hurled by Wesley as he surged out of the church. The witch lunged back in pain and her stymph bucked, throwing Anadil off its back.
“Ani!” Hester screamed. Her demon raced to save her friend, but Anadil was falling too fast, her arm outstretched and about to hit the ground first, the dagger in it sure to sever through—
A new stymph scooped under her and Bodhi and Laithan seized Anadil into their arms, swinging her up on their bird. The two boys were still in their choir uniforms, their faces and shirts spattered with black eel goo. More stymphs appeared in the fog behind them, carrying Sophie’s friends. Two . . . then four . . . then five . . .
“Help me!” Sophie yelped, hope swelling. But these stymphs were too far into the fog for her to see the riders yet. She jumped and waved at them. “Please! Someone! Anyone!”
But now arrows were streaking towards these stymphs as pirates galloped down from the castle on horseback, bows raised. Spooked, the stymphs veered away from Sophie, retreating into the fog. Beeba and Thiago rose upright onto their horses, balancing feet on the saddles, taking shots at Hester’s and Kiko’s and Anadil’s heads, as Sophie’s friends ducked and swerved, arrows soaring through the gaps in the stymphs’ ribs.
“Help! Save me!” Sophie screeched at them, leaping uselessly at the stymphs as her friends tried to maneuver towards her.
More and more arrows flew as pirate guards poured out of the church, firing at the stymphs in the sky. Beatrix, Hester, Bodhi all tried to dodge and make one last dive for Sophie. But the onslaught was too much. Looking stricken, they had no choice but to flee en masse, away from the church, away from Camelot, and away from Sophie.
Sophie’s heart plunged. She swiveled back to the castle, but the silvery fog was dissipating, with no more stymphs to reveal. Tears flooded her eyes. She’d been left behind. Just like she’d left Bert and Beckett, who were surely dead by now. She didn’t know why she was crying. She deserved her fate. She deserved to be punished for her selfishness . . . punished for the bad deeds she couldn’t help doing . . . punished for being herself. . . . That’s why her story could never change, no matter what pen wrote it—
“Sophie!” a voice blared from above.
She raised her head to see a stymph throttling out of the fog through a hail of arrows, a shirtless boy reaching out his hand to grab her, his face veiled in mist, his hair white as snow. . . .
Rafal?
He ripped through the fog—
No.
Not Rafal.
Time seemed to slow, her heart pumping hot blood, as if it was the first time she’d ever seen this boy, even though she’d seen him a thousand times before. Only she’d seen him differently all those times . . . not like she was now . . . as a prince who’d patiently saved her again and again and again, until she finally had the sense to notice.
She thrust her hand into the sunlight as he flew down, his hair coated with white rubble, his face and pallid chest streaked in scim wounds, his fingers stretching out to clasp hers—
“Got you!” Hort said, starting to tow her onto his stymph.
Holding him tight, Sophie climbed towards him. . . .
But then she froze cold.
So did Hort, following her eyes.
So did the pirates, who lowered their bows in shock.
High over Camelot’s castle, the dissipating fog had congealed into a giant bubble with a girl’s face trapped inside of it, levitating like a ghost. The dark-haired girl was magnified as if reflected by curved glass. Behind her stood an army of students and teachers in the uniforms of Good and Evil, framed by a school crest on the wall. The girl gazed down at Sophie with big, glistening eyes.
“Agatha?” Sophie choked.
But her friend was already vanishing into the sky. “I couldn’t free them all,” Agatha rasped, pressing her hands against the fading bubble. “There’s some left, Sophie. I don’t know who. I tried to save them—I tried—”
“Agatha!” Sophie cried.
It was too late. Her best friend had disappeared.
Yet Agatha’s voice seemed to linger, echoing in Sophie’s head. . . .
There’s some left.
There’s some left.
There’s some left.
She felt Hort shake off his daze and clutch her tighter. “Hurry! Get on!” he yelled, yanking her towards his stymph—
Only Sophie’s face had changed, her body already pulling away from him. Hort’s eyes widened, seeing what