Fire Princess

Chapter Sixteen

Phoenix hurried around her room in the dress she had chosen to wear for the Circus of Talents, constantly checking the clock on the wall as she added an ivy ear cuff on her ear. Agatha had yet to come back to get into the dress Professor Dovey had dropped off and it worried her. Sophie hadn't attacked, but she might've just been targeting Agatha, since that's who had caught Tedros' eye. A noise made her stop and she glanced out the window, only to pale in shock as Agatha flew through their window, shepherded by fairies. She was covered in blood...so much blood. She had Tedros' bloody shirt around her.

"What happened?" Phoenix asked as the fairies fluttered around her, asking for help to heal Agatha and prepare her for the Circus.

"Doesn't matter." Agatha said as Phoenix grabbed a vial of tears from her bedside table and dripped them onto Agatha's wounds. "Please, I need to get ready as quickly as possible without looking like a mess, can you help me?"

Phoenix's eyes lit up. "I've been waiting to hear that question all year!"

She ran to the cupboard to get Agatha's dress and returned with a beam.

"Darling, once I'm done with you, you'll be the Belle of the Ball!"

At 8:00 p.m. on the night before the Ball, the students entered the Theater of Tales to see it had been fully enchanted for the occasion. Above each side floated a chandelier of ten swan-shaped candles, burning white over Good and blue-black over Evil. Between them hovered the steel Circus Crown, brilliant in flame light with seven long, sharp spires, awaiting the night's winner.

Evergirls arrived first, primed for their Ball proposals in colourful evening gowns and nervous smiles. As they entered the west doors, waving flags with white swans and banners blaring TEAM GOOD!, glass flowers spritzed them with fragrance and crystal friezes came to life.

"Greetings, fair maiden, will your talent win us the Crown?" puffed a crystal prince as he fought a dragon spewing scalding mist.

"I hear this Sophie child is quite formidable. Can you defeat her?" interjected a crystal princess next to him on a glittering spinning wheel.

"I didn't make the team," Kiko admitted.

"Always one who's left behind," the prince said, stabbing the dragon through.

Through the east doors, roaring Nevers shoved in, waving hideous signs scrawled TEAM EVIL! while Hort flapped a black swan flag so eagerly it broke stalactites off the ceiling, sending Nevers stampeding for cover. As he lunged for a seat, Hort took in the scorch marks on walls, contorting to shadows of monsters eating peasants and witches cooking children, while nearby pew friezes had come alive, with woodcut princes shrieking as carved villains stabbed them, spurting black sap everywhere.

"Who did all this?" he goggled, splattered with sap.

"The School Master," Ravan said, plugging his ears from the shrieks. "No wonder he doesn't let teachers in."

He hated that he did so, but he scanned the Evers for a glimpse of Phoenix. He felt bad and knew he made her cry, but he had spoken the truth when he said it was impossible for an Ever and Never to be together. He stopped suddenly and stared at Phoenix who was wearing a red evening dress, talking and laughing with Kiko and looking beautiful. He missed his best childhood friend. Maybe Hort was right, he did still like her...but it was a bit late for regrets. Tonight, Phoenix would get a prince and forget all about him.

Meanwhile, as the last Nevergirls and Everboys arrived, herded by wolves and fairies, they too felt the thrill of a room without adults. Only Tedros looked unimpressed, the last to limp through in creamy white breeches, chest gashed through the undone laces of a royal blue shirt. Face sprinkled with angry scratches, he scanned the Evers seats for someone, then slumped with disappointment into his own.