A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,168

softly against the tile.

He pulled open the bedroom door.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“Mmmm?” Rhian answered sleepily, Sophie unable to see the king from her hiding spot.

Japeth stepped into the room, out of Sophie’s view. “The girl. Where is she.”

“I told you. Gone—”

“Liar. Your little she-wolf never left. You made me think that you gave her up. That you chose me. But she’s been here all along. Waiting for you to get rid of me.”

“What are you going on about—”

“WHERE IS SHE!” Sophie heard Japeth roar. “You think she’ll love you? You think she’ll be your beloved queen when I’m gone? She’ll murder you in cold blood the second you kill me.”

“Kill you? Did a scim cut a hole in your brain?”

“I see through you. I’ve always seen through you. I’ll find her myself!”

Sophie heard the familiar shhhppp! of scims scudding off Japeth’s suit and the sound receding as they sprayed into the castle, hunting her.

“You really think she’s here?” Rhian retorted angrily. “That I’m hiding her?”

“I know what I saw.”

“Saw what? Saw where? Search the castle all you want. She’s in a carriage, halfway to Gillikin—”

Sophie slid out from her nook, crawled along the bathtub, and scrunched into the tiny triangle of space behind the door. She peeked between the hinges.

“You’ve always chosen others over me. Me, your own blood,” Japeth hissed at the king, who was on the bed in his rumpled blue-and-gold suit, the belt with Excalibur strewn aside. “And yet, I choose you over and over and over. I kill for you. I lie for you. I sack and pillage kingdoms for you. I do everything for you. Rhian, the Good. And me, the Evil monster. Me, who can never love. And yet, when I did have love, the one and only time in my life, you destroyed it.”

“Here we go,” Rhian moaned.

“I had a friend. The only friend I ever had,” Japeth said, quivering with emotion. “A friend who made me believe I wasn’t so Evil after all. And you took that friend away.”

Rhian sprung to his feet, scowling. “That’s not true—”

“You voted with the others to banish him! You voted to dump him in the Woods like a dog!”

“He tried to kill me!” Rhian thrashed, clutching at the scar on his skull. “He put a dagger in my head!”

“’Cause you said things about him! About him and me! About our friendship!”

“Because he was a monster! A sadist with no soul! And you were too blind to see it. Cozying up to him and following him around like a dog. Siding with him over me. Like he was your brother. Or more than a brother—”

“He was my friend! My best friend!” Japeth screamed. “And the Dean put his expulsion to a vote and if you’d voted for him to stay, if you’d forgiven him, everyone else would have too! They would have listened to you! The Good forgive. And they thought you were Good. I thought you were Good.” Tears soaked Japeth’s eyes, his voice a child’s. “You made my friend leave. Just like you say I made Mother leave. But Mother left by choice. You had my friend banished. I never saw him again. Because of you.”

“You think he deserved forgiveness? Your brother’s would-be murderer?” Rhian blasted. “He wouldn’t have rested until I was dead! I saw it in his eyes. Those hateful, violet eyes. He wanted you all to himself. Disgusting animal. Deserved what happened to him. And I never said you made Mother leave—”

“Lies. More lies. I know what you think of me. The same thing she did. That I can’t love. That I’m a disgusting animal,” Japeth wept. “You were just waiting for an excuse to get rid of me. And now you found it in a girl. A girl you think loves you, when I can see the truth in her eyes. The truth that she wants you dead.” Japeth smeared at his face. “It’s the same way you and Mother looked at me.”

“Don’t say things you can’t take back,” Rhian assailed. “You’re my brother. My family. I love you. And Mother loved you too. That’s why I’m bringing her back to life. For you. Because you want a second chance. Because we all want a second chance.”

“Right,” said Japeth quietly. “Funny that.”

The tears stopped.

He raised his eyes, red-veined and raw.

“You assumed it would be her. All this time. But you never asked me who I would bring back to life with my wish. You just presumed. That she was the