But Sophie didn’t go to Rhian like she was supposed to. She hid behind the balcony wall and peeked around the edge. . . .
Agatha and Tedros stood together in silence, Excalibur hovering above their heads. In the distance, they could see Dovey’s magical barrier glinting green in the moonlight over the outer gates. Behind the gates, Camelot’s army walled off the drawbridge, while the three witches patrolled the temporary rope bridge. Beneath Agatha and Tedros, Rhian waited in the courtyard, right in front of the castle doors.
“I’m sorry, Tedros,” said Agatha, holding back tears. “I just was worried about Dovey and I got frustrated. I shouldn’t have sai—”
“You’re right,” said the king.
Agatha looked at him.
Tedros met her eyes clearly. “It’s why you tried to take over my quest. It’s why you’re always jumping in to help me. Let’s face it, Agatha. You don’t think I’m a good king. And the truth is . . . you’re right. Everything you said about me is right.”
Agatha reached out, searching for words. “Tedros—I . . . I . . .”
Shouts rose from the outer gates.
Agatha and Tedros turned sharply. So did Sophie.
There was movement on the rope bridge . . . shadows barreling towards the three witches in charge of defending it . . .
Then suddenly, Anadil, Hester, and Dot were fleeing back across it, onto the castle grounds, along with a crush of soldiers jamming onto the rope bridge, which swayed and teetered under their weight.
Tedros’ eyes flared. He sprinted past Sophie, calling for Rhian, Agatha chasing behind him— Sophie ran out onto the balcony and watched the rope bridge snap between the gates and the courtyard, sending dozens of soldiers plunging into the Savage Sea below.
Booms echoed nearby from the broken drawbridge, sealed between the gates.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The drawbridge smashed open, battered down by desperate soldiers, who stampeded across its splintered planks towards the castle. Sophie could see Reena, Beatrix, Hort, Guinevere, and panicked leaders of allied kingdoms bolting into the courtyard, along with the rest of Tedros’ army— Sophie gasped.
Because now she could see what everyone was running from.
Scims were stabbing the army from behind, razor-sharp at both ends, impaling bodies and then whipping around and spearing them through the front, like killing machines. They moved so quickly and brutally, each one with a life of its own, that the soldiers didn’t stand a chance. They fled in droves as scims slashed through Camelot’s defense, before the eels started veering sharply towards the castle.
Shell-shocked, Sophie looked up at Dovey’s shield over the outer gates . . . completely intact.
In a flash, Sophie was scrambling down the stairs, as soldiers’ screams tore through the courtyard, along with the scims’ searing shrieks— It’s impossible, she thought. The barrier over the gates . . . He couldn’t get through. . . . He was supposed to need an army. . . .
Which left only one explanation.
He didn’t need an army.
Because he didn’t need to get through the gates.
Sophie’s heart thundered.
The Snake had been inside all along.
28
AGATHA
The Princess and the King
Tedros met her eyes.
“And the truth is . . . you’re right,” he’d said. “Everything you said about me is right.”
Agatha struggled under his gaze, searching for words.
But a warning pounded in her head.
“I’ve already told you how this story will end. With your fairy tale shattered . . . With everything you thought true turned untrue . . .”
Six months ago, she and Tedros thought their story had ended. They’d been off to Camelot Castle, destined to restore it to glory as queen and king. Good had won, Evil vanquished, with the success of their quests a foregone conclusion.
But now they were atop that castle, admitting they hadn’t won after all. That their quests to be that glorious king and queen had failed, no matter how much they loved each other. The End wasn’t The End at all . . . but the beginning of something thornier, twistier, where every truth about her and Tedros’ love story suddenly seemed untrue, just like the Snake had promised.
Was this the final crack in her and Tedros’ fairy tale? A fairy tale that would shatter forever?
Were the Snake’s Lies really the Truth?
Agatha looked at her prince. “Tedros . . . I . . . I . . .”
Shouts exploded near the outer gates.
It happened so fast.
Drawbridge smashing down . . . the witches fleeing across the bridge . . . the scims stabbing soldiers from behind, before the eels turned and flew towards the castle . . .
“RHIAN!” Tedros yelled as he dashed from the balcony and down the stairwell to find his knight, while Agatha chased him, her heart slamming.
“Dovey’s barrier—it’s still intact—” she called out. “He was inside the gates all along!”
“RHIAN!” Tedros yelled again, leaping down stairs as he drew Lance’s sword from his belt.
How did the Snake get in? Agatha thought, trying to keep up with her prince.
But there was no time to think. She and Tedros dashed out of the archway and into the courtyard, only to see a slew of scims shoot for their heads— Someone tackled Tedros and Agatha to the ground, making the scims miss, before the eels circled around and savagely killed a dwarf right in front of them.
Agatha lifted her head from the dirt as Rhian grabbed her and Tedros and pulled them both into an archway behind a stone pillar, where Sophie was already hiding.
Across from them, Hester, Anadil, and Dot crouched behind a second column, with Beatrix, Reena, Nicola, and Hort’s man-wolf behind a third. Reena had a gash in her thigh, her shield dented. Hort let out a growl of pain as he ripped a spasming scim out of his calf muscle and crushed it in his hairy palm.
Agatha peeked out from the pillar to see the once-quiet field in front of the castle turned into a deathzone, with soldiers trampling each other across muddy grass, desperately seeking cover in the dark while scims stabbed them left and right. A Son of the Lion took a scim to the arm a few yards in front of Agatha before one of his friends yanked him behind a bush.
“They’re going to find us. All of us,” Beatrix said, watching scims easily take down a giant before they went off to search for fresh prey.
“We have to kill as many as we can,” Rhian urged. “The scims are his armor. We can strip it away. Kill enough of them and he’s nothing but flesh and blood.”
“We need fire! It’s the only way to kill them!” said Agatha.
“Where will we get enough fire to kill that many scims?” Sophie retorted.
Tedros jolted straight. “From oil.”
He spun to Rhian. “Cover me.”
Rhian took Reena’s shield and blocked Tedros as the two boys moved towards the courtyard. As soon as Tedros was out from under the archway, he tilted his head upwards and whistled between two fingers— Bogden and Willam peeped over the edge of a Blue Tower balcony, their bodies hidden behind a fortress of barrels.
“Use the oil!” Tedros called as Rhian smashed scims away.
“How?” said Bogden.
“How?” Tedros barked.