11 weeks until Christmas.
12 weeks until New Year's.
12 weeks until this story is finished.
For almost two days after his capture, Ben was chained by his wrists, all four of his fingers, his feet and his shoulders, to a cold, stone wall. The room was small, with only enough floor space to lie down in, and completely made of rocky grey stone. Chef had let him keep his thick armor, which had helped with warmth. He also got to keep his shoes. Meanwhile, the metal froze his fingers one by one and pressed into the skin on his arms, making them sore and tender. He passed out twice and only knew the passage of time by murmurs of passerby outside his room.
Near the end of the second day, as Ben's eyelids began to grow heavy, he heard whispers down the hall. His head was foggy, so it was a little hard to focus, but he was able to make out a rough, agitated male and a smooth woman's voices.
"A southland prince?" The woman crooned. Her voice reminded Ben of Eris's.
"King." The man corrected.
Ben wondered how they knew who he was. It wasn't like North and Bunny, who seemed to be the leaders of the resistance, had shouted: "This is the king!" From the rooftops. Then he remembered how the soldiers had sent up the cry: "It's the king!" when that purple troll had fastened his hair onto Ben's ankle. He couldn't think of any other way they would know who he was.
He heard something that must have been footsteps, though it sounded more like when you pushed your hand into pebbles or gravel or sand.
Ben's veins filled with dread. He pushed himself up and tried to appear like the king he was as a medium-height, dark-haired lady appeared in the doorway. She was young – just a little older than Mal – maybe eighteen or nineteen and extremely amorous. Ben felt his hair rise on end. There was something distinctly unreal about her. He tried to keep calm. "I don't suppose you're here to let me out?" He asked as he examined her.
She laughed and shook her head. Her long hair drifted and waved as Eris's had, as if there were no gravity, and she had black eyes with no center. She had a long face with high cheekbones and dark brown lips. Her skin was dark grey as if she'd been an ethnic woman like Uma before someone had sucked every amount of pigment out of her skin. She was wearing a dress that looked like a woman's Halloween witch costume, with a ridiculously high collar and a long, sweeping skirt. If he listened, he could hear sand scraping on the ground. And she looked at Ben like he was prey instead of a person.
She laughed a freezing laugh that sounded like clattering rocks and, to Ben's horror, dissolved into sand, exactly like Eris had. She reappeared at his side, where she drew a delicate finger across the sensitive area where his shoulder and upper arm muscles met. An itch arose under the skin as she examined him. She met his eyes and all he could see was danger in them.
"Please don't." He commanded, pulling away as best he could. "I'm a married man."
The sand woman tilted her head and chuckled. "I see." She said. She examined the ring on his finger distastefully, as if its very presence offended her. "Pity to be married so young." She trailed off with a smile.
Ben made a crease in the corner of his mouth. "I actually consider it an achievement." He shrugged as he tried to shy away from her long fingers.
She watched the muscles move in his arm with a crazed light. "You're strong, babe." She whispered as she rose up, moving her mouth closer to his ear.
"Not babe." Ben corrected her with a hard look. "Only my wife calls me that. Not you." It was, he considered briefly, the first time he hadn't reacted to that word without at least a blush.
The girl took hold of his upper arm again and began to trace the fingers of her right hand down his chest as she leaned against his shoulder. "Your wife will probably die eventually." She purred. "If you love me, we could last forever."
Ben wasn't quite sure how she planned to do that. Maybe she had powers over time and aging. Maybe she was undead and talking about making him the same. Either way, he doubted her honesty and wanted no part in her offer. Ben scoffed and turned away. "I'd rather die tonight than go an hour with you," He informed her as a muscle tightened in his jaw.
She took a tight hold of the front of his shirt underneath the armor and leaned her face close to his. He could smell hot sand and smoke coming from her breath. "I think you're underestimating my offer," she hissed, pulling on his collar. "Think carefully. You're about to reject something very precious from someone very powerful."
"Precious yet unprofitable for me," Ben shook his head. "I don't want anything you have to offer."
"You've already seen samples of my power. You've seen my storms and I know you've heard of the things I do. What does your wife have on me?" She shook her head and released his shirt only to spread her fingers and run them down his arm to where his hand was. He squeezed his fingers together as best he could. He couldn't withdraw, but that didn't mean he'd make it easier for her to take his hand. "I'll give you a hint," She whispered, pressing her fingertips to his with a soft, sultry smile. "My name is Helena. And my last name? It's carved on the bones your side loses."
Troy. Oh dear. Troy. He looked at the ceiling and exhaled. "So, you're the reason everyone's dying?" he asked.
Helena giggled. "Just practice." She held up a hand and five small sandstorms appeared on the tips of her fingers. "See? Magic."
"I'm familiar with it." Ben pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. He was in so much trouble.
Helena giggled and ran a hand down his side to rest on his hip. Her thumb strayed further towards the center of his body. "You would be. Just look at you."
Ben leaned away from her. "So, where do the bones come from?" He asked.
Helena examined his features appreciatively, and he wondered if he'd heard her correctly. Then she chuckled. "I get to practice, we feed the bodies to Eris's bird. Roc can't digest the bones, so we use them to strike fear. But you don't want to talk about that." The sandstorms vanished as she threaded her fingers through his hair. "I want to talk about you."
She was leaving sand in his hair. Gritty, itchy sand. Ben pulled his head away as far as he could. "I'm sorry." He shook his head. "But I don't want anything to do with you." He let out a little laugh. "Unless you're going to let me out."
"I might," She cooed. "I'd let you out. You could be a king of sands with me. With your country's forces on our side, we could conquer this land and you could rule the entire world." Helena leaned up and pressed her lips to his cheek. He flinched back as she added: "With benefits."
Ben swallowed. Outside of Mal, he'd never had anyone come onto him this hard. Not even Audrey had tried. "I already have Mal," He told her. "And she's the most amazing person in the world. The things she does..." He trailed off, but couldn't stop an amazed smile creeping onto his face.
"Like what?" Helena asked with a deep frown. His rejection seemed to offend her far more than she was letting on. She dissolved again and floated up onto the wall above him, where she rested her arms around his neck as Ben shivered. "She doesn't sound very impressive. Is she magical? Is she the daughter of a villainess? Could she kill a man?"
Ben swiveled his head around to stare Helena down. "Yes." He answered firmly. "But she can do more than you'll ever be able to do. She can punish a friend and forgive an enemy in the same breath. She can be harsh and compassionate to a wrongdoer within the same minute. She is strong enough to bury her mother and weak enough to let me help her. She can grow horns and wings and spell anything, and you don't have anything on her." He shook his head disapprovingly at her.
Helena scoffed and dissolved a third time to reappear at his feet with her arms trailing down his chest. "If she can do all that, why would a bit of sand hurt you?" She smirked. "You're not afraid of her, are you? I'd protect you if she came after you."
Ben felt anger flash through his eyes the same instant he opened his mouth. "You talk a big talk," He whispered. "But I answer to one queen. And she's far better than you." He told her.
Ben knew immediately that he shouldn't have played that card. Helena looked hurt for a second, and then her face twisted with rage before she schooled herself into an unseemly calm. She withdrew her arms. "Fine then," She said in a level tone. "Have it your way."
She started to turn away, and then looked back over her shoulder at him. Suddenly, his chest was stinging. In a flash, she'd spun back on her feet, lunged, and attacked him. Ben barely had time to yell in surprise as her nails grew into long, sandy talons. She raked her hands off the bottom of his left cheek, down his neck, and sliced directly through his armor to rip through his torso. Ben roared in pain as every fiber of his body began to scream at his brain: pain, pain, pain. Blood began to soak through the wounds. He felt like he was on fire.
"You said you'd rather die tonight than be with me an hour, right?" Helena asked as she cleaned a bit of his skin out from under her nails nonchalantly. "Have it your way. It won't be tonight, but rest assured you'll die a long, painful death."
Ben looked down in horror at the wounds on his chest. Blood seeped through but was already starting to slow. The wounds were not deep and would heal under normal circumstances. What suddenly had Ben worried, however, was not the blood or the wounds. It was the black sand that was starting to appear in heavy clumps to stop the bleeding in place of normal clotting. Ben's body began to spasm in pain. His eyes stayed locked on the sand piling in odd clumps on his chest, trying to comprehend them, until his brain could take no more and he knocked out against his restraints. Helena walked towards the door and didn't bother to lock it behind her. It'd be less than a week, and then King Benjamin Florian Benson would be no more.
Mal shut the door hard against the protestors from New Orleans who had decided to come up to complain to her during her lunch break and locked the door before slamming her forehead against the door. She pushed her half-finished sandwich onto a side table as she went into the bathroom and plugged the sink without a word.
Most people had reacted well to her snap-back. Everyone who had conducted investigations at her had posted their results, and she was technically safe from being randomly stopped unless people started creating bogus evidence to try and prosecute her. Belle was speaking to her in soft terms, mostly acting like she was completely incapable, while Adam stayed away, hoarding everything she let him touch and saying nothing to her. That was fine. He could be mad all he wanted. She was still the Queen.
She filled the sink with warm water and put her hands under the stream. Her bruised fingers celebrated and agonized under the change of temperature and the pain waves running through Mal's head almost made tears prickle into her eyes. "Don't cry," She commanded herself. "You never cried once before Ben, and you don't need to be crying so much now."
She stopped the water and reached for some lotion on the counter. Then, from the other room, she heard the door click and the sudden shouts of people in the hall echoed into the room. It quickly stopped and she heard the door relock.
Someone had opened the door. Someone was in her room.
Ben had a key, didn't he? He and Lumiere, except Lumiere didn't use his and-
Mal practically jumped to the doorway, gasping for breath a little as she focused on the person at the door. Her heart dropped to her toes when she realized they were wearing pink, not blue.
Why had she even thought it was Ben?
"Audrey?" She asked, rubbing the lotion into her fingers with a wince as she walked to the pink leather-clad lady.
Audrey looked up, gasping for breath, and rolled her eyes. "I never realized," She huffed, "How demanding Auradon is."
Mal laughed. "You're telling me," She chuckled. "How did you get in?"
"Picked the lock," Audrey shrugged. "Evan showed me how." She held up a fistful of tools – tiny clamps, hooks with jagged barbs and twisted edges, and a credit card. "Took me a moment, though. Everyone was screaming at me." She began to tuck things into her pockets – she had shaped pockets for everything now – and exhaled. "I need to talk to you about the Isle," She explained.
Mal groaned and turned around to go back to hiding in the bathroom. She pushed the stool up to the bar as Audrey walked over and braced her hands on the door frame as she watched. Auradon was still coming for her, and she loved her villainous people, but god, couldn't she catch a break?
"Listen, I know things are heavy right now, but this is also a request from Evelyn, Eliza, and your dad," Audrey explained, watching Mal sit down, put her elbows on the table and cover her eyes. Her eyes spotted the sink full of water. "You, uh, weren't gonna try and drown yourself in that, right?" She chuckled dryly, but her worried tone gave away her concern. Mal couldn't believe things had gotten to the point that people thought she might try and die.
"No," Mal shook her head, rubbing her forehead and avoiding her reflection in the mirror. "No, I was gonna try and call Ben."
"With the water?" Audrey asked.
Mal nodded, examined the full sink, and then prodded the surface with her finger. "Ben," She demanded. The surface turned silver and took on an opaque, semi-solid look. Audrey took a few steps forward to look over her shoulder in interest, but the water lost the color and returned to its original state. A frown creased Mal's mouth. "He's not near any water," She sighed, running her hands through her hair. "He hasn't called in a few days now."
"I'm sure he's okay," Audrey assured her, setting a hand on her shoulder. "Did he mention he was going anywhere?"
"No," Mal shook her head, closing her eyes against the bright lights. "He's probably just busy." Or maybe hurt, though she doubted it. Jack Frost would have told them if anything was wrong. She got the feeling he was afraid of her. Maybe someone had stolen his basin, or it had been broken in a battle? She had no idea.
Audrey cleared her throat. "Well, uh, your dad wanted me to check up on you, and… we have questions. Can you spare us five minutes of thought?"
Mal kept her eyes closed. She had barely been able to give herself five minutes of thought all day. "Yeah, what is it?" She asked.
"Are you ever going to let people come from the Isle to Auradon?" Audrey asked, crossing her arms and leaning into the counter. "Because, like, everyone's grateful you've made everything so much better, but people are wondering if they'll ever be able to go to Auradon."
A million thoughts filled Mal's head. She knew the Isle was years ahead of where it had started, but it still wasn't perfect, and tiny compared to Auradon. She couldn't handle a mass exodus to Auradon without having a population collapse and being forced to hand the Isle back to Auradon. And while she knew some Auradonians were curious about the Isle, she knew that there wasn't enough to promote people defecting to Isle Life. Magic was definitely an incentive. No stealing, guaranteed housing… She sighed.
"Not yet," She mumbled, knowing that she was effectively saying the Isle would continue to be a prison for the time being. "We need more stability on the Isle. Systems and housing and an economy."
"Your dad wants to be able to visit you," Audrey replied flatly. "Wouldn't it be easier to have him around while Ben is gone and you're stuck here?"
"I'm not stuck!" Mal snapped. "I'm leaving for the moorlands tomorrow!"
"Oh, good, you can leave the country while everyone else stays where they are," Audrey examined her nails as the cutting remark took Mal's breath away. "Have you considered that some of them still have connections in Auradon? Evelyn hasn't seen her brother in, like, thirty years. He has kids and is married and she's never even met his family. Robert Callahan's daughter is fifty now, with grandchildren, and let's not even mention how you told Anastasia you'd find her husband and how you haven't even updated her with any news."
Mal covered her face. She'd forgotten about Anastasia. Again.
"Not to mention," Audrey continued, "People in Auradon might want to visit the Isle and set up businesses and shops and things. Are you going to let Auradon go back and forth while Islanders have to stay put?"
"No," Mal denied. "No, no, Auradonians have to stay where they are as well. I can't run a ferry system on top of all this other… bull crap." She waved a hand as a piercing headache began in her head.
"Then what about me?" Audrey asked softly. "Am I your exception? You'll bend the rules so your friends can come and go, but everyone else has to stay put?"
Something inside Mal snapped and she snatched the bottle of soap on the counter and hurled it at the ground. It exploded into foam. "My father is on that island!" She snapped. "My father and Evie's brother and everyone! I'm trying to maintain a balance, Audrey!"
Audrey flicked a bit of foam off her sleeve. She looked disappointed. "You can't keep everyone locked separately, Mal. You have to have a balance before you can maintain one," She reprimanded.
"I can't focus on that right now," Mal grit her teeth. "When Ben is back, he and I-"
"I can't believe you're going to be the girl who needs her husband to do things!" Audrey interrupted. "I thought you might be getting over that when you dropped those new laws, but you're still waiting on him for permission, aren't you? Get this, Mal, Anastasia has lived without her husband for thirty years, and she doesn't need him to pick up her slack." Audrey crossed her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow at Mal. "You can't live without Ben for a month, but she's done it for thirty years and you're willing to keep her waiting." She held out a hand and began counting on her fingers. "And Dizzy, even though she's always wanted to walk through the castles and see the crowns. Evan, even though his sister is already enrolled in the school he wants to go study biology at. You'll even keep your father waiting, who's worried sick about how you're destroying yourself up here and keeping secrets from him. Don't think he's not well aware that something big is happening. Something you're not happy about."
"I am happy about it," Mal lied through a gasp, pressing a hand to her stomach. Her fingers curled inwards on instinct like she was going to try and claw herself again. "And I told you, I need time. We need to have more-"
"No," Audrey shook her head. "You don't need more time. You need to have more faith in your people." She pushed herself off the counter and stepped over the mess of foamy soap. "Hope Ben calls back to talk some sense into you," she sighed half-heartedly as she left the bathroom. Mal listened to the sound of the girl unlock the door and slip out. The explosion of sound made her eardrums ring before the knob clicked back into place, and she was alone again. Guilt, exhaustion, and torment were weighing down on her head. Audrey had always been full of one-liners. Full of clever words that cut straight to the heart. Mal had forgotten.
The lights suddenly turned red. Mal looked up, squinting in confusion at the bulbs. She twisted her hand, and the pale undertones looked almost grey in the light. It was suddenly hard to breathe. Like her chest was constricting. She put a hand to her sternum and wheezed. Everything was working – why did it feel like it wasn't?
She pushed the chair away, curled into a ball on the floor, and covered her face from the bloody lights. 'A panic attack', she realized. 'It's not there. The lights aren't red. You can breathe, you can breathe, you can breathe.'
But sitting all alone, it really felt like she couldn't.
Audrey returned home to Auroria to spend time with her parents after having Lumiere page the Isle. She must have gotten the rundown on 'Mal turned Adam into the Beast', but Mal couldn't bring herself to care. She managed to return to work after an hour sitting on the floor, when her fingers felt like frozen sausages and her eyes were rimmed with black that wasn't eyeliner and she was only wheezing on every third breath.
Evie called late that night. Mal gathered up everything and balanced her phone on top as she left the office and headed down to the dining room where dinner was being served. She felt like she was holding herself together by ignoring everything going on in her head and praying nothing else happened to set her off. It was the last night she would spend with Belle and Adam before she headed to the moors for the month. Down in Auradon, children were trick-or-treating as part of an Auradon holiday known as Halloween, which she'd missed last year in the moors.
Mal shuffled the phone to her other ear as she opened the door to the dining room and waved to Adam and Belle. "That's great about your classes, E." She smiled. "You're taking care of yourself, right?"
"Yeah," Evie said. "What about you? Are you holding up?"
"I'm managing," Mal lied, setting down the paperwork. "A bunch of people came to complain to me today. New Orleans, Weselton, Zootopia… even Audrey came to ask about the Isle."
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Then Evie whispered: "I meant about the baby, Mal. What's going on? Have you thought about where they're going to be? Are you thinking girl or boy? Because I have a few designs I've been working on but-"
"I haven't been thinking about it, Evie." Mal cut her off. A dark cloud was further descending over her mood. "They'll probably be in the room next to Ben and I's area though. I just... have not been dwelling on it too much, is all." She picked her words carefully, knowing Belle and Adam were almost certainly listening in.
"Aren't you excited?" Evie asked. "I know things must be hard with Ben so far away."
"I don't know and... I'm really stressed out," Mal told Evie as she snitched a small handful of blueberries and walked to the window to finish her conversation. "But it's okay. I'll figure things out." She glanced at Belle and Adam, who were holding hands and whispering in the shadows. "Hey, E, I've got to go now and get to dinner. Can I call you later?"
"Yeah." Evie agreed. "I'm going to get started on this chemistry assignment. It's throwing me for a loop."
"You should call Doug," Mal advised. "He finished college a few years ago. Maybe he'll have notes or something."
"I don't know," Evie hummed. "I mean, when we met, he was sweet and really, really into me, but I don't know if I feel the same."
"I'm not suggesting you marry him or anything, E," Mal snorted. "Just that you call and ask for help. Just keep it cool and calm."
Evie sighed. "Thanks for the advice, M."
"No problem. Bye?" Mal asked.
"Bye," Evie confirmed. The phone clicked and Mal brought her now silenced phone down from her ear. She tucked it into her pocket and turned back towards the table.
"I'm sorry about that." She apologized to the former king and queen. "Evie was telling me about school."
"How is she?" Belle asked with a smile.
"Well." Mal shrugged. "A little overwhelmed though. She took a lot of courses and being on the Isle left her a little behind anyway. She's catching on though."
"That's good." Belle nodded. Adam leaned over and prodded Mal's work with a finger.
"I see you brought work to the table." He mumbled.
"Yeah." Mal nodded. "I'm not planning on walking back to my office. I'm just going to do my work in bed and let a movie play in the background."
Belle nodded and took a bite of her meal. The door swung open to reveal Sophia, holding a brown paper envelope with a thick black script on it. "Pardon me, your Majesties," She called with a smile as she swept into the room. "This just arrived from up north. Addressed to the Auradon Royal Family." She handed it to Belle with a smirk and a flourish. Belle picked the paper up and sliced the opening. She unfolded it and began to skim as Adam and Mal waited to see what it read.
After a few seconds, all of the color drained out of Belle's face and Mal's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach. Belle pressed a hand to her mouth as she finished the letter and lowered her hand, which quivered like she was shivering.
"What is it?" Mal asked.
Belle handed the letter to Adam without a word. Adam skimmed it and whispered: "God almighty."
Sophia's smile had long since faded. She walked back to hover over Adam's shoulder as she read over his shoulder. Her expression grew grave as she looked worriedly at Mal.
Mal scrunched her eyebrows together and pinched her lips. "Is anyone going to answer me?" She asked, growing more and more agitated.
"Mal," Adam straightened his back as his expression grew stern. Mal narrowed her eyes at his hostile, formal attitude. Adam caught her look, exhaled, and relaxed slightly, just enough to deliver his message without a growl.
"Ben has been captured," He told her. "Eris and Pitch Black have demanded Auradon's surrender in exchange for his return. No mention of his safety or condition."
Mal's face closed off and her eyes lit up in a glare so fierce that sparks began to fly from her irises. For a second, she was back on the Isle, feeling the ground open up beneath her and wondering what on earth she was going to do without him. She thought she might throw up. Then her feet hit the ground again and the answer appeared in her grasp. Anger filled her as thousands of ideas appeared in her head.
"We refuse their offer of surrender," She said in a calm, piercing tone. "Sophia, fetch Audrey please." She nodded at her first Auradonian friend. "If you see Lumiere, I need him to deliver a message to the moors. I'll leave within the hour." Sophia stared for a second, picked up her skirts and brushed her black hair back behind her ears. She nodded in determination.
Belle and Adam exchanged surprised looks. Sophia moved to the door and opened it as Belle stood up. "Where are you going?" She demanded as Sophia disappeared from sight.
"The overland," Mal answered. The words solidified her decision. She grabbed a small bowl of assorted fruits and stacked her papers on top of it before she began to head for the doors. In her head, she was already planning what she needed. The car keys would be in Ben's car down in the garage. The palace wasn't particularly big fans of weapons aside from the firearms the guards wore, but Mal didn't know how to fire a gun properly, so she'd have to forego them. Ben's Auradon Prep katanas had gone north with him.
"Now, hold on!" Adam protested in a strangled tone as he grappled with the tablecloth in stunned unsteadiness. "You can't just walk out! You have two kingdoms to run; three counting Ben's because you're the next in line for that throne! You're pregnant with the next heir to the entire kingdom and our grandchild! Ben wouldn't want you to go! If both you and he die, then-"
Adam was cut off by Mal pulling the door open. "Then Ben and I will have died together, as is right." Mal snapped. She caught the heavy door with her foot and continued: "And you'll put Madison on the throne when she comes of age. Everything will be fine."
Mal shouldered the heavy wooden door and forced it open with her elbow. Adam pushed his chair back from the table in a smooth motion that moved the table away from the chair instead of the other way around. He followed her to the door and began to holler: "You can't just run off; you're with child!" Mal winced and wrapped a hand around her midsection. Didn't she know it? How could she forget? "Auradon needs at least one of you, and you don't even know where he is! Mal, sooner or later, you have to accept you have responsibility for the kingdom and you can't always be hurrying away. You can't leave to run off and save him! I forbid it!"
She stopped in the hall with her heart hammering in her chest. Forbid her? Adam? She supposed she'd been right to assume the day would one day come. Mal grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut. She could obey. She could change her mind and her plans and her attitude. Unfortunately, she wasn't one to change who she was. She didn't have time to argue with them - she had a job to do.
Mal spun around with a vicious sneer imprinted on her mouth. The blood levels in Adam's cheeks took a sharp detour for sub-par as he took in Mal's angry expression and realized what he'd just said. Mal's lips formed her response before the sounds escaped her mouth. "Watch me." She hissed and turned on her heel. The sounds of her shoes clicking on the floor faded to naught as Mal took her leave.
Adam sank to the cold stone floor, completely distraught. "Oh, Belle!" He mourned as the queen made her way to his side. "Oh, Belle!" Adam repeated. "What shall we do now?"
The creaking of the garage door opening nearly sent Mal into another migraine, but she managed to hold herself together as both she and Audrey watched the frost on the driveway appear outside. Soon enough, she'd be free. She opened the back door and put a stack of things – her coat, food, and a knife – onto the seat. "I need you to cover the Isle for me while I'm gone," She announced, putting a foot up on the car to pull the laces tighter. "I should be back relatively soon."
Audrey chuckled and held her arms out for a hug. Mal quickly gave her a one-armed hug. "I guess we really are going to sic the queen at the villains then, huh?" Audrey laughed.
Mal sighed and shook her head. "I don't know yet. I don't know if I can do all this anymore."
"Just don't bite off more than you can chew," Audrey suggested, taking a not-so-subtle look at Mal's stomach. "You've got people besides Ben and yourself to think of too."
Mal nodded. "I know." She agreed with a sigh. "I'm not going to let any of them down either." She stepped up to the car, fumbled in the center console, and then turned the keys in the ignition.
"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Belle and Adam?" Audrey huffed.
"They know I'm leaving." Mal shrugged. "And it's not goodbye for good. I'm going to come back, and this grandkid of theirs will be just fine." She pulled out her phone and began searching for the northernmost city in the country.
"I'll hold you to that promise." Someone called from the entrance into the garage. Mal had to duck out of the car to see Belle and Adam standing in the doorway of the garage. A small basket filled with snacks was tucked under Belle's arm as she left Adam's grasp and journeyed the short distance to the car. She handed over her small treasures and then pulled Mal into her tight embrace as brown curls fell into her brown eyes. "We trust you to do what's right." She said. "I know you'll bring everyone home safe."
"Always," Mal nodded.
Adam lumbered up behind Belle. He stared for several seconds at Mal like he suddenly wasn't sure what to make of her. He put his hand out, and Mal took it curiously. Adam cleared his throat. "I, I worry for you, but I know you're capable." He exhaled. "There is no one I'd rather have for my daughter-in-law."
Mal's eyes suddenly stung with tears. She hopped out of the car and carefully buried herself into Adam's larger frame. He wrapped his large, strong arms around her and softly kissed her head. His scent reminded Mal of Ben. Mal wiped at her eyes as they detached. "Ugh," Mal mumbled as she scrubbed her lashes. "Is it still too early for me to blame this all on Ben? Is someone cutting onions?"
Everyone laughed, and King Adam took hold of the door for Mal. Mal climbed in and fastened her seat belt.
"Be safe." Belle cautioned as Adam closed the door. Mal saluted them all and put the car in reverse gear. Everyone moved to watch as she pulled out and away, off to save her husband.
All through the night, Mal kept her eyes on the road as she sped through DunBroch, parts of Agrabah, and the Kuzkonian Empire. It started to pour as she neared the seashore, which really didn't seem fair. She parked the car at Kuzko's and rushed in to alert the guards to its presence. It was three a.m, which meant Mal had officially broken Audrey's record for terrible house-calling times, over Valentine's day and six-thirty a.m.
As soon as her car was taken care of, Mal rushed down to the seashore. She knew that Ben had taken a train up to the shore before he'd somehow been transported to the overland. She had no idea where that train let out, or if there was anyone over there who would be able to take her to the overland. All she knew was that it was due north. However, she would lose all direction if she tried to fly over the waters with no lead. And she knew her feathery wings weren't nearly strong enough for that.
The answer was simple, of course. Magic. Mal knew that her mom had had the ability for near-instantaneous magical transport, but something told her she couldn't dissolve into smoke like her mom had been able to. Mal reached for her hair to twist a lock in thought and another idea immediately popped into her head: a dragon. Maleficent could turn herself – and others – into creatures of her liking. The dragon had become a specialty after her mom had turned Diaval into a dragon and then morphed herself years later when she was discovered alive. Her mom was almost known for just the dragon bit. If Mal could tap into her mother's magic, she might be able to summon the dragon skin that her mother had used so many times before.
And as for direction, she needed something on the overland that could lead her there. Something that she wouldn't lose track of. If she tried to use her phone as a compass, it would fall into the sea. She wouldn't be able to hold it. A beacon would work well, as would a magical… spell.
Mal's hands fell slack at her sides. Could it be all this time she'd spent trying to figure out how to cross the great waters could have been solved if only she'd acknowledged what had brought her to Auradon in the first place?
Mal closed her eyes and felt for the loosened strands of Maleficent's spell. It took almost no searching. There they were, forever spinning around her. The spell had been loosened, picked apart, and left in pieces. Mal used her physical hand to seize a portion of the damaged spell and examined it. She pulled it tight and felt the way the line stretched across the expanse of ocean in front of her, never breaking and never disconnecting from her other half. A blood anchor.
Mal let her eyes open again and smirked at nothing and no one in particular. She kicked the sand up around her feet and balled her fists up as she concentrated. It wasn't like she'd tried this before. The rush of something new – something freeing that would get her far away from Auradon and dignitaries and the Isle and problems – filled her. She'd do anything to get away. Anything to keep him alive.
A cold wind made every skin cell on her body stiffen. Mal began to shake but held her fists clenched. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she gagged as her body forced her head backward. Thick purple smoke with green sparks flickering through it appeared around her feet as quickly as if someone had dumped a bucket of fog over her toes. It turned into a whirling cyclone that rose up her body and covered her head. Mal felt her skin, bones, and everything, begin to morph. It was a hard feeling to describe, almost as if she were made of salt dough and someone was just pulling her small frame out to the proper size of a dragon. When the smoke subsided, and her vision returned to normal, everything appeared in green-tinted light. She could see farther around her head than she could normally and everything was much sharper. If she'd had her proper mouth, she would have smiled. She sought out the strand of the spell she'd held just a few minutes ago and let out a snort in triumph when she saw it as she felt it, a grey strand stretching across the ocean.
She spread her wings carefully, mindful of the trees around her, and gave two small, experimental flaps. Unlike her normal wings, these were scaly and more of a green color than her royal purple wings.
Mal heard shouts from nearby and hastily spread her wings as far as she could. She felt the wind coming in from the sea and lifted off. As people streamed onto the beach, she gained altitude and began to soar off, over the sea of division, following her mother's ruined spell. Within seconds, the beach was out of sight.
These wings were much stronger than her others, but Mal already had a proclivity to her purple, human-sized wings. Ben had said he liked him, and he could still kiss her when she had those on. As a dragon? Not so much. But they served her purposes and refused to let her fall.
They were speedy too. Mal had no idea exactly how fast she was going, but the water was racing away behind her. She saw the occasional aquatic animal leap out of the water, but before it had even hit the surface again, she'd be a mile in front of it. She saw the island upon which the Great Forest stood and flew over it.
After a few more minutes of carefully propelling herself forward and following the course of the spell, she spotted something up ahead. It was white, shimmering, and strong. Mal narrowed her eyes. Not even a half-hour of flying and she was already at the barrier to all of Auradon. The barrier that apparently hadn't been telling Ben when Overland people passed through. Mal wondered what about their magic had made them invisible to the structure.
She hit the barrier full force and let out a snarl as she felt her claw catch before she gave three mighty flaps and the barrier released her with a whoosh. She shot forward like a bullet.
Over to her right, the sun was beginning to light the ocean. Beautiful pinks, oranges, and yellows filled the horizon as the dark skies began to flee west, to return in the evening. The growing daylight only made Mal more determined to make it. She put every ounce of strength she had into flying; every stroke had all of her strength behind it.
At long last, she felt the air change around her and breathed a sigh of relief. A bird flapped in the sky up ahead, meaning land wasn't that much farther. She pushed onwards in excitement.
What appeared like a bolt of lightning from out of the sky suddenly struck her left wing. Mal let out a startled squawk as she fell towards the sea below. She tried to flap her wing, but it had become completely entrenched in… ice?
Mal looked up and saw a figure with a crooked shepherd's staff floating above her. Oh no.
She put all of her energy into shifting as another bolt of ice spun towards her. The winds overtook her, and smoke appeared at her feet. Within seconds, she was looking at her human hands again.
Her purple feathered wings grew from her shoulders as she shielded her face from the sea spray hitting her as she fell. As they started to move and support her, her fall stopped. The bolt of ice soared past her as Mal blinked and cautiously looked up at the figure in the sky, who was zooming down to see where the rather large dragon had just disappeared to.
Mal stayed where she was as Jack Frost approached. When he saw her, his jaw fell slack. "Queen Mal?" He asked.
Mal nodded. "I hope you don't treat all Auradon guests like this," She drawled, enjoying the way he immediately respected her and didn't start lecturing her. "I'd hate to discover our soldiers are being mistreated."
Jack gripped her staff tightly. "I… wasn't aware we were expecting visitors," He admitted. "Especially ones who can… conjure dragons?"
"Shapeshifting," Mal corrected him. "My conjuring isn't that great. I'm much better at working with what I already have."
Jack leaned on his staff with wide eyes. "O-kay," He nodded. "Auradon's queen can turn into a dragon. That's completely fine." He looked back at Mal. "What are you doing here, again?" He asked.
Mal crossed her arms. "I'm here to collect my husband." She informed Jack.
Jack winced. "Did you, ahm, miss the letter we sent you guys? About Ben? He was captured by Eris and…"
"I know," Mal nodded. "That's why I'm here."
"Mal," Jack started slowly. "I'm not sure you're entirely understanding the situation. Ben has been captured by the worst villain in the land and we have no idea if he's even safe. We don't even know where he is, otherwise, we would have already, ahm, collected him."
"I can find him." Mal waved her hand.
"No, Mal." Jack fluttered forward and grabbed her arm. "Eris has chaos sands, and Pitch Black has nightmare sands. They have a small colony of trolls who spy on our every move and they have a monster of a fighter named Tai Lung who can kill people within seconds and-"
"You're telling me all this and I don't see a problem." Mal scoffed, pulling out of his grasp. "I drove all night to be here and I taught myself to turn into a dragon so that I could fly across the entirety of the ocean, a feat only you have managed to accomplish to my knowledge. I know exactly how to find Ben and I don't care if Eris herself stands in my way, I will vaporize anyone who tries to stop me!" Mal turned midair and began her descent to the ground. Jack stayed and hovered for a few seconds before he followed her to the ground.
"If you can do all that, why did you stay behind in the first place?" Jack asked.
Mal smirked as more sparks flew from her eyes. She'd burned an awful lot of magic falling from her altitude level, and her lack of sleep and quiet was making her feel… wicked. "Oh, Jack." She laughed. "Don't you know being threatened brings out the worst in me?"
Jack, for the first time in many years, felt an uncomfortable cold creep down his spine. He shivered and flew in front of Mal to guide her to the ground.