The School for Good and Evil #6: One True King

SAMSARA
“Where Time Ends”

And happiness for Sophie, who he no longer thought of as a thorn in his side, but as a true, irreplaceable friend. His castle would be open to her always, his once-nemesis now part of his family

“You’ve always been enough, Hort of Bloodbrook,” said Sophie. “You, who are strong enough to die for the girl you love and still find your way back to her. You. Bold, big-hearted, beautiful you. It’s me who wasn’t enough. Me who kept searching for fantasy love instead of real love. It’s me who didn’t deserve you.” She touched his cheek. “Until I opened my heart big enough and found you there, waiting patiently, a piece of me all along.”

She kissed him, holding on to him tight, his lips so soft and perfect they felt like home. Where they would go from here, who they would become, she didn’t know, the two of them bound by nothing except their feelings for each other and thankfulness for this moment. For the first time, Sophie didn’t need to know the future to be happy. She didn’t need promises or princes or a storybook life. All she wanted was the most ordinary of ends: to love with all of her heart and to be loved the same way in return.

“Once you make friends with it. Once you come to see the hurt not as something to fear or run away from, but as an important part of you. As important as love and hope and happiness. All of them are pieces of your heart, each as important as the other. But ignoring the hurt or pretending it’s not there doesn’t make it go away. It just means you’re not using all of your heart. Soon that piece might even dry up and break away. We don’t want that. A strong king needs all of his heart. And the funny thing is, once you’re bold enough to welcome the hurt, to give it a hug and face it unafraid . . . then suddenly, it’s gone.”

desperate to protect a throne I didn’t think I deserved. Guilt. Shame. Doubt. These were my guides.

Tests that made him a king in more than blood. Tests of humility. Forgiveness. Sacrifice. Love. The real tests.

isn’t that what love is? That magical force that makes you more you.

“In time, the truth will be written, no matter how many lies someone might tell to obscure it. And the truth comes with an army.”

Relief.

As if at last he had the answer to what made a king. Not blood. Not birthright. But something deeper: faith. Faith his father had in him. Faith Tedros never had in himself. Until now. Because he was a better man than his father, loyal to his princess, loyal to his heart. Because he’d be a better king, having chosen not the queen who would compensate for his shortcomings, but would love him for them. Because of who he was deep in his soul, rather than what he thought should be. He was free. Finally free. As if in being told he wasn’t a king, he found the reason to be a king.

That’s why love is the ultimate test. It forces us to grow, to be better, and even then, sometimes it’s not enough. We get in our own way. We’re our own worst villains. But only a true villain believes he can control love. Love can’t be controlled any more than a wildfire can. It lives in the balance of fate and free will, Man and Pen. We do our part, we hope, we wish . . . but it writes its own story in its own time, the way it’s meant to be.