A Hero at the End of the World Read Online Free PDF

that?”
    Archie shrugged one shoulder. “He died when I was a child. It was a freak accident. He was a dréag, you see, and he was struck by lightning whilst we were on holiday on the Apulian coast. He used all his power protecting himself.”
    “He died from that? I thought that all that happened once a dréag used all their power was that they couldn’t use magic anymore?” Ewan asked. A creeping sensation danced over his skin; even thinking about living the last few decades of his life without magic deeply bothered him. And dréags died so young, aging rapidly once they had burned through their power.
    “Oh, he didn’t die from using all his power,” said Archie. “He died when the lorry hit him immediately after.”
    “Oh, no,” Ewan’s mum said, looking stricken. She handed Archie a piping hot cup of tea as though she were passing along a cure for his heartbreak.
    “That’s terrible,” Ewan said with feeling, thinking of his own dad, who had nearly killed himself that morning using a knife to fish his toast out of the toaster.
    “Yes, very terrible,” Archie agreed. He turned and gave Ewan a long, searching look, and whatever he saw made his face soften. “But thank you. My mother was quite embarrassed over his death. She’s always said she wanted better for me.”
    “That’s really—wait, what?” Ewan asked.
    “I think it’s lovely that you work for your mum, dear, and especially that you’ve stuck with your long-term goals. Ewan was almost somebody, I’m sure you know. But he just didn’t have it in him.” His mum leaned forward. “That’s why he and Oliver aren’t friends anymore. He’s embarrassed.”
    Archie furtively glanced over at him. “I did wonder.”
    Ewan clenched his jaw. “That’s not why,” he grit out.
    Growing up, Oliver had been Ewan’s only friend. Adults had always told Ewan that other kids were intimidated by him; Oliver had said that none of the girls had fancied him because they were all worried he’d die in the final battle, and no one had wanted to deal with that particular heartbreak. Yet Ewan had always known the truth, deep inside: kids his age had avoided him because they knew that they would be in trouble for bullying him.
    He had always been given a pass in school—whether it was teachers giving him higher marks than he deserved or turning a blind eye when he showed up late to lessons. Realistically, he should have been kicked out long before he was. But it wasn’t until the final year that suddenly the combination of his poor marks and frequent absences meant he couldn’t reenroll.
    Ewan Mao, the prophesied slayer of Duff Slan, had been strange.
Different
was the word his school counselor had used—the bad sort of different, not the interesting, extraordinary kind of different that had always been used to describe the great heroes in books and films.
    When they were little, Oliver had been awkward just like him. But once they’d hit secondary school, the things that had made Oliver an outcast before had suddenly become the sort of traits that made him popular. Ewan had gone from being the hero to being Oliver’s shadow. But he’d had one crucial thing going for him: he had a destiny.
    And then Oliver had killed Duff Slan.
    “Georgia, these biscuits are scrummy,” Archie said as Ewan seethed silently. “What are they called?”
    “I don’t agree with your mum,” he told Ewan as he was leaving a quarter of an hour later.
    “Watch yourself,” Ewan threatened.
    He tried to close the door on Archie’s face, but Archie stuck his arm in the door, blocking it. The small blue carrier bag of almond biscuits and fruit Ewan’s mum had insisted he take dangled from his wrist.
    “Steady on,” Archie replied. He held up a hand. “What I meant was, I don’t think she should dismiss you so easily.”
    Ewan almost didn’t believe his ears. “What now?”
    “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You were able to alter the course of your destiny. Even