The School for Good and Evil Read Online Free Page B

brightly and resumed packing. “But do take care of your friend, dear. The School for Good might seem like a festoon of roses, but she’s in for a surprise. Now go to bed. The School Master will be here soon and it’s easier for him if you’re asleep.”
    Agatha pulled the sheets over her head.
     
    Sophie couldn’t sleep. Five minutes to midnight and no sign of an intruder. She knelt on her bed and peered through the shutters. Around Gavaldon’s edge, the thousand-person guard waved torches to light up the forest. Sophie scowled. How could he get past them?
    That’s when she noticed the hearts on her windowsill were gone.
    He’s already here!
    Three packed pink bags plopped through the window, followed by two glass-slippered feet.

    Agatha lurched up in bed, jolted from a nightmare. Callis snored loudly across the room, Reaper at her side. Next to Agatha’s bed sat her locked trunk, marked “Agatha of Gavaldon, 1 Graves Hill Road” in scraggy writing, along with a pouch of honey cakes for the journey.
    Chomping cake, Agatha gazed through a cracked window. Down the hill, the torches blazed in a tight circle, but here on Graves Hill, there was just one burly guard left, arms as big as Agatha’s whole body, legs like chicken drumsticks. He kept himself awake by lifting a broken headstone like a barbell.
    Agatha bit into the last honey cake and looked out at the dark forest.
    Shiny blue eyes looked back at her.
    Agatha choked and dove to her bed. She slowly lifted her head. Nothing there. Including the guard.
    Then she found him, unconscious over the broken headstone, torch extinguished.
    Creeping away from him was a bony, hunchbacked human shadow. No body attached.
    The shadow floated across the sea of graves without the slightest sign of hurry. It slid under the cemetery gates and skulked down the hill towards the firelit center of Gavaldon.
    Agatha felt horror strangle her heart. He was real. Whoever he was.
    And he doesn’t want me.
    Relief crashed over her, followed by a fresh wave of panic.
    Sophie.
    She should wake her mother, she should cry for help, she should— No time.
    Feigning sleep, Callis heard Agatha’s urgent footsteps, then the door close. She hugged Reaper tighter to make sure he didn’t wake up.
     
    Sophie crouched behind a tree, waiting for the School Master to snatch her.
    She waited. And waited. Then she noticed something in the ground.
    Cookie crumbs, mashed into a footprint. The footprint of a clump so odious, so foul it could only belong to one person. Sophie’s fists curled, her blood boiled—
    Hands covered her mouth and a foot booted her through her window. Sophie crashed headfirst onto her bed and whirled around to see Agatha. “You pathetic, interfering worm!” she screamed, before glimpsing the fear in her friend’s face. “You saw him!” Sophie gasped—
    Agatha put one hand over Sophie’s mouth and pinned her to the mattress with the other. As Sophie writhed in protest, Agatha peeped through the window. The crooked shadow drifted into the Gavaldon square, past the oblivious armed guard, and headed directly for Sophie’s house. Agatha swallowed a scream. Sophie wrenched free and grabbed her shoulders.
    “Is he handsome? Like a prince? Or a proper schoolmaster with spectacles and waistcoat and—”
    THUMP!
    Sophie and Agatha slowly turned to the door.
    THUMP! THUMP!
    Sophie wrinkled her nose. “He could just knock, couldn’t he?”
    Locks cracked. Hinges rattled.
    Agatha shrank against the wall, while Sophie folded her hands and fluffed her dress as if expecting a royal visit. “Best give him what he wants without fuss.”
    As the door caved, Agatha leapt off the bed and threw herself against it. Sophie rolled her eyes. “Oh, sit down for goodness’ sake.” Agatha pulled at the knob with all her might, lost her grip—the door slammed open with a deafening crack, hurling her across the room.
    It was Sophie’s father, white as a sheet. “I saw something!” he