The Last Ever After Read Online Free PDF

you—”
    â€œI’ll lock you both in when I go to town each morning. The guards won’t come here as long as we’re careful.”
    â€œYou’ll love him like a son, Mother, you’ll see—” Agatha grimaced. “Into town? You said you had no patients.”
    â€œDon’t light the fireplace or open the windows,” ordered Callis, pouring two cups of tea.
    â€œWhy won’t the guards come here?” Agatha pushed. “Wouldn’t it be the first place they’d check?”
    â€œAnd don’t answer the door for a soul.”
    â€œWait—what about Stefan?” Agatha asked, brightening. “Surely he can talk to the Elders for us—”
    Callis whirled. “ Especially not Stefan.”
    Mother and daughter locked stares across the kitchen.
    â€œYour prince will never belong here, Agatha,” said Callis softly. “No one can hide from their fate without a price.”
    There was a fear in her mother’s big owl eyes that Agatha had never seen before, as if she was no longer talking about a prince.
    Agatha crossed the kitchen and wrapped her mother in a deep, comforting hug. “I promise you. Tedros will be as happy here as I am,” she whispered. “And you’ll wonder how you ever could have doubted two people so in love.”
    A clang and clatter echoed from the bedroom. The curtain drew back behind them before collapsing entirely, and Tedros lumbered through, groggy, red-eyed, and half-naked with a torn, bloodied piece of bedsheet stuck haplessly over his wound. He sat down at the counter, smelled the soup and gagged, shoving it aside. “We’ll need a sturdy horse, steel-edged sword, and enough bread and meat for a three-day journey.” He looked up at Agatha with a sleepy smile. “Hope you said your goodbyes, princess. Time to ride to my castle.”
    That first week, Agatha believed this was just another test in their story. It was only a matter of time before the pyre came down, the death sentence lifted, and Tedros felt at ease with ordinary life. Looking at her handsome, teddy-bear prince who she loved so much, she knew that no matter how long they stayed in this house, they would still find a way to be happy.
    By the second week, however, the house had started to feel smaller. There was never enough food or cups or towels; Reaper and Tedros fought like demented siblings; Agathabegan to notice her prince’s irritating habits (using all the soap, drinking milk out of the jug, exercising every second of the day, breathing through his mouth); and Callis had the burden of supporting two teenagers who didn’t like to be supported at all. (“ School was better than this,” Tedros carped, bored to tears. “Let’s go back and you can finish getting stabbed,” Agatha replied.) By the third week, Tedros had taken to playing rugby against himself, dodging invisible opponents, whispering play-by-play, and flinging about like a caged animal, while Agatha lay in bed, a pillow over her head, clinging to the hope that happiness would fall like a fairy godmother from a star. Instead, it was Tedros who fell on her head one day while catching a ball, reopening his stitches in the process. Agatha belted him hard with her pillow, Tedros clocked her with his, and soon the cat was in the toilet. As they lay on the bed, covered in feathers, Reaper dripping in the corner, Agatha’s question hung in the air unanswered.
    â€œWhat happened to us?”
    As the fourth week went on, Tedros and Agatha stopped spending time together. Tedros ceased his manic workouts and sat hunched at the kitchen window, unshaven and dirty, silently looking out at the Endless Woods. He was homesick, Agatha told herself, just as she’d once been in his world. But each day, a darker anguish settled into his face, and she knew it was deeper than homesickness—it was the guilt of knowing that somewhere out there, in