The Lady's Secret (School for Good and Evil)

Someone else in the Tower

Agatha- if it was possible- went even paler. Rhian was climbing the tower right now. He was coming.

She didn't know what to do, but Evelyn seemed to sense that. She used it as a chance to break free from Agatha's wavering grip.

As a cry escaped her, Agatha's arm twisted backwards with a painful jolt. She clutched her shoulder, reaching out for Evelyn as if keeping her away from her son could somehow let Agatha have a chance- if just a hope- of winning.

"He's coming!" Sophie shouted again, catching onto the fact that this man was not one she wanted to hang about. "Aggie!" her voice screeched through the tower.

Agatha lunged towards Evelyn, but the School Master swerved and instead of tackling her to the ground, Agatha ran face-first into an enormous bookcase. Pages rained down on her, all fairytales written by the pen still struggling in Sophie's grip. Agatha was just lucky the shelf had fallen to her left and not on her, smashing her to death.

"AGATHA!" Sophie's voice rang through the tower once more, a warning that Rhian was getting closer and closer by the second.

As she emerged from the ruins and ripped pages of books, something shiny caught her eye. A sword. Agatha smiled; she had a plan.

She snatched the sword from the ground, reveling at how sharp the tip was. Agatha swung upwards, launching herself to her feet, just inches in front of Evelyn.

The School Master took a step back and her butterflies swarmed around her, forming a cocoon. For the briefest of moments, Agatha wondered how far the butterflies' loyalty went. If she threw the sword would they duck for cover and save themselves or would they stay strong, protecting their master?

Only one way to find out, Agatha thought as she readied herself to throw the sword. But loud footsteps stopped her dead in her tracks.

Rhian hopped down from the windowsill, taking in the scene: his mother, standing weak with only a cocoon of butterflies surrounding her. Agatha, with her sword, ready to strike. And Sophie, struggling to keep the Storian in her hands and a look of horror and utter confusion splayed across her face.

Rhian smiled. "Mother, you wouldn't happen to need a bit of assistance, would you?" He pulled his own sword out of his pocket, letting Agatha get a glance at the shinier, bigger, sharper metal in his hand before he swung it upwards and the fallen bookcase split into two.

"I'm doing just fine, thank you very much," Evelyn took a step backwards. Agatha smiled; she was just working herself into a corner that she wouldn't be able to escape from.

"Really? Cause it looks like," Rhian hacked at the bookcase again, "you need me."

"I do not!" Evelyn screamed, her voice piercing through the tower. The blue butterflies started flying away from her, swarming the room faster and faster until all Agatha could see was the blue of their wings, carried by the anger of their master.

Then, it stopped. Rhian stood before her, sword pointed straight at Agatha just as hers was pointed at Evelyn.

Rhian smiled. "You think you can beat me?"

Agatha was silent for a moment, then with defeat in her voice-

"No," she breathed as she took in the gleaming sword about to impale her. Then, her face changed. "but I think she can."

Sophie stood behind Rhian, her pink fingerglow to his neck and the razor-sharp edges of the still-writhing Storian mere inches from cutting into his flesh.

"You think you can beat me?" she mocked. "I don't even know who you are and I already hate you."

"Well, you haven't been too friendly yourself," he hissed, then recoiled when Sophie brought her glow closer.

With a flash of pink, Evelyn and Rhian were struck by a stun spell on the tower floor. Agatha hauled them to opposite corners while Sophie tied them tight with rope so they wouldn't be able to escape even once they woke up.

After a moment or so, the School Master jerked awake, once again struggling in a rope confinement.

Agatha could tell just by watching Evelyn that she wasn't really scared. The nervous shaking of her body was to hide her excitement; the look of horror on her face from being trapped was to mask the smile that was about to break through. The School Master knew something they didn't. Evelyn kept eyeing the fairytale the Storian was writing, her eyes shifting to the written paper as if she were reading it. Agatha narrowed her eyes, straining to read it, but then-

A loud thump sounded from the window. Someone else was in the tower.

"...asking me how I even got down there! Climb the stupid arrows, they said-"

Then she looked up, seeing Agatha, Sophie, Evelyn, and Rhian; all eyes glued on her.

Her eyes widened as she stumbled back with disbelief, falling onto the broken bookshelf. Agatha's eyes met her own.

Past-Agatha blacked out.