The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)

by Soman Chainani

“Tell me if you see an oven.” “Why?” “I want to put my head in it.

“Are we going to the School Master?” Agatha rasped. The wolf snorted. He dragged her to the room at the end of the hall and knocked once. “Come in,” said the quiet voice inside. Agatha looked into the wolf’s eyes. “I don’t want to die.” For the first time, his sneer softened. “I didn’t either.” He opened the door and pushed her through.

Beatrix’s fluffy white bunny inspired such love she named it Teddy. (Tedros kicked it every time he saw it.)

“Dad told me villains can’t love, no matter what. That it’s unnatural and disgusting.” Sophie made out scratchy words. “To freeze an Ever in ice, make your soul cold …” “So I definitely can’t love,” Hort said. “Colder than you thought possible … Then say these words …” “But if I could love, I’d love you.”

ave you seen my pajamas?” Hort whimpered outside Sophie’s door. “The ones with frogs?” Swaddled in his tattered bedsheets, Sophie stared at a window she’d sealed dark with a black blanket. “My father made them for me,” Hort sniffled. “I can’t sleep without them.”

A goblin picked from two … A princess whose coffin knocked him out … A roach hidden on a pumpkin … He had never picked Sophie. He picked Agatha every time.

“You don’t ever get over love,” Hort moped in dirty long johns. “Even if they steal your room and your pajamas.”

Villains are the ones closest to us. Villains in the cloak of best friends. Oh, yes, she’d be at that Circus. Because Sader was right. This was never Sophie’s fairy tale. It was hers.

“Prepare to attack!” Agatha backed up. “Tedros, listen to me!” Tedros grabbed Chaddick’s bow— “Tedros, wait—” “I’m worse than my father.” Tedros looked up, eyes glistening. “Because I still love you.” He pulled an arrow at her heart. “No!” Agatha screamed— “Fire!”

“Please, Teddy. End this war,” Agatha pleaded. “I can’t leave you,” the prince croaked.