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It started simple, really. You weren’t even quite sure what was happening at first.
“Y/N, come here for a moment. I need you to show Professor Dovey what real talent looks like.” Lady Lesso summoned.
“Yes, ma’am!” You obliged dutifully.
The Deans for the School of Good and Evil always seemed to bicker. No one was ever sure if it was good-natured or not. Always trying to one-up the other… Was that what this was?
You were a Never under the tutelage of Lady Lesso. While your fellow future villains feared the Evil Dean, you had a different perspective. A mutual understanding built on a foundation of respect.
Everyone just called you a suck-up.
“Do you see why she is at the top of her school?” Lady Lesso questioned Dovey.
You stood in front of them, slightly uncomfortable. You weren’t sure what you were supposed to be doing other than standing there as they talked about you. Professor Dovey sent you a kind smile before returning her exasperated gaze back to your Dean.
“As talented as she may be, the Trial by Tale will determine the School’s champion. And I’m quite confident that Good will continue our streak of wins!” Dovey shot back with exaggerated pleasantness.
“You’re looking at our champion right here!” Lesso crowed, grabbing your cheeks.
You flushed in embarrassment and pulled out of her grasp, stumbling over your feet as she pushed you with her cane toward a seat in the bleachers.
It started with calling on you more frequently in class, in front of your Never peers. Almost like a test. Her quiet appraisals and quirked brows stoked your desire to do better. To be better. Soon, she had you doing demonstrations in class. And then asking you to tutor your classmates.
Lady Lesso always seemed to have an air of superiority. It came out in villainous glory during shared Ever-Never classes and school assemblies with Professor Dovey. Soon, you were the topic of every round of banter.
“Don’t worry your airy little head, Princess. Y/N here can handle it! Won’t you, Y/N?” Your formidable Dean’s hands came to rest on your shoulders with a tight squeeze.
“Your princesses are only good for fainting and brewing tea. Y/N could be twice the prince of any graduate of your school, if she possessed any chivalry. Your students lack substance!” Lesso said forcefully, gesturing at you with her cane.
“Pfffft! Y/N is excelling in Curses and Deathtraps. I pity the Ever doomed to be her nemesis.”
And as you sat in the end-of-year assembly, the realization finally dawned upon you. Lady Lesso, for all her toughness and grit, cold glares and sharp tongue, evil extraordinaire, actually believed in you.
“ATTENTION!” She screamed to the hall of students.
An immediate hush fell upon the chamber. Lady Lesso smirked smugly at Professor Dovey next to her before standing back and allowing her to speak.
“Evers and Nevers! Today marks the end of another successful semester at the School for Good and Evil!” Dovey smiled with arms wide open. “As is tradition, our top students will begin the Trial by Tale at sundown.”
“May the best student win!” Lady Lesso added, shooting you a confident wink.
Heat peppered your cheeks and you offered a nervous smile in return. You squared your shoulders and gave her a curt nod before following the rest of the students out of the hall. You were determined to win. Definitely for yourself. And maybe a little bit for her.
Your feet pounded against the damp earth and your lungs screamed for air. You kneeled against a looming tree and attempted to catch your breath. The sky above was starting to lighten, melting from an endless black to an inky blue. It wouldn’t be much longer before sunrise. You just had to make it a little while longer.
The Reapers, wolves, and biting foliage were no challenge at all. And in the chaos of the Trial, you had bested one Ever boy and two other Never girls. Your special talent of camouflage had made it easy.
A rustling behind you made you flinch. With exhaustion creeping in your bones, you let the cool shiver of your camouflage ripple across your skin, fading into the endless blue of the forest.
“I know you’re there, Y/N!” The haughty voice of your classmate called.
It was a Never boy, Caym, second in your class only to you. His hulking form crept out of the shadows, cocky and unafraid. His talent was brute strength and an absolute lack of regard for others.
You held your breath steady and attempted to skirt around the girth of the tree. While the Ever students were of no concern, direct combat with your peer would be less ideal. You chanced another look at the sky above. You could do this.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Caym laughed as he uprooted a small tree and threw it into the glade.
A startled gasp fell from your lips as you ducked and rolled to avoid the rolling timber.
His dark eyes followed the rustling foliage from your movement. “Gotcha.”
Caym grabbed a fistful of dirt and threw it at you, outlining your frame before launching an attack. Smaller and faster, you dodged each hit thrown at you.
“It’s just you and me, Y/N. And I will take my win. It’s time everyone in this place sees just exactly what I’m capable of!” He roared.
You let the camouflage fall, determined to save your energy for walking through the school gates. A quick jab to his kidney followed by a kick to the back of his knees sent him falling to the forest floor.
“I won’t let you take this from me! They think you’re perfect! They think you’re the one to finally swing the balance back to Evil. You’re nothing more than a show off! A know-it-all suckling at your mommy Dean’s teat!” Caym seethed as he rose from the ground.
You launched into a flurry of hits and kicks that seemed to bounce off of his muscled body. And on the last kick, he grasped your ankle between his palms. A cold, unforgiving smile split across his face. And with a loud crack, he twisted, splintering the bones of your ankle and leg in a deft move.
You let your scream erupt from your throat as you fell to the ground. In your pain, your camouflage flickered in and out in an unconscious attempt to shield yourself from further injury.
A chilling laugh rumbled in Caym’s chest as he hovered over you. A swift kick to your shattered ankle pulled another scream of pain from your mouth, cut off only by his meaty hands around your throat. And with terrible ease, he threw your body through the air and onto the broken trunk of the uprooted tree. The remaining air in your lungs left with the force of the blow.
“See you on the other side, teacher’s pet.” He spit. “Maybe now Lesso will see just how much attention has been wasted on you.”
Caym turned and didn’t see you lift your glowing finger. Blue vines from the forest floor snaked across the ground and wrapped tightly around his legs and yanked him off the ground and into dense leaves of the tree tops. With a rattling wheeze, you fired off a sleeping curse at his bound form.
With Caym incapacitated, you let your head fall back to look at the sky. Indigo was giving way to hues of scarlet.
Sunrise.
If you could just make it to the gates of the forest. You reached your hands in the inner pocket of your tunic and fingered the edge of the handkerchief.
You inhaled another shuddering breath and pressed your hand against your shoulder, flinching as it came away wet and red. A small, pointed branch from the log jut out from your upper chest. With a pained howl, you wrenched yourself off the fallen tree and collapsed onto the earth.
Your body trembled through the exhaustion and pain. Adrenaline and pure spite were the only things powering your limbs to move, pushing you up onto your good leg. Heart pounding, blood began to weep in earnest from the jagged wound at your shoulder. You needed to move now or you would never make it.
In one final burst of energy, your finger glowed dimly and a fallen branch began to slim and form a handle under a bowed cradle. Body shaking from the effort, you positioned the crutch under your intact shoulder and began the hike to the gates.
Thankfully, you didn’t have to walk far. Each step was throbbing agony to your broken body. Sweat and blood made your tunic stick uncomfortably to every crevice. When the gates finally erupted from the horizon, a choked sob fell from your lips.
The entire staff and student body was lined up at the entrance, clamoring to see who had won the Trial by Tale. Rowdy cheers erupted from the Never students as some began to rush toward you. Your eyes scanned the crowd, looking for one in particular. Her flaming red hair stood out at the edge. She was animatedly gesturing to Professor Dovey and puffed out her chest.
As if recognizing the safety net that had appeared in front of you, your body finally gave up. Your crutch fell from underneath you and you crashed to your knees. Your vision blurred and you felt the hands of one of your classmates grab yours.
“Caym is still in the forest under a sleeping curse.” You rasped before your eyes rolled and everything went dark.
Consciousness cut through the fog in the form of pain. With a hiss, you blinked open your eyes and attempted to clear the haze that clung to your vision.
A sea of red slowly started to come into focus.
“Y/N, relax. I am just changing the bandages at your shoulder. You should continue to rest.”
Lady Lesso’s cold fingers applied the fasteners to the gauze and wrap before pulling the blankets up around you once more.
“Did I win?” You croaked groggily, wiping the sleep from your eyes.
The Dean of Evil frowned harshly as she summoned a chair, falling into it heavily.
“I’m sorry, Lady Lesso.” You sighed deeply with disappointment.
Her red curls flew wildly as she shook her head. “Don’t apologize. Apologies are for the weak.”
She let out a soft snort at your wry expression.
“And besides…you won.”
A small smirk pulled at the edge of her lips and pride shone clearly in her eyes.
“I…won?” You asked in disbelief. “Then why do you look so upset?”
Lady Lesso leaned forward onto her arms and leveled you with a scrutinizing look. She pointedly inspected your shoulder, slid her gaze to your casted ankle, and then lifted a sculpted brow.
“At what cost?” She asked you quietly. “Why didn’t you drop your handkerchief, Y/N? Why didn’t you surrender?”
Shame bubbled in your chest. Unable to take her searching look any longer, you averted your eyes.
“I…just wanted to win. I didn’t want to disappoint you, again.” You whispered.
Her hands atop of yours stopped the nervous fiddling you didn’t even realize you were doing. You ignored her silent request and met her eyes only with the uncharacteristically gentle lift of your chin upward.
Her expression was concerned and you felt deeply unsettled for having been the one to put it there.
Lady Lesso took in a steadying breath and squeezed your hands. “I push my students, not just because I want Evil to win. But because I want you to succeed. I want you to live! To be a villain outside of these castle walls is a curse, Y/N. Nearly every student I have ever taught has perished. I don’t care about the Trial by Tale. I care about you.”
You didn’t fight the watery smile that grew on your face.
“And you were too damn stubborn to lose, that you almost died.”
“But I didn’t!” You reminded her impishly.
Lady Lesso let out a bark of laughter and ruffled your hair. “As Dean of Evil, I do not have favorites. But if I did, it would be you.”
She gripped her cane and rose from the chair beside you and sauntered to the infirmary door.
“Get some rest. I have some bets to collect and a win to rub in Clarissa’s face.”
She paused with her hand on the knob and sent you a smile over her shoulder. “I am so proud of you.”