Robin Mills

I personally have a problem with Charlie's plan.

I understand why she suggested it, and I understand why Neal thinks it's a good idea, but I'm not willing to put my trust into two more people.

For all we know, the prince and princess could immediately send their guards on us and lock us up, leaving us to go back to Fiona.

But at the same time, we can't hide forever.

As I lay on Charlie's bed going over the plan in my head (get in through Charlie, talk to Mariah and Gustin, hope they agree to help us, use magic if they don't agree...), Gideon walks in and lays beside me.

He looks at me eagerly, as if he's been wanting to talk to me for a while.

"Where's Charlie?" He asks and I turn to face him.

"Downstairs with Neal and her uncle. I think they're going over the plan again."

That made Gideon's head perk up a little. I guess that's what he wanted to talk to me about. The plan. "Speaking of.. What do you think about the plan?"

"I think.." I trace one of the squares on Charlie's blanket as I think of what to say, "We should try it, but I'm also scared."

Gideon nods, the expression on his face showing he agrees with me. "I'm scared too. I don't want to end up back with Fiona."

"Yeah, I don't either."

"If the plan goes wrong, though, we can blast them," Gideon grins, which makes me laugh.

Charlie walks in mid-conversation. Gideon looks over at her, visibly annoyed for interrupting us, but we are in her room after all.

"Robin, I have to buy material to make the gowns and suits. Do you want to come with me?"

I sit up on her bed. "I'll probably just be recognized."

"Yeah but.. I don't know what colors you want, and I'm very passionate about making people the perfect dress."

I open my mouth to say what my favorite colors are, but Gideon speaks up. "There's a spell for that, you know. To walk around unrecognized."

I whip my head to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "And you couldn't tell me this earlier?"

Gideon puts his hands up in defense. "I didn't know until I looked through the spellbook!" He defends.

"I've looked through it, I didn't see a spell like that," I argue.

"Do you want me to show you?"

"Yes! Yes, I do!"

Gideon groans. "Making me get off the bed.." He mutters while scooting off the bed.

I get off the bed. "It was your idea!"

"Yeah, yeah," Gideon walks out of the room and I follow close behind him, hearing Charlie giggle at the two of us bickering when I walk by.

Gideon walks into his and Neal's room, walking over to the bedside table. Gideon pulls open one of the drawers and picks up the spellbook. I sit down on the bed and look around. I hadn't been in their room up until now.

It's bigger than Charlie's, but not by that much.

I look up at Gideon when I hear the sound of pages flipping stop. "Here," He says and hands me the spellbook.

I read through the page. I swear I've seen this page before, how did I miss it?

"Illusory Disguise

How It works: Allows you to not be recognized by other people. Typically used when you need to run to the market, but don't want people to talk to you"

I chuckle at that. This spell would've been nice to have back at Fiona's.

"Duration: One hour

Incantation: fac mihi ignoti partibus"

"This doesn't seem too hard. What section is it in?"

"Easy, there's a harder version too, and that one lasts longer."

"When have you had the time to read through this?" I look up at Gideon curiously.

"I read through it last night. Wasn't tired," Gideon shrugs.

"Alright. I'm gonna go with Charlie, then. I don't know how much time she'll need." This is a true statement. The ball is tonight and I have no idea how long it actually takes to make a dress.

"Do you know what time the ball is?"

"All I know is that it ends at midnight.. Like in every story I've ever read."

Gideon makes a noise and falls back on his bed. "Have funnnn!" Gideon sings.

"I willlll!" I sing as well and walk out of the room, passing by Neal on my way out. I head back to Charlie's room.

"I have the spell," I announce when I walk back in. Charlie looks up at me and grins. "How will we know it works?"

"Well.. I'm not sure if it'll work on you or not. We'll just have to see when I cast it."

Charlie silently agrees with me and I flip back to the page in the spellbook that contains the spell. I made sure that I marked it, considering I couldn't find it the first couple of times. When I find the page, I set the book on the dresser so that my hands will be free.

I read the incantation once more before reciting it. "fac mihi ignoti partibus," I whisper. As soon as I cast it, I feel the feel of magic running through me. I look over at Charlie, who gave me a thumbs up.

"Can you recognize me?" I ask her and she shrugs slightly. "I can't but.. I know it's you, considering I watched you cast the spell and all."

"Good point. Should we try Neal? Or your uncle?"

Charlie chuckles a little. "My uncle would be so confused."

Charlie and I both walk into the hallway. As soon as we turned, we ran into the guy we wanted to see.

Neal.

Neal raises an eyebrow at the two of us and walks over. "Charlie? do you know where..." He glances over at me, confused as to why I'm with Charlie. "Who's that?"

"That's Robin," Charlie gestures at me with a grin, which made Neal look even more confused. Poor Neal.

"Why don't I recognize you?" He asks me and I pat him on the shoulder. "I casted a spell. It has a time limit so I'll fill you in later but thank you, now I know it worked." I smile at him and walk off, leaving a very puzzled but amused prince charming behind me.

"How do you think I would look in red?" I ask as I hold up a long piece of red fabric against me.

Charlie glances over at me "Really good. It matches your skin tone." She then continues looking at fabric and silk to make the guys' suits. "What colors would the guys look good in?"

I walked closer to her, waiting for the people near us to walk away so I could answer. "Blue for Gideon, purple for Neal," I whisper.

"I was thinking green for Neal, but purple might work better actually."

"You're the one making them, so it's up to you really."

"I don't want them to hate what they're wearing."

"Trust me, they won't. If they do I'll hex both of them."

Charlie holds back a laugh and puts blue and purple fabric into her basket. "If you see a color you like, just let me know." She says and walks a little way to look at the darker shades of fabric.

I want something simple and to the point, so I remain where I am. I look through all the different colors that are on the shelves. It looks as if a rainbow has thrown up in here.

I end up coming across a very pretty rose gold fabric. I could care less about my dress, but something inside of me was telling me this is the one.

I walked away with the fabric to find Charlie, who was holding a dark pink fabric when I found her.

"I guess we had the same idea," I grin at her and hold up the rose gold fabric. Charlie gasps and slowly takes it from me. "That's gorgeous!"

Charlie puts the fabric down in her basket after gushing over it. "If I didn't already find this color, I would steal this one from you."

I snorted. "Bold of you to assume I would let you do that... The spell wears off in ten minutes. Do you have everything?"

Charlie nods. "Everything else is at the cottage. My aunt sewed a lot before she..." Charlie trails off, a sad look filling up her face.

I didn't ask for her to continue. I can tell what she was going to say.

"Anyway. She would make me a ton of gowns. I had this really pretty one back at my cottage that she made but.. Well, you know what happened there. I'm trying to remake, actually, but It still won't be the same."

"Yeah, I get it." I would do the same if I was her. "Are you going to have time to finish everything by tonight?"

"Oh, yeah," Charlie says instantly. "Though, if you could use magic to help, that would be great."

"I'll definitely help if I can find a spell."

Neal Nolan

The girls are taking longer to get ready than it took me and Gideon.

To be fair, Gideon and I didn't really do much. Charlie had made us matching suits, just only the tops are different colors.

Our masks match our tops, and I did my hair a little so it looked more presentable.

"Do you know how we're getting there?" I overhear Gideon ask Charlie's uncle.

"I'm taking you four on my wagon."

"Oh.. Okay."

"It'll be the two of you if they don't hurry up-" Uncle Peter muttered but got caught off by a coughing sound.

I turn and look in the direction it came from, laying eyes on Charlie.

I already thought she was beautiful, but now... she's breathtaking.

Her dress is dark pink with slivers designs flowing down it, and her shoes and mask both match the designs.

Robin walks in shortly after her, her dress looking similar and her hair flowing down her shoulders. Robin's dress is rose gold, with gold flower designs all over. Same as Charlie's, Robin's shoes and mask match.

"Well? How do we look?" Robin asks, looking between me and Gideon.

"Gorgeous," Gideon grins at them, while I'm at a loss for words.

"Neal?" Robin raises an eyebrow at me, and it's only then I realize that I'm still staring at Charlie.

"Awesome, yeah," I mumble. "I'm gonna go get my sword," I say and run up the stairs.

I shut the door to Gideon and I's room. Compose yourself, Neal. You've been around pretty girls before.

I wonder if she thinks I look dashing.

I grab my sword and attach it to my belt. When I arrive back downstairs, everyone looks like they're about to leave. Robin was wearing her bow and arrows on her back now.

"They aren't going to let you two in with weapons," Charlie's uncle told the two of us when we walk out the cottage door.

"We can just leave them at the front or something," I answer and follow Charlie and Gideon into the wagon.

Uncle Peter ties one of his horses to the front of the wagon and climbs on it, the wagon moving after he commanded the horse to walk.

"Okay, let's go over the plan one more time," Robin says and leans forward to the middle of the wagon as if we're all about to whisper the plan.

I guess it's a habit. We always had to be quiet about these things when we were with Fiona, and we were with her a lot longer than we have been without.

"Neal, you're going to act as if Charlie is your date."

Oh no, I forgot about that.

"Gideon, you and I are each other's breeders."

I burst out laughing after she said that. "That reminds me of the time you two fake dated to get Fiona off your backs."

Charlie joins the conversation. "You two did that?"

"Shhhhh, dark times," Gideon jokes. "We don't talk about that."

Robin fake gasps, "What? Was fake dating me really that horrible?"

"Yeah! You never even spent time with me!"

All the laughter from the wagon faded into the darkness after an hour. Our laughter turned into gasps as we came across the Whittaker Palace.

"I've never seen it so close before," Charlie says, who was practically leaning off the wagon to get a closer look at it.

"It's nicer than Fiona's, I'll give it that," said Gideon cooly, but we could all see him staring in awe.

Uncle Peter navigates the horse into the line that is filled with carriages and horses. We probably look like the odd ones out.

The wagon pulls up to the front of the palace. I can already hear the music that was inside from the outside. Gideon and I get off the wagon first and help Charlie and Robin off.

"Thank you," Charlie smiles at me and Robin looks around.

"Thanks. Neal, I think that's where we need to put our weapons," Robin points to a big basket with a sign that says 'NO WEAPONS ALLOWED PAST THIS POINT'

"Yeah, I think so too," I agree and walk over to the basket, carefully placing my sword down into it while Robin just throws her bow and arrows in, which causes me to gasp.

"Be gentle with your bow!" I hound her.

"Neal, you care about your sword way more than I care about my bow.. in terms of gentleness that is."

I huff and walk back over to the group. "You guys ready?" Charlie asks us.

"Ready," I hold my arm out and Charlie connects hers with mine, then we set off, having no idea that this night would turn into the worst one of our lives.

A/N: This chapter was originally going to be longer but then I was like.. let me add all the drama for the finale