A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,166

you love me? You say you’re Good? Well, until you fight back, all I see is a coward. All I see is a fool.”

Rhian’s mouth trembled, his whole body slacking under the weight of his emotions. For a moment, he looked like a little boy. A little boy who’d had to make this choice many times before.

He steeled himself, his face a hollow mask.

“Take the carriage,” he said. “Leave here and never come back.”

He limped off the catwalk, Excalibur askew at his hip.

Then he was gone.

Sophie stood there, tasting her own blood in her mouth.

Waves of fury crashed and foamed through her.

To think she almost let that coward live.

No.

Rhian would die.

They would both die.

But how?

Japeth was taking a bath.

Rhian had surrendered to him.

The promised fight would never happen.

And she had nothing to replace it, no weapons, no plan, except a crystal in her pocket—

She held still.

Across her gashed face crept a wicked smile.

A crystal and a bath.

They were all the weapons she would need.

BY THE TIME Sophie neared the king’s bedroom, she could hear the bath running.

From behind a column in the dim hallway, she spied two pirate guards outside the doors, swords on belts.

Her eyes roved to the other end of the hall . . . and a massive chandelier over the foyer to the king’s wing.

Sophie’s finger seared pink—

She shot a flare, shattering the chandelier, spraying crystals in every direction.

“Whawazzat?” one guard pealed.

The two of them abandoned their post, sprinting for the foyer.

Quickly Sophie darted from behind the column and kneeled at the doors to the king’s chamber. Her cheek throbbed with pain, still dribbling blood onto her dress. Through the crack, she saw the bedroom empty, the door to the bath half-closed, the sounds of the tub filling behind it. She caught a glimpse of Japeth through the bathroom door. No sign of Rhian anywhere.

She slipped into the king’s chamber.

Pearl-gray skies glowed through the windows, illuminating the gold-and-crimson silkprint walls, the chairs carved with Lion crests, and the perfectly made bed, the gold-and-red curtains drawn back. She heard Japeth’s footsteps padding behind the half-closed door in the corner.

Treading lightly, Sophie crawled under the bed. She had to get Japeth out of the bathroom, long enough for her to sneak inside.

She’d only get one shot.

Raising her lit finger, she launched a flare into the closet, which detonated like a firecracker, collapsing all the racks of clothes.

Instantly, Japeth bolted out, still in his suit of scims. While he inspected the closet, Sophie slithered on her stomach through the door.

The king’s bathroom shimmered like a gilded mausoleum, with mirrors reflecting mirrors and Lion crests carved into every tile and tap. Steaming water gushed into a vast tub, perched on gold-sculpted lion claws, the bath nearly overflowing now. A separate nook for the toilet lay dark and tucked away in the corner.

Sophie glanced into the bedroom as Japeth emerged from the closet, frowning, and pulled open the doors of the king’s chambers, only to see the two guards missing.

“Idiots,” he murmured.

He headed back to the bath.

Heart rattling, Sophie seized the crystal from her dress pocket, said a silent prayer . . . and dropped it into the tub.

She ducked into the toilet nook as Japeth entered.

His suit of scims magically receded, revealing his frost-white flesh as he approached the tub and disappeared into the thick steam.

Without his spying eels able to detect her, Sophie breathed easier, safely concealed. Evelyn Sader’s dress swaddled tighter, nuzzling her reassuringly. As Japeth climbed into the bath, Sophie was surprised at how vulnerable he looked, the savage who’d murdered her friends nothing more than a slim teenage boy. Little by little, the Snake submerged into scalding water, letting out an ordinary gasp of pleasure and pain.

Sophie peeped out of the nook, waiting for it to happen.

Because if Rhian’s and Japeth’s souls were recognized by Dovey’s crystal, then they had the same powers as Dovey or her Second . . . which meant the moment Japeth sank into the bath, fished the crystal out from under him and looked into its center . . . all of which unfolded now as Sophie watched, her stomach in knots . . . then in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . .

Blue light beamed through the bath and Japeth sprung back in surprise, splashing water everywhere.

Slowly Japeth extracted the glowing crystal from the water and held it up to inspect it. Then he noticed there was something inside . . . a scene playing out