking away.

He tossed something at Rhian’s feet.

A silver ring, stained with blood.

The king stared at it, his eyes wide and frozen, before they rose to Sophie. . . .

Then he went after his brother.

SOPHIE HAD ORCHESTRATED this, of course.

The moment she’d seen Japeth’s shadow and sensed that chill. She’d chosen her words to Rhian and made sure his brother overheard.

Witches knew how to start wars.

If all went well, Japeth would soon be dead.

Whether she let Rhian live or die, on the other hand . . .

Maybe that’s why the scene in the crystal cut off before she killed him. Before she buried Excalibur in his back. Because even the future didn’t yet know what would become of Camelot’s king.

Clouds brewed darker overhead. Sophie followed the boys’ voices to the catwalk between towers. She peeked around a stone column.

“I told you she’s dangerous,” Japeth boiled, his cheeks bruised in violet hues. “She’s the real snake.”

“I didn’t mean those things. Not in the way she said,” Rhian defended as he threw on a shirt, the two boys separated by a long length of stone. “Mother loved you. I love you—”

“You think I’m stupid. You think I didn’t know our own mother? I know she loved you more. I know what I am,” Japeth lashed. “What I didn’t know is that you’d trade me, your own blood, for the kisses of a wench.”

“You don’t know Sophie. Not like I do,” Rhian battled. “I told you she’d come back. She’s my queen, just like the pen said. That’s why she escaped the rebels. That’s why she betrayed her friends. She believes in me. She’s loyal!”

“Did you ask how she escaped?” Japeth attacked. “Or where the rebels are?”

“She doesn’t know,” Rhian returned fervently. “They’re always on the move. . . .”

Japeth smirked, letting him hear the echo of his own words. Doubt shadowed Rhian’s face.

“Your ‘queen’ is a liar,” said the Snake. “She won’t be happy until we’re both dead.”

A scim began to shriek, squirming over his mangled shoulder. Japeth lifted it off his suit like a butterfly, letting it softly babble in his ear.

The Snake’s eyes floated up to Rhian . . . then past the king’s shoulder.

“Come out, come out, little spy,” Japeth cooed.

Sophie’s heart leapt into her throat.

She knew better than to disobey.

Without a word, she stepped onto the catwalk.

“Brother?” Japeth said calmly.

The king glanced at Sophie, then at the Snake.

“Bring me her blood,” said Japeth.

Rhian returned an empty stare.

“You speak of loyalty? Look at my wounds! Look at what I’ve endured to get the last ring! For you!” Japeth scorched. “That was the pen’s promise. You get a queen and I get her blood. Forever. Now, bring it to me.”

Rhian flexed his jaw.

He didn’t move.

A scim launched off Japeth’s suit, tore across the catwalk, and slashed Sophie in the cheek, spilling blood onto her white dress.

Sophie screamed, repelling into the stone column and hitting her head. She grabbed at her cheek, her skull exploding with pain, blood slipping through her fingers.

Across the catwalk, the eel had returned to its master, dripping Sophie’s blood onto him, healing the Snake’s face to a smooth, flawless white and breeding new scims to sew up his suit. He gave his brother a venomous look.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, Your Highness. I’m going to go sit in your bath and by the time I get out of it, either that witch is gone from this castle or I’ll kill her myself. Magic blood be damned.”

He shot Sophie a lethal glare, then strode into the Gold Tower.

Rhian watched him go.

Slowly the king’s eyes moved back to Sophie, splotched with blood, flattened against the stone column.

“He’s the devil,” she gasped. “You have to fight him! You have to kill him!”

Rhian shook his head. “I told you. He’s my family. My family,” he gritted. “I can cure him. I can make him Good.”

“Good is about standing up to Evil!” Sophie blasted. “Real Evil, even if it’s your own brother! He drove your mother away from you. And now he wants to drive me away too. Past is Present and Present is Past. The story repeats until you change it. That’s what a hero does. That’s what a king does. You say