A Crystal of Time (The School for Good and Evil The Camelot Years #2) - Soman Chainani Page 0,71

into the Trial by Tale your first year,” she said. “Check your fairy tale.”

Tedros frowned.

“Should have seen her in class,” Dovey murmured.

But now Tedros was thinking about that moment when he and Sophie went into the Trial together. At the time, he’d thought that the Trial was the biggest test he’d ever face . . . that Sophie was his true love . . . that Good would always win. . . .

Maybe I do need to check my fairy tale, he thought. Because while living it, he could never see it clearly.

The Trial was hardly a test at all, compared to what he faced now.

Nor did Sophie turn out to be his true love.

And Good didn’t always win.

In fact, it might never win again.

Panic rippled in his chest, as if the numb chill had worn off, his feelings rushing back. Agatha had come to save him. She’d given him a chance to fight for his crown. And somehow in the chaos, he’d gotten caught. Again.

Forget being king, Tedros thought. You can’t even get rescued right.

He should be at school. He should be at her side, plotting his revenge on Rhian. He should be leading the war to take back the throne.

Bogden sniffled. “We were so close. Willam and I had the royal carriage. We took the horses into the Woods, but we didn’t know how to get to school. Then I remembered Princess Uma taught my Forest Group to speak Horse, so I told the horses to take us to school. . . .” He cried harder. “They took us back to Rhian instead.”

“Horses are so disloyal,” Willam sighed, patting Bogden’s head.

“What exactly did you say to the horses?” asked Nicola skeptically, still working the lock.

Bogden mimicked a few grunts and a spirited neigh. “That means ‘go to school.’”

“That means ‘poo on my foot,’” said Nicola.

Bogden bit his lip.

“Explains a lot,” Willam mumbled.

Professor Dovey let out a pained gasp and Tedros turned to see her fingertip smoking, the skin raw. “Whatever shield Arthur put in place has had enough of me testing it,” she said, sitting wearily on a marble bench next to the pool. All of them looked terrible, but Dovey looked especially feeble, as if she’d never fully recovered from whatever her crystal ball had done to her. She let out a long sigh. “It seems Tedros is right about the room’s defenses.”

A second later, Nicola’s hair clip broke in the lock.

Aja and Valentina, meanwhile, were at the edge of the pool, poking at the rotten water with one of Valentina’s boots.

The sum of all this dithering made Tedros snap from his own stupor. Here he was, judging his teammates, when he wasn’t doing anything to help them. Meanwhile, Agatha had escaped, Agatha had gotten to school, Agatha had come to save him, Agatha had done everything, everything, everything. Had he done anything for her? Or anyone else? That’s why he was in this room to begin with. That’s why he’d lost his crown. Because he’d been so whiny, so self-involved, so entitled that he’d never stood up and done what a king was supposed to do: lead.

Tedros took to his feet. “Listen, we can’t use magic to get out of here, but maybe we can use something else.”

“Didn’t we just agree that there’s no way out of this room?” the Dean muttered.

“Then let’s make a way out,” Tedros resolved. “Does anyone have any talents?”

Professor Dovey sat straighter, suddenly alert. “Good thinking, Tedros! Aja and Valentina. You two are Nevers. What are you practicing in Professor Sheeks’ class?”

“I can climb guanabana trees,” said Valentina.

“Your villain talent, you goose,” Dovey snapped. “The one you practice in school!”

“That is the one I practice in school,” Valentina repeated.

Dovey pursed her lips, then turned to Aja.

“Heat vision,” said the flame-haired boy. “I can see through solid objects.”

“Can you see through this wall?” Tedros said eagerly.

Aja locked on the wall and its big marble bricks, each the size of a small window. “I see . . . a black pond . . . Sophie, looking so chic in white furs and a babushka, lost in thought as she feeds the ducks . . . probably coming up with a plan to save us. . . .”

“We’re in a basement,” Tedros growled. “There’s no ponds at the castle, let alone a ‘black’ one. And when I saw Agatha in her crystal ball, she told me your friends were rescuing Sophie from the church. She’s safe at school by now.”

Aja tossed his hair. “I