Read Online The School for Good and Evil #2: A World without Princes by Soman Chainani - Free Book Online

CHOOL FOR G IRL
E DUCATION AND E NLIGHTENMENT
    Agatha closed and reopened her bleary eyes, for she had seen wrong.
    It still said “GIRL.”
    â€œHuh?”
    Sophie stood up beside her. “That’s strange.”
    â€œWell, ‘Good’ and ‘Girl’ aren’t so far apart,” Agatha said. “Maybe one of the nymphs got confused—”
    But then she saw what Sophie was looking at. At the halfway point across the bay, Good’s lake slimed into Evil’s moat. Only the moat wasn’t black, like it used to be. It was rusted red, the color of the cesspool in the Woods and guarded by the spiny white crocodiles she had seen eat the female deer—at least twenty of them, lurking in the sludge, black shark teeth glinting.
    Slowly Agatha looked up at the School for Evil looming above the moat. Three bloodred towers, jagged with spikes, flanked a smooth silver tower, twice as tall as the others. Atop the four towers, flags crackled in the fog, emblazoned with scarlet snakes.
    â€œThere used to be three Evil towers,” Sophie said, squinting. “Not four . . .”
    Voices rose across the bay and the two girls ducked into the lilies.
    Out of the Woods stormed men in black through Evil’s castle gates.
    They were wearing red leather hoods.
    â€œThe School Master’s men!” Sophie cried as they faded into the fog.
    Agatha whitened. “But that means—”
    She whirled back to the bay.
    â€œIt’s . . . gone ,” breathed Agatha, for the School Master’s sky-high silver tower, once guarding the halfwaypoint between moat and lake, had simply . . . disappeared.
    â€œNo, it’s not,” Sophie said, still eyeing the School for Evil.
    Now Agatha saw why there were four towers there instead of three.
    The School Master’s tower had moved to Evil.
    â€œHe’s alive !” Agatha cried, gaping at his silver spire. “But how—”
    Sophie pointed. “Look!”
    In the tower’s single window, veiled by fog, a shadow stared down at them. All they could see of its face was a gleaming silver mask.
    â€œIt’s him!” Sophie hissed. “He’s leading Evil!”
    â€œAgatha! Sophie!”
    The girls swiveled from the lilies to see Professor Dovey running from Good castle in her green high-necked gown—
    â€œCome quickly!”
    As the two girls hurried behind her through Good’s golden gates, Agatha glanced back at the School Master’s tower and the masked shadow in the window. All they had to do was kill him again, and her mistake would be hidden forever. They’d go home safe, her promise to Stefan kept, and Sophie would never know what she’d wished for. Looking up at that shadow lording over Evil, Agatha waited for her heart to rage with purpose, to propel her into battle . . . but instead her heart did something else.
    It fluttered.
    The way a princess’s did in storybooks.
    When she saw her prince.

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
    HarperCollins Publishers
    ..................................................................
5
The Other School
    A s she and Sophie sprinted behind Professor Dovey into the mirrored corridor, Agatha tried to find her breath. Professor Dovey was a famous fairy godmother. She had to give them answers.
    â€œWho are those red hoods?” Agatha asked—
    â€œHow did the School Master survive?” said Sophie—
    â€œWhy are the Nevers on his side?” said Agatha—
    â€œQuiet!” Professor Dovey snapped, erasing their footsteps with her magic wand. “We don’t have much time!”
    â€œYou don’t seem surprised to see us,” Agatha whispered, but her fairy godmother didn’t respond as she rushed them into Good’s deserted foyer, magically boltingdoors behind them.

    Only months ago, Sophie had eviscerated the hall in her witch’s revenge on Agatha and Tedros, blasting