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It was a beautiful day on the Isle of the Lost, and Mal was scavenging the Pile with Uma. Harry and Jay were stationed at the bottom of the Pile, keeping watch while Mal and Uma sifted through Auradon’s garbage for the edible, usable, or tradeable.
“Cigs,” Uma called, tossing a crumpled cardboard box over her shoulder at Mal. There were two waterlogged cigarettes inside. Mal sniffed them and added the box to her satchel. They’d dry well enough.
Mal crouched to examine a moldy throw pillow. Lady Tremaine traded luxuries for curses, and this one had orange-yellow tassels pretending to be woven gold sprouting from the corners. She rubbed a thumb over the brush-like ends of the threads. They were warm.
A beautiful day on the Isle of the Lost was a day when the heavy gray clouds held in their rain, and you could just about convince yourself you saw a sliver of fabled blue sky on the horizon. Nothing should be warm to Mal, especially not with Hades’ fire in her veins. Mal dropped the tassel and shoved the pillow away. Best leave that to someone stupider or more desperate.
“Shirt,” Mal told Uma, tugging a holey t-shirt free from beneath the cushion and whipping it at her head. Uma wrapped it around her hand, shook it, and held it up to her ear.
“Dead.” She dropped it.
“Figures.” Mal snorted. Not even Uma’s skilled hands could pull whispers of the past from dead fabric.
A few minutes and no luck later, Harry whistled a sharp tune. Runner from town.
Uma straightened. “That’s one of Smee’s grandkids.”
“Which one?” Mal asked. Uma aimed a kick at her ribs, which Mal dodged, chuckling.
Smee had two grandkids, Sam and Simon, twin boys no one had ever been able to tell apart. She slipped a mostly-used bottle of dye into her satchel as she stood. Evie had been looking for a present for Dizzy’s birthday, and this was perfect. They began to descend the Pile carefully, keeping to the packed-down paths and always within arm's reach.
“Hey, kid,” Harry greeted with a kinder version of his toothy smile as Mal hopped the final few feet to solid pavement. The Smee kid was a smart one, stopping well away from the older descendants. He was six or seven, Mal couldn’t quite remember, with white-blond hair and chubby cheeks. Mal couldn’t see his twin, but that meant nothing on the Isle. Especially when it came to the Smees.
“What’s going on in town?” Mal asked briskly. The kid’s eyes followed her hand into the satchel eagerly. Good kid, knowing she was reaching for payment, not a weapon. He’d go far, not that that was in question. Smee was one of the oldest pure humans on the Isle; his blood was survivor blood.
“Maleficent’s lookin’ for Mal an’ her crew,” The kid reported.
“What for?” Mal’s fingers brushed the cardboard box. Two cigarettes and two boys. She couldn’t augur like her mother had once been able to, but she could read signs well enough.
“Dunno,” The kid shifted from foot to foot.
“Come on, kid.” Uma barked impatiently. The kid jumped back.
“Some message from Auradon, I dunno! ‘Cept…” He trailed off. Mal pulled the box from her bag and waved it. “’Cept she sent her guys for Evil Queen an’ Jafar an’ De Vil an’ now they’re lookin’ for Mal an’ her crew.”
“Awesome,” Jay swore under his breath.
“Thanks.” Mal tossed the cigarettes to the kid. “One for you, one for your brother. Dry them first.”
The kid nodded and took off like a shot. Mal didn’t bother noting which way he ran. Smee’s blood was survivor blood; you never saw them going where they were truly headed.
“Mal,” Uma said urgently. “My mom said the fish heard talk in Auradon about stealing VKs from the Isle. And now there’s a message from them?”
Mal narrowed her eyes. “What do you want?”
“I want you to come to my ship tonight,” Uma answered instantly.
“Thanks, but I’ll pass on the sleepover.” Mal hated licking her wounds in front of people that weren’t her crew, and with all four of their parents in on whatever the message was? Someone was going to be hurt.
“What if they’re taking you?” Uma crossed her arms. “What if it’s tomorrow?”
“Aw, do you wanna say goodbye, Shrimpy?” Mal bared her teeth.
Uma didn’t rise to the bait, which made Mal pay attention. Uma always rose to her bait. “Just come,” She ordered.
“For?” Mal demanded, but Uma only sketched a two-fingered salute and left with Harry at her heels.
“Suspicious,” Jay noted.
“Very.” Mal started on the most direct route to their hideout she was willing to take. “One suspicious summons at a time.”
Steal Fairy Godmother’s wand.
They kept formation as they left Maleficent’s crumbling castle.
Tear down the barrier.
Mal in front, Evie and Carlos at her heels, Jay at their backs.
Take my grimoire.
The book was warm, despite being kept in a locked freezer.
Mal led them through the back alleys of back alleys, pausing only when a rat skittered up to Carlos and chittered at him. The rat gave Carlos a wooden coin, which he sucked on like a lozenge. It was just past sundown when they emerged from the wide metal pipe that was the most discreet way onto the docks by Uma’s skuttled ship.
Gil stood at the base of the on ramp, arms crossed. He stepped aside as they approached, nodded up at the ship to where they would find Uma in her cabin. Carlos took the wooden coin out of his mouth and dropped it in Gil’s palm.
“Favour from Dr. Facilier,” He told Gil. “He says thanks for helping Celia.” His voice was raspy, but not as bad as it would be tomorrow once the bruises came in and his throat swelled. Or as bad as it would have been without the coin. Mal would yell at him later for saying no to his mother’s face and remember she owed Dr. Facilier a small favour.
Harry let them into Uma’s cabin and followed them in. It didn’t matter how long Mal and Uma had been allied; Harry was her right hand, and he’d never leave her alone with another crew. Mal’s own right hand, Jay, leaned against the door beside Harry.
“You were right,” Mal fell into the chair opposite Uma at the roughly circular table lit by candle stubs. She was peripherally aware of Evie and Carlos sinking into the shadows lapping at the walls. “King Beast is taking me and my crew to Auradon Prep. Something about rehabilitating the descendants of villains.”
Uma snorted. “Like we ever committed a crime against them.”
“So? What was so important we had to trek all the way here in the middle of the night?” Mal spat. They should be in their hideout, making Carlos watery tea and scraping the cupboards for the grainy honey she was fairly sure they had somewhere.
“You’re leaving us behind in this filth,” Uma said with a snarl. “We had a deal.”
“It’s not like we have much of a choice,” Mal growled back. Uma was right, of course. They’d come to an agreement years ago to share the dirtiest of the dirty work, and now she was backing out and leaving it all to Uma’s crew. Still, an order from Maleficent was the highest law on the Isle.
“It’s Auradon,” Uma leaned forward intently. “Unprecedented access.”
“What do you want me to do?” Mal asked, suddenly very tired. If she was leaving, she had so much to do that didn’t involve placating Uma.
“You’re going to bring the rest of us to the mainland, too.” Uma declared with a smug smile.
“And how do you think I’m going to do that?” Mal spread her hands, showing everything she had: nothing.
“Seduce the prince, plead our case to the king, lick the queen’s cunt till she sees sense, I don’t know and I don’t care.” Uma said crassly. “You’ll be the first ones of us that can try any of it. So try.”
Mal tilted her head from side to side. Her neck cracked, but it didn’t help the mounting headache. “Sure, Uma. I’ll try to turn rock to bread.”
“Good.” Uma leaned back in her creaky chair. “Have fun with the nobles, then.”
“We won’t.” Mal stood.
They left in the same formation they arrived.
Gaston stood beside Gil at the base of the ramp. His dark eyes were ringed with the bruise-like bags Mal had never seen the man without, and some lank strands had escaped from his hair tie and were stuck to the daily sweat on his forehead and neck.
"Be strong," He told them. "Remember your power. We'll hold down the fort."
Mal nodded gratefully, ignoring the tears pricking her eyes. Gaston was among the very, very few adults on the Isle that could be trusted. Unfortunately, because there were so few of them, they worked themselves to the bone and relied on the older descendants, like Mal and Uma's crew.
"I'm sorry," Mal hated apologizing, but it was Gaston. He wouldn't use her weaknesses against her.
Gaston shook his head. "I've got it, kid. You focus on yourself and your crew, now. You'll survive this, too."
Mal left the docks feeling lighter than she had since she saw the Smee kid running in from town. No matter what her mother ordered, no matter what kind of foul spells were in her inherited grimoire, Mal had her own purpose and her own magic. With her crew behind her, it would be enough.
Ben knew exactly what he expected from the Isle descendants. A spark of Cruella’s insanity in Carlos, a wash of coldness over Evil Queen’s daughter Evie, a calculating ambition passed from Jafar to Jay, and an untapped well of dark power around Mal, the sole child of Maleficent and whoever was unfortunate enough to catch her eye.
“Ready, love?” Audrey asked.
“Of course,” Ben lied.
On Audrey’s other side, Chad obnoxiously flipped his hair so it caught the sunlight. Audrey turned to him, her grip on Ben’s arm relaxing slightly, and Ben breathed a little easier. He was quietly grateful his dress uniform had long sleeves so her manicured nails didn’t prick his flesh like ten spinning wheel needles.
Ben’s parents had flirted with the idea of being there to greet the Isle descendants, but in the end Ben had persuaded them not to. Despite what Audrey might say, Ben wasn’t stupidly naive; there was every chance the Isle descendants would be out for blood, none more than that of the King Above Kings and Queen Above Queens. Besides, they could meet them on Family Day.
He regretted that, because what stepped out of the curtesy limo was nothing like what he expected.
The first girl to slide out of the barely open door looked hungry.
Not power-hungry or bloodthirsty, just hungry. Lumiere had taught Ben how to spot hunger in a person when he was younger, and he’d caught on quickly, dragging his friends and betrothed to the kitchens often. Doug most frequently, because his family was too big for their budget, but Audrey too, especially when her grandma was being hard on her. Mal’s hunger didn’t look like any Ben had seen before, and he suddenly felt vastly underqualified.
The second and third exited almost at the same time, nearly stepping on each other’s heels. Evie’s eyes darted around, not at the castle or the assembled students like Ben would have expected, but from teacher to teacher. She lingered on a few of them a split second longer than the others in her…Ben couldn’t call it anything but a threat assessment. Carlos was tiny, wearing a high-necked jacket zipped up tight and eyes cast down low. His head moved from left to right as Evie’s moved right to left, taking in the students she jumped over.
The final descendant was more like what Ben had expected and nothing like it at all. Jay’s scarred and muscled arms were bared in open threat even as he grinned widely, displaying two neat lines of white teeth. He winked at Lonnie beside Ben, and the girls around her swooned.
“Welcome to Auradon!” Ben stepped forward with Audrey, projecting his voice so the reporters at the edge of the lawn could hear and record him. “I’m-”
“Prince Ben! Hi.” Evie interrupted, batting her lashes. Audrey squeezed his arm tighter. Ben contained his wince to a single eye twitch, but of course Evie zeroed in on the weakness. “I’m Evie, Evil Queen’s daughter, which makes me a princess.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.” The press would only be able to see Audrey’s polite society smile, not hear her words as she spoke levelly. “We don’t recognize your mom’s title in Auradon, which makes you…nothing.”
“Today marks an advancement in Hero-Villain relations!” Ben continued with his pre-written speech before Audrey could provoke one of the Isle descendants into attacking. She was right, but she didn’t need to be so cruel about it. “It’s a day where we step out of our dark, separate pasts into a brighter future as one. A day where-”
“You show four weary travellers the bathroom?” Mal asked sarcastically. She raised an amused brow like she saw right through Prince Ben. He took the out amiably and with no small amount of gratitude. Speeches were his dad’s thing.
“Was it a bit much?” He joked at normal conversational volume. The reporters wouldn’t be able to hear him drop his princely facade.
“Just a bit,” Mal chuckled, pinching two fingers in the air. Ben relaxed an inch.
“You’re Mal, right?” Audrey asked, snapping his tension back up. Her voice was sickly sweet as she placed a proprietary hand on his chest. “Maleficent’s daughter? I’m Audrey, Sleeping Beauty’s daughter and Ben’s girlfriend. You know, I’m so not mad at you for your mom cursing my mom and her whole kingdom to sleep for a century.”
“And I’m totally not upset that your grandparents invited everyone in the realm to their stupid party except for my mom,” Mal agreed in a tone that said she did not agree one bit.
“Water under the bridge,” Audrey said with a fake smile.
“Water under the bridge.” Mal nodded. The two girls giggled falsely and sighed at the same time.
Ben shot a calm and collected dear-god-someone-save-me look over his shoulder. It hit Fairy Godmother, who fairly teleported to his side. “Allow me to introduce Fairy Godmother, Headmistress of Auradon Prep.” Ben stepped to the side as his godmother approached with a welcoming smile. The Isle descendants visibly retreated, taking a step back from her.
“Good morning, children. I’m Fairy Godmother, like Prince Ben said, and I’m so bibbity-boppity thrilled to have you as my students! I know you haven’t had much in the way of, ah, an official education on the Isle, so we may have to work closely throughout the year, but as I always say! The doors of learning are never closed!” She seemed to remember something and wagged a finger faux-sternly at them. “Except for the library, which is open from nine am to eleven pm every day.”
“Right,” Jay drawled. “I’m sure that will be such a problem for us.”
“You might benefit from cracking open a book once in a while, Jay.” Evie snapped unexpectedly. Ben blinked, mentally reevaluating their dynamics. Jay balled a fist, and there was the anger Ben expected.
“Wh-why don’t we take you on a tour of campus!” Ben suggested a little desperately. Audrey threw a polite yet icy glance his way. Doug was supposed to be the one giving the tour, but he wasn’t there yet, and Jay looked a second away from a brawl.
“Sounds captivating.” Mal rolled her eyes but Jay’s fist unclenched and that was all Ben wanted.
“Perfect! So-” He turned to gesture at Dad’s statue in his human form and came face to lens with a camera.
“Hey!” Fairy Godmother planted herself firmly between Ben and the camera. She began to advance on the poor cameraman and his attached reporter. They wisely backed up. “I distinctly remember saying that reporters could come as far as the driveway and no further. Now I’ve never been the most litigious of fairies, but I can assure you I take the care and protection of my students very seriously, and if you publish video proof of your trespassing, I will gladly take you straight to court!”
Her voice became fainter as she bullied the reporters down the driveway.
“Scary lady,” Jay whistled appreciatively.
“Fairy Godmother can be intense about student privacy, what with there being so many royals here.” Ben agreed, trying to share a companionable smile with the other boy. Jay glared at him for the presumption. He nodded, swallowed, and continued with the tour.
They found Doug in the entrance hall, juggling the Isle descendants' schedules, and Ben gladly handed them off to him with only a tiny bit of guilt. Audrey dragged him into the first empty room they came across.
“What the hell was that, Ben?” She hissed, dropping his arm.
“What was what?” Ben asked tiredly. He didn’t have the energy to deal with her right then. His parents and the betrothal agreement could make him be polite most of the time, but Audrey’s sense of entitlement grated on him.
“You were flirting with those villains!” She accused.
“It’s called being polite, Audrey,” Ben said lightly through gritted teeth. “I wasn’t flirting with anyone.”
“I hope not. I’d hate to have to tell my grandmother that you were being unfaithful before we were even married. That might make your parents’ position…precarious.” Audrey patted his chest and left her hand there for a burning second.
Ben stepped to the side. His chest itched. Audrey glared at him briefly before composing herself.
“Anyway,” She opened the door. “I’ll see you at dinner, Benny-boo!” Audrey left, trailing the perfume she thought smelled like flowers but smelled rotten to Ben’s enhanced nose.
Ben took five deep breaths, pasted on his Prince Ben face, and went to find Fairy Godmother. She deserved his thanks, yet again, and he would give it, yet again. She always looked a little sad when he thanked her, but that wasn’t something that Lumiere had taught him how to fix.
“Evie,” Mal ordered distractedly, pointing at one of the open windows.
“Yep.” Evie visibly swallowed down her excitement and closed her assigned window as Mal moved to the other. Locks flipped and curtains closed, Mal felt a little safer. Flimsy wood and cloth weren’t much protection, but they’d do until Mal could do some nighttime warding.
“I never thought the sun would be so bright,” She complained, poking one of the wide beds. There was a duvet on it, something Mal had only ever heard about from Lady Tremaine to keep an eye out for on the Pile.
“I know! Isn’t it just fabulous?” Evie sighed happily, falling backwards onto the other bed. “Oh! Wow. Mal, you’ve got to lie on one of these.”
“I’ll pass, thanks,” Mal said, circling the room.
Whatever stone had made up the interior walls of Auradon Prep was covered or torn down, replaced with the corpses of dead trees. The door was solid wood, and the walls were paneled in thinner slabs of it. Death surrounded them in a cold, magic-blocking cocoon. Mal didn’t like it.
Jay knocked heavily on the door and let himself in after Carlos, who was holding a steaming mug of fragrant tea.
“Where did you get that?” Mal asked, startled and angry. She hadn’t felt so much as a whisper of their presence on the other side of the door. She turned the lock solidly behind them. That, at least, was some kind of metal, but with all the wood surrounding it, Mal couldn't be certain it would hold magic for any length of time. “Did you put us in debt already?”
“Chill, Mal.” Carlos rasped, moving towards Evie and poking the mattress warily. “Doug said we had free access to the student kitchens.”
“Free to access doesn’t mean free to take,” Mal hissed.
“No one was there, and they have more than enough identical shit to hide one missing mug.” Jay began unloading his haul onto the table Doug said was meant for homework, whatever that was. “It was a clean in and out.”
Mal pursed her lips but didn’t argue with her right hand further. Carlos did need it, and it truly wasn’t much in the grand scheme of Auradon’s opulence. She’d just have to make sure it was her or Jay that paid when Fairy Godmother came to collect.
Carlos, apparently having decided the bed probably wouldn’t bite him, sat beside Evie and made a small, shocked sound.
Evie shot upright with a grin. “I know, right?”
“I don’t like that they’ve separated us.” Mal picked up a gold-plated watch from Jay’s haul. Finally, some honest-to-evil enchantable metal.
“Carlos and I can bring our blankets in here, sleep on the floor.” Jay offered.
“I’ll take the floor; Carlos can have my bed.” Mal corrected.
“Not to interrupt your plans of martyrdom, but these beds are big enough for two,” Carlos said. Mal blinked. They were big enough for two. Why wouldn’t they just be given the one room, then?
“Now that’s all sorted, what’s our plan?” Evie asked.
Mal tossed the watch back to Jay. “For now? Find out where Fairy Godmother keeps the wand.”
“What about Uma and the others?” Evie pushed.
“Take the barrier down, and everyone gets out,” Mal said. “We treat the two goals as the same until we can’t, understood?”
“Understood,” Her crew echoed.
“Great!” Mal allowed herself a delightfully evil grin. “Now, let's see what they serve royalty for dinner.”
Chicken slathered in more spices than Mal had ever thought could exist, green vegetables roasted to crispy perfection, pure white potatoes with golden butter, freshly picked red and purple berries in crystal bowls. The students at Auradon Prep ate better than Maleficent.
Carlos’ empty mug was discreetly passed between them, having been snatched from his hand by Evie as soon as he finished. The leaves were muddled but generally positive. Jay poked them into a more protective arrangement before he let Mal take it. She left it beside her plate so that Fairy Godmother, if she came looking, would think she’d drunk the tea.
Prince Ben’s girlfriend Audrey, sat at a table near them. Not too close — they were villains, after all — but close enough for them to hear her every bragging word. A boy with bright blond curls shadowed her like a second skin, looking adoring and petulant in turns. Audrey talked about how much she and the prince loved each other, how she was going to be Queen Above Queens one day, and how worried she was about him now that four villains attended the same school as him.
“Ignore her,” Evie sang under her breath. “Anger isn’t pretty. Am I flushed?”
“Just a bit,” Jay assured.
“But in a hot way,” Mal added.
“Think about stabbing her,” Carlos recommended.
“Oh, I am.” Evie glowered at the princess. Her knuckles were white on her gold-plated knife.
“I notice Prince Ben isn’t here, no matter how much he loves her.” Mal pouted exaggeratedly at Audrey. “Poor little unloved princess. Nothing better to do than lie.”
Audrey pretended she didn’t hear Mal, but her face reddened in unattractive splotches high on her cheeks. Evie twitched a smile at Mal in thanks.
Someone knocked on Ben’s dorm door seven times. Ben considered opening the door himself.
“Come in, Doug!” He called instead. It had taken him fifteen long minutes to find this somewhat comfortable sprawl, and Doug was his friend, so a bit of rudeness was fine. Doug insisted on it, really. He said true friends met you where you were, and right now Ben was on his bed with an arm flung over his eyes.
The door opened a crack and closed a second later. “Hey Ben,” Doug hesitated just inside the room. “Migraine?”
“If Audrey asks, yeah.” Ben had decided he really didn’t want to spend dinner with Audrey clinging to him like he belonged to her to make some weird territorial point to the Isle descendants, who wouldn’t even care. Doug padded over on socked feet. Ben could hear every step, despite his efforts to be silent.
“And if she doesn’t ask?” Doug settled in his place at the foot of Ben’s bed, his back against one of the posts, one leg hugged to his chest, the other stretched up beside Ben. He knew this without looking because that’s what Doug did: offer comfort without forcing it.
“I’m just exhausted,” Ben answered, honest in the low dusk light like he could so rarely be.
“Today was a lot.” Doug agreed. “I’m more surprised you don’t have a migraine.”
He gently prodded Ben in the ribs with the tip of his big toe. It felt good, nothing like Audrey’s proprietary grabbing hands that touched as much of him as possible. Ben hummed appreciatively, and Doug left his toe just barely brushing him.
“When does it end, Doug?” Ben asked into the silence.
“Depends on what it is,” Doug answered reasonably. “When you marry Audrey, or when you become King Above Kings, or when you have a son and pass it on to him. Maybe it ends when you do.”
“Comforting,” Ben snorted, but it was.
Another knock at the door, this time in two groups of two.
“It’s unlocked!” Doug called over his shoulder.
The door opened again, this time long enough for two people to enter. They took off their shoes, and then Ben heard one set of footsteps approach.
“Migraine?” Lonnie asked from much closer than he’d expected. Her feet never made a sound she didn’t want them to, product of her parents' training her to be a great general from birth.
“Hiding.” Doug teased.
“Audrey missed you at dinner.” Chad lowered himself onto the bed at Ben’s feet, lounging across the width of it but keeping well away from touching Ben.
“To an insufferable degree.” Lonnie huffed. She took longer to settle herself, fluffing a pillow and resting it against the headboard before she sat. “If I were Evie, I’d have thrown whatever was in my hands. Or just my hands.”
“Thus beginning a diplomatic incident of truly epic proportions.” Doug deadpanned. The bed shifted slightly as Lonnie telegraphed her shrug for Ben, who still had an arm across his eyes. Ben’s heart swelled with love for his friends.
They sat in silence for a good long while as the sun set behind the curtains. Chad shifted slightly, possibly in response to a look from either Doug or Lonnie over Ben’s head. Lonnie hummed a tune under her breath. Doug’s toe didn’t move.
Finally, Ben felt ready. Dad was always talking about how vital good, honest advisers were and how he needed to cultivate them the way Mom cultivated her roses. “First impressions of the Isle descendants?”
“I’m compromised,” Doug answered immediately. Ben sat up abruptly, glancing sharply at him. “Evie kissed my cheek. I think I’m in love.”
Doug was either supremely unaware that Ben and his parents were molding him to be Ben’s right-hand man when he became King Above Kings, or he was politely ignoring it. Ben was certain it was the latter, but Doug had never outright acknowledged what their little councils meant. Doug let people think his smarts were only for the classroom, but he’d grown up with a stupidly large extended family. He read people more easily than his books.
“Is that all,” Lonnie said dryly. Doug blushed.
Lonnie knew and wasn’t afraid of rubbing it in Audrey’s face. Ben had picked Lonnie for a seat at the table, she was being groomed by her parents to be a general, and she enjoyed a rare level of access to the current rulers of Auradon. Audrey had been assigned to Ben, was being groomed by her mother and grandmother to be a fertile womb, and had only met his parents at state events.
As much as Audrey bragged about having an assured place in the bed of the future King Above Kings, a quiet word from Lonnie reminded everyone that she had a seat at the table — and Audrey’s words would always have to take the long path from bed to table Lonnie’s would never need to walk.
“And you didn’t note anything else about her?” Chad propped himself on an elbow and looked up at Doug.
Chad was a later addition to Ben’s Small Council. Ben and Doug had fallen hook, line, and sinker for his airhead act. Lonnie had been the one to cotton on to Chad ‘coincidentally’ overhearing one too many conversations and having one too many keys he shouldn’t. Chad more than made up for his lateness with his usefulness. Ben used his friend’s guileless persona to keep Audrey occupied. She adored being adored, and Chad had a face for puppy love.
“She’s the Evil Queen’s daughter, but she reads like any social climber.” Doug frowned.
“What about the others?” Lonnie asked.
She pinched Ben’s shirt between two fingers and tugged gently, urging him back to the headboard so he wouldn’t block her view of Doug. He shuffled back obligingly, and her hand moved out of his way without making contact.
“I’m fairly certain that if I checked the security cameras, I’d find that Jay stole a ton of things. He kept bumping into people and not even my Aunt Clumsy is that, well. Clumsy.” Doug answered with an awkward smile. “Carlos kept to the middle of the group and didn’t talk much. I didn’t get a solid read on him, but I think his neck is all bruised up. I made sure to show them the nurse’s office just in case.”
“New or healing?” Chad asked quickly.
“I don’t think it was any of us that did it,” Doug answered with a shrug. “There’d have been hell to pay if it was; they all seemed pretty protective of Carlos.”
“Well, that’s…something.” Bed dropped his head back against the wall and traced the gold embroidery on the deep blue canopy with his eyes. “What about Mal?”
“Schemer,” Doug said instantly. “I’m not sure what yet, but she’s planning something.”
Ben groaned. “Like an assassination?”
“Of Audrey, if we’re lucky,” Chad joked. Ben didn’t even try to muster up a glare. His arm was still sore.
Doug shook his head. “Nah, I don’t think so. She only got this intense look about her when I was showing them Fairy Godmother’s office and where the staff wing is.”
“I noticed Evie watching Coach and Mr. Deley closer than the other teachers.” Ben offered.
“We’ll have to keep our eyes out,” Lonnie said thoughtfully. “But those are two of our few male teachers. They might just be wary of men with power over them.”
“There are just as many female villains on the Isle as men, though.” Chad pointed out. “Maybe even more.”
“And they seemed just fine with Ben,” Doug added.
“It’s something to keep in mind.” Ben sighed. “Along with everything else.”
Lonnie glanced over at him, concern gathering between her brows. “Marching orders?”
Ben thought for a minute. “I think Evie’s the easiest in. Chad, she likes princes. Doug, eyes open. Lonnie?”
“Yeah?” She asked softly.
“Try to keep Audrey from starting a diplomatic?”
She grimaced. “I’ll try.”
Sometime after midnight, someone knocked lightly three times. Ben got up and let Audrey in. Her mouth was on his neck almost the moment he closed the door.
“Audrey!” He nudged her chin upwards — carefully, always carefully. “No marks where people can see, remember?”
She pouted but didn’t complain when he kissed her. Or when he guided them back onto his bed. Or any time after that.
When she was- done, he locked the door behind her. Went to the bathroom. Washed his face. Brushed his teeth until he didn’t taste her.
He didn’t blame her. She’d been instructed by her mother and grandmother to seduce him so he wouldn’t even consider breaking the betrothal agreement, same as he’d been instructed by his parents to keep her happy. It wasn’t either of their faults. It was just the system they lived in.
Ben decided it was a good time for a late-night jog.
It was deep night, past midnight, and Mal was warding. Evie and Carlos were asleep on one of the beds while Jay dozed on the other. Mal leaned on the sill of one of the windows, smoking one of her precious few cigarettes. Power sparked in her lungs as she held her breath after each inhale, forming the smoke to her will. She exhaled a shield around the window.
Two stories below, someone was jogging. They looked up as they neared, and a slice of light from the ground floor fell across one of Prince Ben’s eyes. Mal recognized the look on his face as one she’d seen countless times on kids on the Isle after they’d left a bed they hadn’t wanted to be in.
Prince Ben opened his mouth, looking stricken, like he was about to manage Mal the way she managed an angry villain. The delicious dinner soured in her stomach.
“Hey,” He called in a whisper. “You’re not supposed to smoke inside. You’ll set off the fire alarms.”
“Why do you think I’ve got the window open?” Mal challenged. She could fight if he wanted a fight. Evil knew that’s what Jay wanted after a night like the prince seemed to have had.
Prince Ben swallowed, seemingly unable to think up a response. That was fine too. He wasn’t out at nearly two in the morning because he wanted to socialize.
Mal looked away from the prince, letting her hair fall between them to give him his space. She snubbed out the cigarette on the sill and drew a line across it with the ash. When she looked up, the prince had jogged away.
The wooden frame of the window sparked when it struck the ash line. She tugged it upwards to check, and it didn’t budge. Good. She'd have to keep an eye on it, make sure the magic stuck, but it was a decent ward.
“Who was that?” Jay asked blearily. He was tired, but he was also her right hand, and hands never slept before the body did.
“Prince Ben had a bad night, it would seem,” Mal murmured. She evaluated the stub of cigarette. Enough to be worth saving with the others. “In a bed he didn’t want.”
“Huh,” Jay hummed. “Shit stays the same as much as it changes.”
“Yeah.” Mal slipped under the covers. “It’s all shit, Jay. Welcome to Auradon.”
Breakfast the next morning had eggs. Scrambled, sunny-side up, in omelettes and quiches. Eggs were rare on the Isle; good, whole ones even rarer. Mal put one fried egg on her plate, careful not to burst the yolk, and ate the white clockwise. When only yellow remained, she carefully scooped it whole onto a spoon, casting her eyes about for Prince Ben.
Evie followed her gaze. “You're blessing princes now?” She asked, low and incredulous.
“Princeling had a night at the docks,” Mal told Evie. “I give respect where it’s due.”
Evie hummed, contemplating Prince Ben with Audrey on his arm. He hadn’t looked like he was sore when he entered the dining hall, but a night at the docks could hurt in a deeper way than a bloodletting.
Mal set the unbroken yolk on her tongue and swallowed any pain the prince might have felt.
Remedial Goodness was a joke. Easy enough once you realized the trick — or Mal told you the trick — so it must have been an excuse for Fairy Godmother to keep a personal eye on them. Her suggestion that Jay and Carlos try out for Tourney wasn’t an explicit order, but they’d gotten good at hearing the implied demands of adults.
Jay saw Mal join Evie on the bleachers just before play started again. Mal sagged, exhausted. She was putting too much stress on herself instead of sharing it with their crew. Jay put his worry for his friend out of his mind with Coach’s whistle.
It turned out Jay liked Tourney, which sucked a bit. He’d been so ready to hate it, but flying over the field, dodging silly foam projectiles and slamming into stuck-up princes was like running over the Isle’s rooftops, only safer.
Carlos shrieked as he barrelled towards him and fell on instinct, holding up the play shield to boost Jay into the goal. He looked cool as hell.
“JAY!” Coach yelled before Jay could bask in his awesome play for even a second. He sounded pissed.
Jay trudged over as slowly as he could, bracing for the punishment he heard loud and clear in Coach’s voice. He must have broken a rule somehow, even though he did exactly what Coach told him to and scored a stupid goal.
Any hope he might have had that it would be a private punishment died as the rest of the team followed. A public one, then. Those were the worst; they were meant to send a message of obedience to the onlookers more than the victim, and were more bloody because of it.
Mal and Evie subtly edged towards the field. Jay grabbed Carlos’ attention and made their signal for Don’t look. Carlos inclined his chin a hair. It would never fly with their parents; if a punishment was public, it was meant to be seen. They didn’t know Coach’s punishments and preferences yet, though. He might not notice Carlos looking away, and even if he did, his reaction would be informative.
“Yeah, Coach?” Jay asked cockily as he swept off his helmet. Behind Coach, Mal put a piece of gum in her mouth and began to chew furiously. Chewed gum was a decent bit of first-aid when bandages were scarce, and Jay wasn’t about to learn how expensive those were in Auradon.
“What do you call that?” Coach seethed. The rest of the team huddled close, blocking any exit. Jay forced his muscles to relax, kept an eye on Coach’s hands, and prepared to move with the blow. “I call that a great play.”
“What?” The word slipped out before Jay could bite down on it.
“Come to me later, I’ll show you something you’ve never seen before. It’s called a rulebook.” The gleam in Coach’s eyes that usually warned of violence was still there. So it was going to be a private punishment after all, thank evil for that. Then Coach rounded on Carlos. “As for you,”
Prince Ben laid a hand on Carlos’ shoulder before Jay could put himself between Carlos and the angry man. “I’ll train with him, Coach.”
“Hm. Good.” Coach nodded, backing off. Ceding Carlos’ punishment to the prince? Or was the prince protecting him? “Alright boys, good practice! Hit the showers!”
The players dispersed, chatting amongst themselves, seemingly unconcerned with Coach’s volatile moods.
“Thanks,” Jay turned to Prince Ben.
Prince Ben dropped his hand and smiled kindly. “No problem! We’ll get Carlos up to par in no time.”
“Great,” Carlos said shakily.
“First lesson,” Prince Ben said with a laugh, “Don’t boost the guys on the other team towards the net.”
“Right, definitely.” Carlos agreed. Prince Ben wandered off with Chad as Evie and Mal drew up to them.
“How’d it go with Jane?” Jay asked.
Mal shrugged. “The wand’s in the museum, but it’ll be taken out for the ceremony where Prince Ben is officially named Heir to the Throne.”
“So do we try to get it from the museum or the ceremony?” Carlos wondered.
“I say we check out the museum first,” Evie said. “Maybe we can get out of here before Coach’s later.”
They slipped through the dark halls of the school into the woods. It was more stressful than it should have been, because while Jay could see through metal when he really tried and concrete when he laid a hand on it, Auradon Prep seemed to be made entirely of wood. Carlos hummed to the birds, and they led the way towards the museum.
The Museum of History was built from stone, thank evil, so Mal waited in a shadow with Evie and Carlos while Jay went scouting for the wand. Jay leaned up against a wall and slipped inside.
“What if we cursed Coach?” Evie whispered. Her voice echoed oddly in the shadow.
“They’d know it was us.” Carlos shot the idea down. “Four Isle kids come to town, two of them get added to the Tourney team, one of them gets called to a private beatdown by Coach, and then he gets sick? They’d blame us even if it wasn’t our fault.”
“He’s right. No cursing, E.” Mal said.
Evie pressed her lips together. “Fine. But I’m making us all new clothes with Auradon materials. Our Isle wardrobe isn’t enough protection anymore.”
“You do that,” Mal agreed.
Half an hour later, Jay joined their shadow. “It’s there, alright. But it’s protected, floating in some kind of light barrier. No plinth for me to grab it through. Hell, not even Harry could shadow walk to it.”
“Alright.” Mal blew out a breath. “Plan B. Evie and I will look into the ceremony.”
Chad never felt bad about using his dumb blond reputation for Ben. Quite the opposite, he felt good. He liked being useful to someone, the tool chosen for the job. His little sister Chloe would have said he should feel guilty or even dirty for the deception, but she was idealistic to the extreme. She looked like their parents and was never accused of being a bastard for her too-pale skin and too-blond hair.
Chad had skills, and he used them in service to his future king. Most of the time, all he had to do was gaze wistfully after Audrey and distract her with worshipful fawning every now and again. Even now, as he flirted with Evie, who liked princes, lured her to the bleachers, and left her high and dry for Doug to swoop in, Chad felt nothing but a sense of satisfaction for a job well done.
Chad and Doug were a good team. Ben’s council would be stacked with winners once he became King Above Kings.
“Did she bite?” Chad asked as Doug turned the corner.
“HOLY-” Doug shrieked, clutching his chest. “I hate you. I hate you so much. It’s broad daylight, how do you do that?”
“Do what?” Chad blinked dumbly at Doug, who punched him lightly in the shoulder.
“No, she didn’t bite. Seemed awfully interested in the ceremony, but I couldn’t suss out why.” Doug lowered his voice as they passed a group of younger students.
Chad kept his silly smile on even as he thought deeply. The Isle descendants couldn’t be planning anything nefarious for Ben or Fairy Godmother; they had ready access to both at Auradon Prep. It was unlikely to be related to King Above Kings Beast, or Queen Above Queens Belle, since they’d both be coming to the school for Family Day where there would be far less security.
“Evie’s cute, though.” Chad needled Doug.
“Back off,” Doug returned good-naturedly. “You’re head over heels for Audrey, everyone knows that.”
Everyone did know that. Chad made sure everyone knew that.
When Audrey and Ben were married, no one would be surprised when the Queen Above Queens had an affair with him. The King Above Kings would be busy, or cold, or angry, and his wife would take solace in the one boy who had always adored her. Whoever his parents arranged for Chad to marry wouldn’t be surprised either. She’d say her vows knowing she was marrying a cheater, and Chad’s bed would be an open secret.
Chad would never admit it, even though Doug probably already knew, but he was jealous of him. He’d bet Ben was too, and that Doug also knew that. Lonnie was a coin toss. Her parents would likely consult her before they married her off. Neither Chad nor Ben would ever have a choice in who they bedded. It had all been decided for them years ago; Ben when the betrothal had been signed and Chad when Ben had asked him to keep Audrey occupied.
Thus was the way their world worked.
“I hope she does like you,” Chad offered, hours later in the library. Doug was studying, and Chad was sitting with a book open in front of him without turning a page. He studied for real late at night in their room, where he didn’t have to pretend.
Doug seemed to ignore him. Doug never ignored anyone, so Chad waited. Minutes later, Doug muttered a quiet, “Thanks.”
Being a prince meant Ben had a fair list of duties. Being the son of the Beast, King Above Kings, meant he had a great deal more. He’d always had those duties, though, so the excuse rang hollow even to himself as he knocked on Mal and Evie’s door.
Mal opened it a crack. “Hello?”
“Hi, Mall!” Ben greeted. He firmly ignored the fact that the last time they spoke, she looked at him like she knew what he and Audrey had just been doing, and she pitied him for it. “I wanted to check in, see how you guys were settling in. Do you need anything?”
“Oh, uh, no? No, I think we’re fine.” Mal glanced behind her. The door opened a touch further, just enough for Ben to see Carlos on one of the beds, Jay at a window.
“Great!” Tick that box. “Let me know if you have any questions, okay?”
“Sure.” Mal started to close the door, then opened it again as a thought struck her. “Actually, I heard that the whole school is going to this ceremony for you?”
Ben, with a heroic effort worthy of song, held in his embarrassed groan. “It’s this silly thing to officially name me my dad’s heir, is all. It’s a formality.”
Mal leaned on the door frame with a teasing smile. “Just a formality? So the Fairy Godmother’s dusting off her wand is just for us peasants to gawk at?”
“She’s not going to cast any spells with it,” Ben rushed to assure. “It’s symbolic.”
Mal didn’t look like she believed him, a guarded caution in her eyes. “So I was wondering, can we be in the front row? You know, soak up all that Goodness? I bet the paparazzi would love it.”
Ben considered it for a moment. “I suppose? I could take a look at the seating, but front row isn’t all that close to the action,” He joked. “It’s just going to be me, my parents, Fairy Godmother, and my girlfriend on the dais.”
Mal’s guarded eyes turned calculating for a moment before it disappeared. “Okay! Thank you, bye!” She closed the door on his face.
Schemer, Doug said. Interested in the ceremony. It seemed her scheme truly did have something to do with that useless thing, but that hardly narrowed anything down. All the royal families would be there, making it a huge target but nearly impossible to zero in on a specific person to protect.
So fun.
Okay, Lonnie thought as she watched Ben make an absolute fool of himself, dumping Audrey and asking Mal out. So they were doing something weird in the kitchen last night.
She didn’t do anything about the revelation until that evening, because there was nothing to be done. Chad was placating Audrey, Doug was begging Fairy Godmother to keep the incident confined to school grounds, and Lonnie was watching Mal.
After darkness fell, she stole down the hall to Chad and Doug’s dorm on silent feet. She knocked on their door twice rapidly and slipped in after the lock clicked. She ignored the stab of guilt as they arranged themselves in their usual places on the wrong bed with one quarter of them missing. Her mom said that sometimes, the king’s council needed to meet without him.
“So. Ben broke up with Audrey, tearing up the betrothal agreement and losing his parents the support of the most important kingdom in Auradon,” Chad spoke first. “Why?”
“The Isle descendents were baking last night,” Lonnie told them. “I thought maybe they were settling in-” She ignored Chad’s snort. “But apparently not.”
“Love potion?” Doug asked.
“Could be. I don’t know how they’d have the recipe for it on the Isle of the Lost or in Auradon, but Mal definitely put one of my tears into the batter.” Lonnie said.
“You cried?” Chad looked concerned.
He was sweet like that. Lonnie thought she might like to marry him if her parents asked. She wouldn’t mind that he slept with Audrey, not if she sat on the Small Council of the King Above Kings and kept her husband the rest of the time.
“I was sad. They told me about their parents, in a roundabout way, and I just…I never realized how lucky I was to have the mom I did.” Lonnie answered. She could feel the tears fight to return up the back of her throat. She missed her mom.
“Tears of sadness in a love potion?” Doug murmured to himself.
“Or some magic.” Lonnie reminded. “Could be anything that makes Ben go out of his mind and bend to Mal’s will. How do we un-magic him without magic of our own?”
“The Enchanted Lake,” Chad said, like it was obvious. “It washes off all magic. I could take him.”
“Or we send him there on a date with Mal.” Doug offered. “He’ll want to take her on a date, the least we could do for him while he’s spelled is make sure he doesn’t embarrass himself and Audrey in public. Any more than he already has.”
“I’ll suggest it to him.” Chad volunteered.
“And you’ll be all over Audrey.” Lonnie reminded, feeling a little dirty for giving the order. “The more she pays attention to you, the less opportunity she has to write about this to her grandmother.”
Doug was going to be the Right Hand of the King Above Kings.
He was going to be the second most powerful man in Auradon, above any other king in any other kingdom. He would be richer than his family ever dreamed, able to support all of them and more. Doug was going to be the most eligible bachelor in the realm, with his pick of beautiful, empty-headed women, because the Right Hand’s wife wasn’t important enough for a betrothal agreement. He might even be rich enough to entice a certain Isle princess with a fondness for princes and castles.
Doug was going to make tough decisions that kept him up at night. Decisions where there were no Good answers, only varying shades of Evil. Someday, he was going to pick the worst of a host of bad options, and it would haunt him for the rest of his life. That was what it meant to be the Right Hand to the King Above Kings.
This was his first taste of it.
On one hand, Evie had been cheating with her mirror. Doug didn’t doubt that for a second. On the other, when Mr. Deley had confronted her with it, she’d been terrified of him, and Doug had seen doubt on Chad’s face for the first time ever. Doug convinced Mr. Deley to let Evie take the test without the mirror because he was an idiot, and he couldn’t bear seeing her afraid.
Evie helped Mal drug Ben with a love potion, but Doug was still gone on her. He didn’t think he’d been spelled too — neither Chad nor Lonnie would have let him into last night’s Small Council meeting if he had — so this weakness was all his own.
“Thank you,” Evie said, grabbing his arm after they left class.
“No problem,” Doug replied after a beat. He was as stupid around her as Chad pretended to be around Audrey. Was that a problem? It felt like one. “Mr. Deley was being a dick. I’m sorry he took your non-magic mirror.”
Evie bit her lip. “Well, it. It might have been a little magic.”
Doug’s eyes widened. “Evie!”
“I don’t know anything for that class! We don’t have science lessons on the Isle!” She said, half-desperate.
Doug floundered for a moment because oh of course they didn’t. “That’s- well- uh.”
“Doug?” Evie’s eyes were big and blue and wonderful.
“That’s a good point.” He finished, only slightly strangled. “Would you, uh, do you want to study? With me?”
“We just had the test.” Evie reminded. Her laugh was the best laugh he’d ever heard.
“Right. For the next one, then?” He asked hopefully.
Evie looked, he hoped, a little charmed. “If I pass this one, I’m studying every day.” She kissed his cheek and left.
Lonnie found him minutes later, staring at the corner Evie had disappeared around. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “You’re in trouble, boy.” She teased.
“I think I’m in love,” Doug told Lonnie seriously.
“I know you do. Thank Goodness you’re not a prince with a betrothal, right?”
The problem was exactly that; he wasn’t a prince. Lonnie seemed to read his thoughts in his eyes and grimaced sympathetically. She had something in her heart for Chad; it was obvious to anyone with eyes. It was also obvious to anyone with eyes that anyone Chad married would have to share him, and Lonnie was territorial.
The cool water of the Enchanted Lake washed over and around Ben, peeling the spell away. He surfaced behind a curve in the cliff wall, gasping with a rush of useless adrenaline. Spell- Mal had spelled him. Twisted his emotions to suit her own needs, just like Audrey tried and failed to do all these years. He felt dirtied. Violated.
Mal trampled right past all of his defences like they were nothing, just because she wanted him to…to what? Date? No one ever just wanted to date Prince Ben. They wanted to have him. To use him, his status, his power, his body. What did Mal want?
Ben pressed his forehead to the rough stone. He was only in his swimming trunks, insanely vulnerable and on display, but she hadn’t tried anything yet. In fact — he searched his spell-addled memories — Mal had seemed distinctly uncomfortable whenever Ben drew near her. So not his body.
He needed to think rationally about this. He needed to talk to Doug or Lonnie or Chad, but to do that, he needed to get out of here. His hands were shaking, he noted distantly.
“Ben?” Mal called out. Right. From her perspective, he hadn’t surfaced. Okay, just play along. Be docile, figure out her endgame, and report the love spell to Fairy Godmother if Doug hadn’t already.
He took a deep breath. His foot nudged a stone, and the light he’d thought was the sun on the water moved with it. That would be a good enough excuse. He’d make it a good enough excuse.
“Ben?!” Mal shouted, sounding distressed. Can’t be good to lose your bespelled prince, Ben thought sourly. “Ben!”
He ducked under the water, grabbed the stone, and began to swim towards the pavilion. Mal splashed into the water before he got there before he got there, frantically swimming out towards where he hit the water. How fucking sweet.
When Mal’s feet no longer reached the bottom, her kicking took on a distinctly panicked flail almost right above him. He looked up, waiting for her to find her rhythm, but she didn’t. Mal sank. Oh shit-
Ben surfaced with an armful of writhing, panicked villain. He set her gently on the pavilion and sank back into the bespelled headspace. He channeled Chad’s dopey grin.
“What the hell, Ben?” Mal shrieked. “I thought you drowned!”
“Were you coming to save me?” He asked, feigning delight.
“Yeah, some good it did me.” She groused unhappily.
“Here, I got you this!” Ben held out the glowing rock. She took it. “Make a wish and throw it back in the lake.”
Mal glared at the rock and chucked it back in the lake. Huh. Clearly, she wasn’t worried about him falling out of love with her. He got out of the lake — shaking his head like a dog because Audrey wasn’t there to tell him to stop acting like a beast — and wrapped Mal in his letterman jacket. She shook off his hands. Double huh.
“Mal?” He settled in front of her, reached out to stroke a strand of hair off her face. She regarded him warily. “I said I loved you.” He had, minutes before, and he’d meant it so much it made him want to throw up. “Do…do you love me?”
“I-” Mal abruptly looked away, pulling her hair out of his loose fingers. He dropped his hand. “I…don’t think I know what love is supposed to feel like.”
Oh. That was a surprisingly heartbreaking answer. Likely because she thought he was out of his mind on love magic and barely better than an automaton, but still. He felt sad for her, underneath the churning fear.
Between leaving the Enchanted Lake and returning to his room, Ben figured out the most damnable thing: he liked Mal. She didn’t cling to him. Kept a healthy distance, in fact. They bantered easily without a handbook of court etiquette floating between them, and she looked a little guilty whenever he said something a little too love-struck.
When he opened the door to his room to find Lonnie, Chad, and Doug waiting on his bed, he realized something else: he’d broken up with Audrey. Not really, not permanently; there was still the betrothal agreement signed in long-dry ink by their parents, but he was with Mal now. And that was a damned good reason to keep Audrey from touching him.
“You back with us, Ben?” Lonnie asked cautiously.
“Yeah. Yeah, I am.” He answered slowly. “How long do you think I could keep dating Mal?”
“He’s not back with us.” Doug sighed.
“No, I am, the spell washed off in the lake,” Ben assured, sitting in his usual spot. “But as long as I’m with Mal, I’m not with Audrey, right? So-”
“Ben,” Lonnie said, looking pained.
“Til Family Day.” Chad interrupted. “As long as you and Audrey are copacetic when your families arrive, it should be fine. I can help keep Audrey occupied til then.”
“Chad!” Doug hissed.
“Doug, the man’s going to be with Audrey for his whole fucking life, okay? You don’t know what that’s like, so respectfully, I don’t care what you think. Let him have a bit of freedom for once!” Chad snarled. Doug sat back unhappily.
“Just for a few months,” Ben pleaded. “Just a few months and then I’ll go back to what I’m supposed to do.”
Doug shook his head. “I’ll talk with Fairy Godmother about keeping this idiocy on the down low, but mark my words: this is going to end badly.”
However it ended, it was worth it. It might not have been Good, but it was good.
Ben was hiding in his ensuite. He wasn’t proud of that fact, but now that it was Family Day and he was faced with the fact that Audrey’s mother and grandmother would be at Auradon Prep today, he was terrified. The bubble of happiness he’d so carefully blown and his Small Council had kept from popping was gone forever.
Queen Leah was as power hungry as they came. She’d taken great pleasure in forcing his betrothal to her granddaughter when they were born. She was also a kind-looking older woman who could easily rally the other kingdoms against Ben’s parents if she learned he’d dumped Audrey for the daughter of the woman who cursed her entire kingdom.
Ben’s stomach rolled over. He lunged for the toilet, but he only gagged over it.
Mal knocked on the door to his bedroom. He should have broken it off with her days ago to allow himself the proper time to beg Audrey not to tell Queen Leah. Fuck.
“Ben?” Mal’s voice was muffled by two doors.
“Come in,” Ben sat back against the clawfoot tub. The first door opened and closed just as fast. He liked that about Mal: her privacy. Audrey wanted to flaunt him, but Mal hated when people watched her, same as Ben.
“Ben?”
“In the bathroom.”
Mal’s footsteps approached hesitantly. She peeked through the half-closed door. “Oh my god, Ben! Are you okay? Are you sick?”
Ben chuckled humourlessly. He must look as awful as he felt. “No, Mal. I’m okay.”
“Okay…?” She hovered on the threshold, carefully not intruding into his space. He liked that about her, too; she never pushed him farther than he wanted. Barring the initial love spell, that is.
“Come sit,” He patted the tile beside him. She sat warily, close but not touching. Ben could so easily fall in love with her. For real. “Mal, I-”
“Yeah?” She looked worried for him. Genuinely.
Ben took a breath, looking directly in her eyes because she deserved at least that. They were a pure, beautiful green. “I have to break up with you.”
Mal looked confused, then alarmed, then covered it with confusion again. “What? Why?”
“I know you spelled me-” She opened her mouth, but he kept talking. “It washed off in the Enchanted Lake.”
Mal looked almost offended. “Two months ago? So what, you’ve been playing with me? See how stupid the Isle kid is! She thinks she can get a prince!”
“No, Mal. Please. At first, I only wanted to figure out why you dosed me with a…love potion?” She nodded. “But then I realized. If I was dating you, I wasn’t dating Audrey.”
Mal didn’t follow. “Yes? That is how monogamy tends to work.”
“I didn’t, don’t, want to date her,” Ben confessed quietly to Mal’s holiness in the temple of the cold bathroom. There was no absolution in her eyes. “But I have to. We’re betrothed. If I don’t marry Audrey, her grandmother can take away her support for my father’s rule, and a good number of other kingdoms will go with her.”
“So marry her later, that doesn’t mean you have to date her now!” Mal pleaded, almost like she really did love him. How long had it taken for her to buy her own con? Or had she started to fall like Ben had?
“Audrey’s mother and grandmother are coming today,” Ben explained around the hitch in his throat. “If I’m not dating her when they arrive, Audrey will tell them, and it won’t matter that we’re too young to marry. I have to, Mal.”
Mal deflated against the side of the tub. “Are you going to tell your parents I spelled you?” She asked. Her voice was watery.
“No.” Ben had decided that ages ago, somewhere between opening his door to see his best friends waiting for him and the next morning when Mal turned her cheek away from his kiss. He was going to blame it on stupid teenage rebellion if they ever heard about it. “But I- I know you did it for a reason. If you tell me why, maybe I can still help you. With whatever you need.”
Mal’s next inhale was shaky. “I-” A fat tear rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it away angrily. “It’s the other kids on the Isle. They deserve to get off too. They didn’t do anything wrong!”
Ben almost laughed. That’s it? Mal spelled him, took away his choice, his autonomy, just to get him to do something he was already going to do?
Gave him two months of freedom for free?
“That’s the plan, Mal. That’s always been the plan.” He told her.
A ragged sob tore out of her chest. “Oh. Ben, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
Ben reached for her hand and held it tightly. Tears flowed freely over her cheeks. She reached out, brushed away the wetness on his face he hadn’t noticed.
“Don’t be. These past two months have been…amazing. You fed me the taste of freedom. I’ll never forget that, and I’ll always be grateful.” He tried to smile for her.
“You have to be with her?”
“I do.” Ben leaned forward, telegraphing the kiss. If she flinched or froze, he’d back off. She leaned in. Kissed him right back. It was soft and chaste, wet and salty with their mixed tears.
“I think I love you,” Mal confessed into his mouth. He swallowed down the words before the rest of the world could hear them, because they were just for him. “You asked me once if I loved you. I think I do.”
“I think I love you too.”
“But that’s not enough, is it?”
“No, it’s not.”
Mal closed her eyes, sending more tears spilling. “My mom told me to steal Fairy Godmother’s wand. To take down the barrier.” She told him.
“Are you going to?”
“I have to,” Mal’s voice broke. She opened her eyes, beseeching. “If I don’t, she’ll be so mad. Evie and Carlos and Jay’s parents too.”
“I’ll get the other descendants off the Isle,” Ben promised.
“They won’t let them leave.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Ben said fiercely. “We will. Okay?”
Mal’s eyes flickered between his. “Okay.”
Audrey knocked lightly on his bedroom door three times. Mal wrenched away from him.
“Shit,” Ben whispered. “Mal, stay in here. She can’t know you’re here.”
Mal nodded quickly. Ben splashed cool water on his face and left, closing the door almost entirely. “I mean it, Mal. No matter what you hear, don’t come out.”
The silence was her agreement.
“Ben!” Audrey smiled widely on the other side of his bedroom door.
“Audrey, I was just about to come looking for you.” Ben mustered a smile for her in turn.
“Perfect.” She shoved past him, closing the door behind her. “So you’ve come to your senses? Dumped the slut?”
Ben winced internally but didn’t look at the bathroom. “I- yeah. I have. Audrey, I don’t know what came over me these past couple of months. Can you-”
“Not tell my mom and grandma? Sure, Benny.” Audrey said, sickly sweet and viciously victorious. “I won’t tell her yet. But don’t pull a stunt like that again, mkay? I might not forgive a second…lapse in your judgement.”
“Of course.” Ben agreed.
“Wonderful.” Audrey pressed close, wrapping her arms around him. This was familiar. Her kiss tasted like her cherry lip gloss and wasn’t half as good as Mal’s. Audrey pulled back, breathed, “We have some time before we need to be out there.”
Ben agreed. Mal was a door away, listening, but he agreed. He tried to be quiet, but Audrey didn’t. She reapplied her lip gloss after.
“I’ll meet you in the foyer.” Ben vaguely waved the hand that had just been up her dress. “Just gotta wash my hands.”
“See you!” She kissed his cheek. She didn’t argue because she was going to dip into the student kitchens to drink something that wasn’t thick and salty. They each had their own temples, their own cleansings to do.
Mal was sitting on the toilet, looking wrecked. He washed his hands longer than he needed to.
“Ben, that was ra-”
“Not it wasn’t!” He denied. “It’s just, it’s what we have to do.”
“Audrey didn’t have to do that!” Mal stood.
“Yes, she did!” Ben turned off the water with more force than necessary.
“Like hell!”
“Mal, she-” Ben ran a wet hand down his face. “I don’t know how it is on the Isle. You’ve got a lot of queens over there. In Auradon, a queen only has as much power as her king has love for her. Audrey’s family told her to make sure I love her.”
“Oh my god,” Mal looked sick. “You guys have been…oh, Ben.”
She hugged him. Mal hugged fiercely, protectively, and he buried his face in her neck. She didn’t seem to care that his hands left wet splotches on her back.
“I have to go.” He mumbled. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Mal pressed a kiss to the same place Audrey had. “You do what you need to do.”
As he left, he heard Mal throwing up.
Evie watched Prince Ben come down to the mezzanine above the foyer alone with a growing sense of dread. He glanced down to where Audrey had planted herself in front of a mirror, likely waiting to ambush Mal and Prince Ben, then up to Evie.
“Hey, Evie! Ben, Carlos.” Prince Ben greeted. His smile seemed strained around the edges, but Evie couldn’t pinpoint why. All she knew was her beautiful day with her sweet Doug was becoming less and less likely. “Mal’s just cleaning up in my bathroom. You should go get her.”
“Why aren’t you with her?” Jay challenged.
Prince Ben’s eyes skittered away, then back. “We broke up.”
Evie didn’t gape because that was unbecoming for a princess, regardless of whether Auradon recognized her title or not, but she did stare. The prince was spelled to love Mal to the very core of his being, so he couldn’t have been the one to break it off. Sure, Mal had been looking at a recipe for the antidote for him, but there was no way she’d have given it to him now, not when he could walk outside directly to his parents and tell them about the illegal magic.
Prince Ben cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, uh, you should probably check on her.”
Evie nodded a jerky agreement. Prince Ben walked away, down into the foyer, and came up behind Audrey.
“No way,” Carlos breathed. Prince Ben wrapped his arms around Audrey and kissed her cheek.
“We gotta find Mal,” Jay said. Evie grabbed the boys and rushed up to the prince’s dorm.
They edged into the room carefully. Jay went first because he led their crew when Mal wasn’t there to walk into a trap for them.
“Mal?” Carlos asked into the empty, trap-less room.
“Carlos?” Mal emerged from the bathroom. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and her makeup was smudged. “Jay? Evie? What are you doing here?”
“We ran into Prince Ben,” Evie’s legs ate up the floor as she rushed towards her best friend. “He said you broke up?”
Tears welled in Mal’s eyes. “I think…Evie, I love him.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Evie crushed Mal in a hug. “I’m sorry.”
“You love him so you broke the love spell?” Jay asked incredulously.
“It was already broken,” Mal whispered.
Then she told them everything. Every horrible detail of it.
They ran into Doug on their way out of the school.
“Evie!” He greeted, startled and pleased. “Hi, I was just looking for you. I was wondering if you wanted to play a round of croquet?”
Evie squeezed Mal’s hand. “Hi Doug, I’d love to, but…” She glanced at Mal. She couldn’t leave her, not now, not when Mal was falling to pieces in her hands.
“Ben just broke up with Mal,” Carlos told Doug softly, as though Mal wouldn’t hear him. “We’re gonna stay with her.”
“Or you could all play?” Doug offered, missing the point entirely, which was that Mal was sad.
“Didn’t you hear-” Jay started.
“Ben broke up with Mal, yeah, I heard,” Doug said. “Ben’s been betrothed to Audrey, so it was always coming…you didn’t know.”
Evie shook her head. “There’s no betrothals on the Isle.”
“Oh.” Doug looked a little guilty. “Right. But-”
“But?” Mal asked angrily.
To his credit, Doug didn’t flinch. He held up his hands placatingly, but his feet stayed planted. “But there are people outside who are expecting to see four Isle descendants. You know. Royalty.”
“Why do I care, Doug?” Mal asked, tossing her head like she could toss the tears out of her eyes. “Can’t I wallow for a fucking minute?”
“Not really.” Doug hedged. “Welcome to court, guys. The show must go on.”
“Fine,” Mal snapped. “We’ll play your stupid game.”
Lonnie finished her parents' tour of Auradon Prep in the room she shared with Jane. She missed home. Missed the simplicity of it. Waking up early to train with her mom, politicking lessons with her dad, family dinners with her uncles, and great-grandma. Family Day was supposed to help with the homesickness, and most years it did.
This year, her parents were tense, and it set Lonnie’s teeth on edge. They kept glancing at each other and nearly grimacing. With everything going on — Ben breaking up with Mal almost certainly at that moment, the stress of four plotting descendants roaming freely through the assembled members of the courts, and Coach’s continued refusal to let her on the Tourney team — Lonnie didn’t have the patience she usually did.
“Okay.” She leaned on the door with crossed arms, set her jaw, and looked at her parents. “What’s going on?”
“Sweetheart,” Mom started, then stopped. Lonnie gripped her arms tighter. Mom never hesitated.
“You’ve come to a certain age…” Dad trailed off.
“You’ve set up a marriage agreement for me.” Lonnie decided. “With who?”
Mom looked sad. Almost like she pitied Lonnie as she drew her along to sit on the window seat, holding her hands. Dad sat on Lonnie’s other side with an arm around her shoulders.
“With who?” She asked again, much more shakily this time.
“A council of any kind must be internally strong,” Dad said. “To show a united front and to be able to have hard conversations without worrying about offending or ostracizing another member. A king’s council even more so.”
Mom nodded. “The council of the King Above Kings is the foundation of his rule.”
“I know all this,” Lonnie whispered. Her heart was pounding. An idea was edging around the corners of her mind, but she was too scared to face it head-on.
“And you also know that Prince Ben has requested Prince Chad be infatuated with Princess Audrey.” Mom continued. “False emotions can turn real if they’re worn enough. If Prince Ben’s council is to be strong, if his rule is to be successful, all members must be more loyal to each other than someone without a seat at the table.”
Lonnie felt light-headed. Her breaths were coming too quickly. “Please just say it.”
“We won’t agree to any betrothal without your consent,” Mom said, squeezing Lonnie’s hands soothingly. “But the Queen Above Queens and I would like you to seriously consider agreeing to marry Prince Chad."
The rubber band in her chest that had pulled tighter and tighter as her parents danced around the request snapped. A sob forced its way between her teeth, and Lonnie bent forward over her and Mom’s clasped hands. Tears splashed onto Mom’s lap. She held on to Mom tighter, feeling as though she’d fly apart if she let go.
“Oh, honey,” Mom sighed, bending over Lonnie as best she could. Dad made a soft sound in the back of his throat and hugged tighter. “I know. I know it’s awful to marry someone you know will have to be with another woman. It’s far from the love match your father and I wanted for you. Your generation was supposed to have better lives. I’m sorry-”
“Mom!” Lonnie forced herself to sit upright so they could see her smile, to look Mom in the eyes and be believed. “It’s okay. It’s so much more than okay.”
“It is?” Dad asked. He smoothed a big, calloused hand over Lonnie’s silky smooth hair, courtesy of Mal’s magic.
“Yes,” Lonnie wiped the heels of her palms across her cheeks. “I like Chad. I think I could love him if I tried. He’s sweet and caring and-” Her voice broke under the weight of her relief that she could be married to someone she didn’t have to lie to about her work on the council.
“If you’re sure…I’ll speak to Queen Belle about arranging the betrothal with Queen Cinderella.” Mom said.
“This is good,” Lonnie promised. “This is Good.”
A kind-looking older black woman wandered up to Mal. “Do I know you?” She asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Mal answered politely. She became very aware that her crew was spread out playing croquet.
“Ah, my apologies, then. Do I know your parents?” The woman continued.
“I doubt it.” Mal squeezed one painted nail three times with her other hand and saw her crew’s heads whip towards her. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I know who you are?”
“Oh?” The woman seemed surprised, nearly offended.
“Grandmama!” Audrey appeared with Ben. Fuck.
“Audrey, how are you, my dear?” The woman turned. Mal took a good step back.
“Queen Leah,” Ben kissed the queen’s knuckles. “How good to see you. Where is Princess Aurora?”
“Right over there, catching up with Queen Snow.” Queen Leah pointed out a tall black woman with long braided hair speaking with another woman whose skin was as pale as the flesh of an apple.
Mal felt Jay wrap his hand around her elbow, felt Evie hold her other hand, and eased further away from Queen Leah. Carlos was on Jay’s other side, not holding him in case a fight broke out, but present.
“I see you’ve met Mal, grandmama,” Audrey said with a poison apple smile.
“I have indeed. Is she a friend of yours?” Queen Leah asked.
“Of Ben’s, perhaps,” Audrey said, locking eyes with Mal. “She’s one of his projects. You know, from the Isle.”
It was Queen Leah’s turn to take a step back from Mal. “You!” She cried. Mal stood straighter and watched the closest threat, aware that people were turning, more potential threats drawing near, Princess Aurora and Queen Snow the fastest.
“Queen Leah, how lovely to see you again.” Another woman said as she came up from behind Evie.
“Queen Belle,” Queen Leah said, aghast. “So it’s true, is it? You have allowed the children of monsters into school with our children?”
“Precisely, Queen Leah.” The Queen Above Queens placed a hand on Evie’s shoulder. Evie froze, her terror ricocheting down the line of them. “We have allowed children into a school.”
“And how can you assure the safety of the other students? They were raised by their parents, Belle! Have you forgotten what they did to us? To my daughter?” Queen Leah clutched at her chest over her heart.
Evil, but Mal knew what came next. Demands for retribution, for blood, Maleficent’s first.
“Mother, please.” Princess Aurora drew up to their group, Queen Snow at her side. “I’m sure this is a misunderstanding. No one can leave the Isle.”
“They can and they have, mother,” Audrey said haughtily.
“The children of villains are innocent,” Ben spoke up. “They deserve an education as much as any of us.”
“Do be careful, Queen Belle.” Queen Snow sneered. Her face was still beautiful, even contorted with hatred. “That one’s mother tried to kill me with a poisoned apple; I wouldn’t put it past her to kill you with a poisoned daughter.”
Evie shuddered. No, no, that wasn’t good. Mal had to keep their anger directed at her — she was the leader, she could take it.
“Your majesties,” She started, but what could she say? That they hadn’t done anything to warrant this suspicion? Her whole crew helped brew the love potion for Ben. The queens were right, and Audrey would tell them so as soon as blink.
“Honestly, Queen Snow. Do you think they could have done anything at Fairy Godmother’s school?” Audrey rolled her eyes. “They’d be sent back to the Isle before you could say bippity-boppity-boo.”
“Audrey, my sweet.” Princess Aurora murmured.
“Really, Mom? Let Prince Ben have his charities, what harm does it do?” Audrey replied with a scoff. She was…helping them? When Mal had contributed to her public humiliation? There was a game afoot, and not one to which Mal knew the rules, which made their position tenuous. Dangerous.
“One leads to more.” Queen Leah said imperiously.
“And they were raised by their parents.” Queen Snow added, drawing herself up to her full, rather tall, height. “Taught by them.”
“Taught what? There’s no magic on the Isle for them to learn. I doubt Mal could turn a pistachio into a walnut.” Audrey placed a comforting hand on Queen Leah’s arm.
Princess Aurora linked arms with Queen Snow and Queen Leah. “What’s done is done. Why don’t we find the punch, hm? I think I saw it over by Fairy Godmother.”
Queen Leah took a deep breath, visibly reigning herself in. “Very well. You’re playing with fire, Queen Belle. When it burns down your house, I’ll be sure it doesn’t touch mine.”
“Thank you, Princess Audrey.” Queen Belle sighed once the trio of royal women was out of earshot. She rubbed a proprietary hand across Evie’s back, and Evie clenched Mal’s hand tighter. They weren’t out of the woods yet, not with the Queen Above Queens present.
“Of course, Queen Belle.” Audrey curtsied. “What Grandmama doesn’t know won’t hurt her, yes?”
“Whatever do you mean?” Queen Belle asked. Mal flashed panicked eyes at Ben, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking over his mother’s shoulder.
“I mean whatever strange magics Mal used to make Ben break up with me and start dating her, oh, two months ago?” Audrey simpered. “He’s better now, thank Goodness, but it was rather odd. Don’t you worry, I haven’t told my mother or Grandmama.” She finished with a conspiratorial wink.
Mal went cold with dread and hot with fear. Her heart beat fast, pushing adrenaline to her tingling fingertips. This was it. Audrey was going to bait Queen Belle into sending Mal back to Maleficent as a failure. If she wasn’t executed here in Auradon, she’d be slowly tortured to death by her mother, and the Queen Above Queens was still holding on to Evie.
“Oh, is that all?” Queen Belle’s laugh sounded just like her name. “Princess Audrey, honey. That wasn’t magic.”
Audrey blinked. Ben looked confused for all of a second before his face smoothed.
“No? What was it then?” Audrey asked silkily.
“A lesson.” Queen Belle walked forward — away from Evie, thank Evil — and took both of Audrey’s hands in one of hers. She placed her other hand on Audrey’s cheek. “The betrothal agreement has tied you to my son, yes. But in marriage only. There is nothing in it that requires his devotion to you before then; you have simply been a very lucky girl.”
Mal shifted one foot back, prepared to flee, but a shadow fell over her. It moved around their group, and then the King Above Kings was holding Ben’s shoulder, standing within arm's reach of Evie and Mal. He was huge and terrifying. A beast of a man, that Beast.
“Your majesty?” Audrey said uncertainly.
“Yes, exactly.” Queen Belle’s voice was beautiful the way stained glass was beautiful; hard, easily shattering into a hundred daggers, threaded through with steel. One manicured nail was awfully close to Audrey’s eye. “You are not Queen Above Queens yet, girl. You are simply an arrogant princess who thinks to rise above her station before it is her time. And arrogant princesses, sometimes, need to be taught their place.”
Audrey jerked back. Queen Belle let her hand fall from her cheek, but held Audrey’s hands firmly.
King Beast spoke. “Did you think our son did anything without our knowledge and approval? Princess Audrey. I’m disappointed in you.”
Audrey’s eyes were limned in silver. “I-”
“Hush, honey. It’s okay. This is a complicated game, and you are only a little girl. You’re not expected to understand, not yet.” Queen Belle said softly. She stroked a finger along the underside of Audrey’s jaw from hinge to chin. “Go to your grandmother. Tell her you’ve learned your lesson or not; it is immaterial. Enjoy your day with your family. I’m sure you’ve missed them.”
Audrey curtsied and fled.
“You knew?” Ben asked. He seemed small for the first time ever. Even in the bathroom earlier that day, Ben had known exactly what he was supposed to do and who he was supposed to be.
“No, of course we didn’t.” Queen Belle turned around with pursed lips.
“But we’re sure you and Fairy Godmother had a good reason for not telling us.” King Beast nodded to Doug, suddenly at Evie’s side. He was placating his wife more than his son, but he was still too angry and too close to Ben.
“It’s my fault!” Mal shook off Jay and Evie, stumbled forward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about the betrothal. It’s my fault.”
“You didn’t make Ben break up with Audrey, dear.” Queen Belle said, far too kindly for what Mal deserved. When she found out Mal had stolen her charity, she would be so, so mad.
“This is entirely my son’s fault. Regardless of whatever siren your father might be, I’m sure you’re not your parents.” King Beast assured.
Mal swallowed. She was wearing new clothes, she reminded herself. New clothes lovingly stitched by Evie’s hands from Auradon materials. They would cushion any blow, hold her together through any punishment. Even, she hoped, one meted out by the hands of the Beast.
“You’re wrong.” She said firmly.
“Mal?” Ben frowned. She looked at him, thought about how he loved her, and finally figured out what Fairy Godmother was trying to teach them in Remedial Goodness.
It wasn’t about the small things — handing poisons over to the proper authorities or giving bottles to babies — it was about doing the right thing even when you were afraid. Even when you knew it was going to hurt. Being Good wasn’t about absolute obeisance or deference. It was about speaking back to authority when you needed to, when they were wrong and you knew what was right. Most of all, being Good meant being brave in the face of terror and agony.
“I spelled him!” Mal cried before she lost her new scrap of bravery. “I’m exactly my mother’s daughter, I promise. It’s not Ben’s fault, so please. If you have to punish someone, punish me.” She was begging. Maleficent hated begging when she’d made up her mind, but the Evil Queen was malleable with the right amount of desperation. Mal could only hope it was the same for all queens.
Queen Belle seemed stunned speechless. King Beast dropped his hold on Ben and took a step towards Mal, raising a hand.
Oh. It was happening now, then. In the middle of the croquet green. Mal flicked her fingers, telling her crew not to watch, and raised her chin. She wouldn’t cower before the King Above Kings of a nation that valued Goodness and bravery.
She would be Good, and she would be brave, and she would make Fairy Godmother proud.
“Dad!” Ben grabbed King Beast’s rising arm. King Beast looked between Mal and Ben.
“Oh dear,” Queen Belle smoothed her hands over her dress. “Quite the situation you’ve cultivated here, Ben.”
“Mom, please-” Ben snapped his mouth shut when Queen Belle raised her hand for silence.
“It’s Family Day. We will make no scenes, boys. Understood?” She ordered.
“Of course, dear.” King Beast backed down. “We ought to take advantage of the concentration of court members present.”
Queen Belle clasped her hands primly in front of her. “Precisely. Now, you and Ben are going to catch up with Queen Cinderella and King Charming, and I believe I heard Queen Mulan looking for me earlier. Doug, be a dear and talk to Queen Snow. And children?”
She addressed Mal and her crew.
“Yes, your majesty?” Mal asked, proud that her voice didn’t shake.
The Queen Above Queens smiled. When she spoke, her voice was nothing like the cold and distant beauty of stained glass. It was warm, earthy, and kind. “No one is in trouble. There will be no punishments. Not today, nor tomorrow, nor any day that follows. Enjoy your croquet.”
Snow motioned for Doug to sit on the couch in the small sitting room her nephew led her to and stood with her back to the tall windows, hands clasped delicately in front of her. Something had happened on the croquet green. Something had almost certainly been happening since the children of villains arrived at Auradon Prep, and Snow wanted to know just what it was and how Doug was involved.
Doug, who stood beside the Evil Queen’s daughter without fear. Snow’s stepmother’s blood daughter, a mirror image of her mother’s youth. Her heart felt rotted with hatred that the woman who took away her ability to conceive had birthed a better daughter.
Snow knew her face must look dreadful, a wrathful queen carved from alabaster, but she couldn’t bring herself to drop the mask, lest she fall to rubble. She was scaring Doug, and she didn’t know how to stop. Perhaps the gods knew what they were doing; she would have been a horrible mother.
“You were playing croquet with them.” She said stonily. Doug’s eyes flickered around the private room before returning to land squarely on her.
“I was, your majesty.” Doug dipped his head in agreement.
Snow was saddened, as ever, that her dear dwarves’ children saw her as the coldly perfect queen her stepmother feared she would become, not the beloved aunt she desired to be. She mourned that Doug thought himself merely a very fortunate subject with his queen’s favour, not family.
“Why?” She asked simply.
“Should I not have?” Doug replied quickly, seeming to brace for a battle. One that found him not on the side of his Queen but that of her — quite possibly Evil — stepsister.
“Did I say you should not have?” Snow arched a black brow. Doug fell into sullen silence. “Whatever or whomever you believe to protect, know that the Queen Above Queens and the King Above Kings are, in all likelihood, extracting the complete tale from Prince Ben as we speak.”
Doug clasped his hands together and continued to stay silent.
“Add to your calculations that I don’t like not knowing.” She said, rather more sharply than the situation required.
It was her fatal flaw, her obsession with knowing. In her defense, she hadn’t known that poisons could be bonded to the skin of apples, or that beautiful sorceress queens could turn themselves into old hags if they so desired. Snow made it her business to know things like that now.
Doug exhaled slowly, thinking. Filtering the facts.
“Don’t manage me, Doug.” She snapped. “Tell me what happened, then tell me how you want to move forward. Persuade me.”
At last, he did.
Snow listened to the whole terrible story as it poured from Doug’s lips in a barely-controlled torrent. As though now he’d been ordered to tell her, he needed her to know it all at once. As though he was afraid she would stop him before he could get it all out.
She didn’t.
“And then I brought Evie, Mal, Jay, and Carlos up to Evie and Mal’s room — which I think the four of them have been sharing — and came down here.” Doug finished. “They only did it because they’re afraid of their parents, that’s all! They’re not Evil, I swear it!”
Snow closed her eyes briefly. She knew all too well the terror her stepmother could impart upon a child.
“You know it is entirely likely Queen Leah will demand their return to the Isle regardless of whether or not Princess Audrey informs her of the truth of the matter,” Snow told him.
“I know,” Doug said softly. Subdued. His hands twisted on his lap.
“Doug.” Snow gave in and sat beside him, covering his hands with one of hers. “Tell me what you want, and I will do my utmost to give it to you.”
Doug’s mouth opened and closed. “But you’re friends with Princess Aurora.” He whispered, harsh with grief as he spat the words onto his lap.
“I am.” Snow acknowledged. “And Prince Chad loves Princess Audrey.”
His throat bobbed. “I want them to stay. I want the other kids on the Isle to get out. I want-” He hesitated. “I want Evie to be safe and happy.”
Snow nodded, patted his hands twice. “Very well. I shall see what I can do.”
Doug snapped his eyes up to meet hers, scanning for something. Lies or judgment or hatred, whatever his teenage mind expected would come from his queen for loving the daughter of her enemy.
“Just like that?” He asked, sounding terribly young.
Snow kissed the top of his head as she stood. She took the moment he couldn’t see her face to grieve his lost childhood, her brave nephew who would be the Right Hand of the King Above Kings.
“Just like that.”
King Beast’s Small Council met in Fairy Godmother’s office as the sun set on Family Day. King Beast and Queen Belle sat on one of the couches, across from Fairy Godmother and Queen Mulan. Snow took the chair between the couches that stared down the length of the low table into the wide and deep fireplace.
“Let us begin with the good news of the day, shall we?” Queen Belle sounded a tad dazed. “Queen Mulan informs me that Princess Lonnie has agreed to be married to Prince Chad.”
“I expected it would take longer than a single afternoon.” Snow formed the question as a statement, should Queen Mulan not wish to discuss her methods.
“She was happy for it.” Queen Mulan said. Snow felt her brows shoot up. She certainly would not have agreed to be wed to a man whose indiscretion with his bedmates was well known. Queen Mulan turned red-tinged eyes on Queen Belle. “Happy. To be married to a boy who will grow into an adulterer on your son’s command.”
Fairy Godmother pressed a teacup into Queen Mulan’s hands and rubbed her back sympathetically.
“They’re not little children anymore.” Snow mused, stirring a cube of sugar into her tea. “They don’t simply understand that sacrifices need be made in the nebulous future; they have already begun making them. Prince Ben builds the foundations of his rule now.”
“What’s your point?” King Beast asked testily.
“That we should bring them to the table, so to speak. These past months are a testimony to what happens when they think themselves alone.” Snow answered calmly. She tapped her spoon on the rim of her cup and took a dainty sip.
Fairy Godmother sighed. “I did so hope they would come to me for more than my silence. I agree with Queen Snow; they must be included in our plans. As should the descendants from the Isle.”
“Why?” King Beast frowned. The furrow between his brows spoke volumes: he was against the idea, but willing as always to hear out his council members. “Why not return them to the Isle and be done with Ben’s failed experiment? They placed a spell on my son that violated his very mind.”
“Because they are children, your majesty. Not little, no, but children nonetheless.” Fairy Godmother answered. “Children who, as your own son tells it, only wish for the other children on the Isle to be granted the same chance at a good life as them. They’re Good children dealt a bad hand.”
“What say you to that, Queen Snow?” Queen Belle asked.
“I hadn’t made up my mind myself.” Snow confessed. Even earlier that day, with Princess Aurora on her arm and Queen Leah spitting fire, Snow had yet to decide for herself if she supported Prince Ben bringing the children of their enemies off the Isle.
“But?” Queen Belle prompted.
“But.” Snow tapped one of her rings against her teacup contemplatively. “I’ve spoken with Doug, and he’s asked that they stay in Auradon. He wants the rest of the children to be taken off the Isle as well.” She made eye contact with each of the others to impart the importance of the request on them. “Doug has never asked me for anything before.”
“It would be difficult.” King Beast warned. “Near impossible if Queen Leah throws the weight of her crown against it.”
“I’m sure something could be found to appease the women of her house,” Snow said. “Their chief grievance would be with Mal, correct? Queen Leah and Princess Aurora for being her mother’s daughter and Princess Audrey for stealing Ben from her, for however short a time.”
“What do you propose?” Queen Mulan asked.
“Marry the girl to one of the boys.” Snow shrugged elegantly. “Either her new husband keeps her entertained or, should she continue her dalliance with Prince Ben, she’s as much an adulterer as him, and Princess Audrey, and Prince Chad. None of them would have the moral high ground, and so none of them could cause a stir without being implicated themselves.”
Fairy Godmother grimaced. “This new age of blackmail…times used to be so much simpler. If you do this, I would suggest that Jay be married to Mal. The two of them are as close as friends can be.”
“Done,” Queen Belle agreed. “And what of the other two? Would you have us marry them as well?”
Snow cocked her head to the side. “No. If your majesty would indulge my own selfish request?”
Queen Belle nodded her assent and gestured for Snow to do so.
“I would ask that my stepsister, Evie, be married to Doug. He is quite clearly in love with her, even if he wouldn’t say as much to me, and she, in turn, took comfort from his presence earlier today.” Snow said softly.
“We will consider.” King Beast said, as much agreement as the man would give for the moment. “If we continue along this route, we should provide the protection of a marriage to all the children, lest the villains demand their return. Fairy Godmother, you’ve watched them. Can you see any potential partners for Carlos De Vil?”
Fairy Godmother hummed unhappily. “None that spring to mind. Carlos spends most of his time with his friends or playing Tourney with the boys.”
“There are precious few girls in Auradon for whom a marriage to him wouldn’t be an unacceptable step down for their families. The concentration of royal blood in these halls assures it.” Queen Mulan noted. “What of your girl, Jane?”
Fairy Godmother blinked. “I- Jane’s a skittish young thing. She’ll be scared of any boy I propose to betroth her to, let alone the child of a villain. She could barely look at them for a month.”
“Yet have we any other eligible young ladies to consider betrothing to De Vil?” Snow cut in. “I find I cannot think of one. All others are too young, already promised, or have parents more loyal to Queen Leah than Auradon.”
“That is…true.” Fairy Godmother sighed. “I suppose it would be selfish of me to cheerfully see all your children married off for the betterment of the kingdom, but keep my Jane to myself. And if she must marry one of them, Carlos is the least…physically intimidating.”
Queen Mulan squeezed Fairy Godmother’s wrist gently. “Not all marriages are the things of fairytales.” She said sadly. “But there can be happiness found in any marriage, no matter how small.”
Fairy Godmother nodded, even as silver swelled to limn her eyes.
“And next year we can bring more children from the Isle to Auradon Prep.” Snow made sure to add. “It will be a slow process of years to extract all the children without arousing any suspicions that it is an evacuation, but it can be done.”
“Especially if we form a united front with Ben’s council and the four Isle descendants.” Queen Belle agreed with a significant look at King Beast.
A long minute of silent conversation passed between the King Above Kings and the Queen Above Queens before King Beast looked to Snow. “You are certain in this course? You would have the difficult task of placating Queen Leah’s house through your friendship with Princess Aurora.”
“It will be complicated and difficult for a certainty, your majesty,” Snow answered. “But Doug asked me for it, and I would move heaven and earth for my nieces and nephews. It is difficult to think those children on the Isle have never had anyone who would do the same for them.”
King Beast nodded thoughtfully. “Then that is what we will do.”
Evie held Doug’s hand as they walked, even though her palms were sweaty and her grip kept slipping. Being summoned by the Small Council of the King Above Kings could only mean one thing: they were being sent back to the Isle. Evie didn’t want to leave Doug, so she held on tight enough to remember what the potential for happiness felt like in her hands long after it was torn from her.
“It’ll be alright.” Prince Ben told Mal. He didn’t look like he believed it.
Jay slung an arm around Carlos’ neck and glared at Prince Chad, leaning against the wall beside the door to Fairy Godmother’s office.
Lonnie rounded the corner with Jane on her arm. That was unexpected.
“Well! Looks like we’re all here.” Lonnie said with a smile that was a lot more believable than Prince Ben’s. “Shall we?”
Prince Ben knocked on the door.
“Enter!” Fairy Godmother’s voice called, and they did.
King Beast was there, of course, as was Queen Belle, standing before the great fireplace.
“Welcome, welcome.” Queen Belle smiled brightly, patting the arm of one of the couches. Prince Ben sat, pulling Mal and Prince Chad down on either side of him. “No one’s in trouble; we simply have a few questions to ask and some plans to make for our future.”
Fairy Godmother and Queen Mulan made sense to be on the Small Council. Each of them hugged their daughters and bade them sit on the couch opposite Prince Ben’s.
What surprised Evie like an anvil swung into her stomach was Queen Snow, standing primly behind a pair of high-backed armchairs. Poisoned daughter, Queen Snow had called her. It still rang in her head, an indictment and conviction in one. Poisoned daughter, poisoned daughter.
Fairy Godmother urged Carlos and Jay to the couch beside Lonnie and Jane, leaving Evie and Doug to sit in the armchairs with their backs to Queen Snow. Evie tried very hard not to look at the marble-faced queen and keep her hands from shaking.
“So,” King Beast said once they were all settled. Evie was very conscious of Queen Snow standing between her and Doug, a hand on each of their chairs. “We’ve come to a crossroads. You’re all nearly adults now, and these past few months have proven what can happen when the current and future king’s councils aren’t aligned.”
“Dad-” Prince Ben leaned forward, a determined expression on his face Evie recognized. It was the same one Mal wore when she tried to take a punishment for her crew. Queen Belle raised a hand with a sharp look, and Prince Ben fell back. Evie didn't know if that meant Prince Ben was too afraid of his parents' punishment or not as brave as Mal.
The corner of King Beast’s mouth twitched upwards. “Wait and see what I have to say before you leap to anyone’s defense, hm?”
Prince Ben clenched his fists on his legs and nodded sharply.
“Good. First and foremost, we will not be sending anyone back to the Isle.” King Beast said firmly. Evie choked on a gasp of mingled relief and horror that drew the attention of the terrifying King Above Kings. “Nor will anyone be punished for anything that has transpired in the last months.” He added, looking directly at her.
“Why?” Jay asked. His jaw was set, muscles clenched to dive between any member of their crew and the king.
“Because you’re children, Jay.” Fairy Godmother answered, soft and sad. “Trying to do the best you can for your friends with the limited resources we left you.”
Jay glared disbelievingly at her. Jane looked very confused.
“Ah, Jane.” Queen Belle said. Jane jumped ever so slightly and looked up at the queen. “I believe you are quite a few pages behind us. In brief: Mal fed Ben a love potion some months ago with the goal of either stealing your mother’s wand or using his status to get the rest of the children off the Isle of the Lost. The spell was promptly broken, but you can imagine how furious Princess Audrey was, nevertheless, that my son broke from the betrothal agreement.”
Jane nodded, eyes wide. Mal looked slightly ill at having their plans exposed so plainly.
“Which brings us to where we are.” Queen Belle continued, spreading her hands to indicate the room and the odd group of them. “With a few problems. The first being ensuring Prince Audrey does not inform her mother and grandmother of the enchantment, and the second being ensuring Queen Leah does not demand the return of the children to the Isle.”
“With all due respect-” Jay started, not very respectfully.
“Jay!” Carlos hissed, tugging at Jay’s arm.
“No, it doesn’t.” Jay ignored Carlos. “You were fine with us being on the Isle until three months ago, so why not just send us back?”
“Because Doug asked for you to stay.” Queen Snow answered coolly. “And then we thought for a bare few moments about how cruel we had been in forcing you to live with villains your entire lives.”
Evie glanced at Doug, who was looking up at Queen Snow, mouth parted in shock.
“Okay,” Mal said shakily. “How do we do that then?”
Queen Belle smiled down at her. “To keep Princess Audrey from exposing your relationship with my son, I would betroth you to another. If she continues to kick up a fuss, she would risk exposing her relationship with Prince Chad outside her betrothal.”
Mal swallowed. “And that would keep us from going back to the Isle?”
“Not on its own, no.” Queen Mulan said. “But with a few other betrothals to members of Auradon’s court to tie your group to the land, we believe so, yes.”
Prince Ben frowned. “You’re leaving a way for me and Mal to keep being together.” He said, sounding awed.
King Beast hummed.
“Who would I have to marry?” Mal asked. She squared her shoulders.
“We were thinking your friend Jay, perhaps.” Queen Belle answered. “It wouldn’t tie you to Auradon perfectly, but it should placate Princess Audrey well enough.”
Mal and Jay looked at each other, eyes wide.
“If it-” Mal started.
“Okay.” Jay agreed. “But you said other betrothals? With Carlos and Evie?”
Evie thought about marrying Carlos and made a face. It would be like marrying her little brother. At least Mal and Jay had flirted around the idea of a relationship in the past, before deciding that keeping the crew together was more important than a potential breakup.
Fairy Godmother put her hands on Jane’s shoulders.
“Oh,” Jane said, and looked at Carlos.
“Oh?” Carlos asked warily.
“A betrothal between you, Carlos, and my daughter would make it impossible for Queen Leah to demand your return to the Isle.” Fairy Godmother murmured. Jane squeaked in fear.
“Mom, you promised you wouldn’t!” She half-turned in her seat, betrayal laced through every word.
“I know, sweet.” Fairy Godmother said, half apologizing, half pleading. “But sometimes the Good of the kingdom, the safety of another, is more important than the promise of a mother. And there was no one else we could marry him to.”
“Better him than me,” Jay said after a beat.
Jane nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“A great start to a marriage,” Carlos muttered. Jane flinched. “What about Evie?”
“Evie will be marrying Doug.” Queen Snow said in a tone that brooked no argument.
Evie whipped her head around to look at Doug. Her Doug. He looked simultaneously pleased and sheepish. She grinned.
“At least someone’s happy.” Jay snorted, not mean but teasing.
“I’m quite pleased.” Lonnie objected.
“Are you getting betrothed too?” Jane asked.
“To Chad.” Lonnie waved her fingers at Chad, who smiled winningly.
“If the point is to keep them here,” Prince Ben said slowly, “Then at least Mal should be on my Small Council, right?”
“It would be prudent to have one or more trusted descendants of villains on your council if you are to rule them.” Queen Mulan agreed. “Which is the second part of our plans: to evacuate the children off the Isle slowly enough so as not to raise any alarm among the villains.”
This time, it wasn’t only Evie who choked.
“Really?” Prince Ben asked his parents.
“Really.” King Beast assured. “It will take years to do it properly. We were thinking of taking in groups at the beginning of each school year, starting from the youngest school-aged children to the oldest.”
“By the time you reach the oldest, they won’t be children anymore.” Evie pointed out softly.
“But they will still be innocent of their parents' crimes.” Fairy Godmother said.
The words stunned Evie to silence.
“But if they’re adults, we won’t have the excuse of school to get them into Auradon,” Lonnie noted. “Shouldn’t we go in reverse order?”
“No, the young ones should get off first.” Jay shook his head.
“What about a pincer?” Mal offered. “The youngest and the oldest, meeting in the middle.”
“A very good thought.” King Beast praised. “We have time to decide, however. It needn’t be tonight.”
“Well!” Lonnie clapped. “Are there any other life-changing revelations we need to make, or can we go start processing these ones?”
“There is one more thing, not sure how life-changing it is, though,” Chad said, sitting up out of his relaxed lean for the first time. “Where are Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos going to stay when school’s not in session?”
Queen Belle blinked. “You know, we hadn’t quite made it so very far beyond the initial emergencies.”
“My castle is more than large enough for my stepsister and her friends.” Queen Snow said easily.
Evie boggled quietly.
Queen Snow was indeed, technically speaking, Evie’s stepsister, but she hadn’t really thought about their relationship much. Queen Snow had every right to hate her, the blood daughter of the woman who tried to kill her, but she claimed Evie easily.
“Thank you, Queen Snow.” Queen Belle said. Queen Snow inclined her head regally. “With that covered, I believe we can call an end to this meeting of Small Councils.”
Prince Ben stood shakily, and the rest of them followed suit. Just before they left, Queen Snow spoke.
“And children?” She called. They turned to look at her. “Do remember that you are not alone in this life, yes? Let us not repeat these last few months.”
“Yes, your majesty.” Prince Ben agreed.
Today, Prince Ben was officially named as Heir to the King Above Kings. He stood tall on the dais in the same cathedral his parents — King Above Kings Beast and Queen Above Queens Belle French — were crowned in less than two decades ago. At his side stood his betrothed, Princess Audrey Rose, and his parents. Keen eyes noted the peculiar seating arrangement of the first row. Prince Chad Charming and Princess Lonnie Hua were seated side by side, as were Jane Blue and Carlos de Vil, Mal of the Moors and Jay Al-Jafar, and Evie White and Doug Gold.
Inquiring minds want to know: Is the Queen Above Queens trying to breed Goodness back into the bloodlines of the most notorious villains?