A World Without Princes

Tedros eats while Filip interrogates him about the Storian’s location, and Tedros mentions that no one’s seen Tristan for days. In addition, Tedros claims, the pen reflects its master’s soul, which is why he’s so fearful that Sader will acquire it. Sophie realizes that Tedros thinks he deserves a happy ending. Tedros tells Filip he heard Agatha’s wish, that she wanted him to, and that he’s angry it was a lie. Tedros assures Filip that Sophie is evil, as she ruined Agatha. Sophie wonders why a girl can’t have the love of both her prince and her best friend, and Tedros says it’s because a person can only be loyal to one person. Filip suggests that Sophie needs Agatha more than Tedros does, but Tedros believes each person has only one true love.

Agatha and the witches try to figure out what Sader was doing with Merlin’s spell. Dot wonders if the Dean sent a girl into the boys’ school, suggesting this girl could have hidden the Storian to make sure the Trial goes on. Agatha suggests Beatrix because the invisibility cape was under Beatrix’s bed. That night, Agatha dons the cape and goes to investigate the circled area on Sader’s hidden map. Suddenly, a swarm of blue butterflies attacks, tearing her cape apart. She realizes the dean planted the map, and she finds Yuba’s den incinerated. Agatha looks up to see the dean, smiling at her office window.

Filip takes Tedros to a balcony overlooking the Blue Forest and asks the prince how he can sentence two girls to death. Tedros says there’s always three in a fairy tale, including the true love and the villain: Agatha made him the villain when she lied about Sophie in the tower. They talk about their parents, and Filip says he’d “do anything to see [his mother] again” (347). Sophie’s mother was Vanessa, which means butterfly. Filip cries, and Tedros comforts him.

Agatha tells the witches that Sader knows what they’ve been doing, but she’s confident Sophie will find the Storian. In class, Sader takes her students into her own story. In her memory of 10 years earlier, Sader wears red butterflies and teaches in the School for Good while her brother teaches in Evil. August jealously attacks her, and she vows to return after his death. However, Agatha knows this version is a lie. She finds a secret passage in Sader’s memory, and August Sader appears, telling Agatha it’s part of the memory his sister hides. In the first real memory, the dean confronts the School Master, telling him her brother is lying. She assures him that she is loyal and the true love he’s sought. He tells her to prove it. In the next memory, Lesso confronts the dean about meddling in students’ stories, and Sader reveals her knowledge of Lesso’s son, hidden in the forest. In the third memory, the School Master tells August that he’ll have to teach his sister’s classes when she’s evicted. August promises him that his true love is not from their world. The next memory shows the dean’s eviction. The School Master pulls a wisp of blue smoke from his heart and places it in Sader’s, turning her butterflies blue and ensuring she’ll be able to return if he’s made a mistake. When Agatha returns to the present, she accuses Sader of trying to bring the School Master back, and Sader knocks her out.

Meanwhile, Tedros eats breakfast, and no one stops him because they’re scared of Filip. Hort gets mad when he learns that Filip defended Tedros. Later, a teacher tells Tedros and Filip to stop “flirting,” and they separate awkwardly. Hort wants to continue sabotaging Tedros, but Filip refuses. Filip outsmarts them all in the final challenge and is allowed to select a friend to join in the Trial, and Filip realizes Hort expects to be chosen. Tedros makes his case, though, saying he’s never felt as loyal to anyone, boy or girl, than he feels to Filip, who is what a “real” boy should be. Filip chooses Tedros, then sees a red flare at the girls’ castle.

Agatha dreams of Tedros. She tells him that she fell for him when Sophie rejected him last year, when she saw the hurt in his face. He feels her description makes him sound “like a girl” (377), but she claims that it’s what made her love him. She likes his combination of vulnerability and strength. When Agatha wakes up, she learns the Trial already started. She sees the list of nine girls who are fighting, including Sophie. The dean taunts Agatha, saying Agatha’s ideas are usually wrong. When Agatha sees the list of boys in the Trial, she realizes Sophie is still Filip and will return to herself any second. Agatha enters the Trial.

Sophie learns Agatha is in the Trial, and she suggests that Filip and Tedros hide under a bridge. Tedros wants to find the girls, though, and he accuses Filip of talking like a girl. They climb a tree to gain a better view. Sophie tells Tedros he isn’t a villain and cannot really want to kill two girls, and emotion overwhelms him. Tedros says the girls’ death is the “only happy ending left” (391). Sophie realizes that he sounds like a villain. She wants to hide but knows she must protect Agatha. Meanwhile, Agatha believes Sophie will hide under the bridge, so she mogrifies into a cat and moves in that direction. She finds the witches and tells them Sader is trying to revive the School Master, realizing she doesn’t know who the villain of this story is. Hester and Anadil force Agatha to search for Sophie. Dovey wants Lesso to intervene, but Lesso says it will void the Trial. When Hester appears before them, bloody and injured, Lesso goes. Agatha begins to connect the dots—the uniform under the bed, the spirick marks on Sophie’s wrist, the pink spell—and she questions Sophie’s loyalty.

Filip asks Tedros if he’s ever killed and describes how murder changes the aggressor. No matter how good one tries to be, one can never escape the shadow of one’s choice. Tedros sees Filip’s face getting smoother, and Sophie realizes the spell is ending. In the chaos, they find Yara, her windpipe cut; she changes into Tristan before their eyes. He says Sader let him stay in the girls’ school as long as he kept the Storian hidden for her. Tristan recognizes Sophie, and he tells her he hid the Storian inside her fairy tale. Tedros realizes that Tristan died because he just wanted to get away from the boys who made fun of him. Tedros ponders the reason he keeps wishing Filip were a princess. Filip asks him to promise to let Sophie and Agatha go, and Tedros agrees if Filip promises not to leave the kingdom. Tedros believes Filip is the only thing keeping him good. Sophie as Filip continues to press for the promise, but Tedros catches her hand and leans in for a kiss. This is how Agatha finds them.

Agatha confronts Sophie, but Tedros defends “Filip.” Agatha accuses Sophie of trying to kiss Tedros and send her home, as well as attacking them in the tower. Tedros is confused as he watches Filip and Agatha argue. Finally, he defends Filip, but Filip transforms into Sophie. Tedros feels everything is a lie, but Agatha reassures him that her love isn’t. Lesso appears, and Agatha goes to Tedros; they glare at Sophie, realizing the Trial is happening because of her. Flares go off to signal the Trial’s end due to Lesso’s interference; now it’ll be war. Lesso tells Agatha to kiss Tedros as a swarm of blue butterflies carries her away. 

Suddenly, the School Master’s tower crashes through the trees toward the trio, and Sader appears from a cloud of butterflies while holding Agatha’s storybook. Though Sophie is still beautiful in person, she’s an ugly witch in the book. Sader says Sophie is the real villain, and Tedros says she’ll always be Evil. As Sophie transforms into a witch, Agatha feels both pity and anger. She kisses Tedros, though Sophie pleads with her. The Storian begins to write “The End,” but Sader stops it. Sophie changes back into her beautiful self. Sader reminds Sophie of her wish for her mother, and Agatha realizes Sader is using Sophie to revive the School Master. Sophie will do anything to bring her mother back. Sader reaches into her heart, pulling out the blue wisp and, as Sophie makes her wish again, her mother appears. Her mother says it’s time for Sophie to find her true love, that Sophie must kiss her and not break the kiss. Sophie does as she says, and her mother’s ghost turns into the young School Master, restored to life. When Sophie finally looks at Agatha, she has a pang of regret before she spots Agatha’s hand in Tedros’s. Sader dies, and the School Master takes the Storian. When he lets it go, it rewrites the end of the book. Both castles turn black, and Agatha begins to fade. She begs Sophie for help, but Sophie says simply that Agatha didn’t choose her. The School Master goes to kill Tedros, but Agatha grabs his hand. They vanish, and Sophie and the School Master float up to his tower.