Chapter 6
It was about an hour later that they heard footsteps and stopped playing tic-tac-toe and hangman in the dust. Back on high alert they watched from their hiding places as Ravenna descended the stairs, walked through the grand sitting room and headed back out the door. They gave her a minute to walk a good distance away before they bolted upstairs following her tracks.
They led to the master bedroom and inside, next to a large, once lavish four poster bed was the mirror. It was leaning against the wall covered by a sheet but this one had no dust on it.
Approaching slowly Camilla tugged off the cover and it fell like a graceful waterfall to the floor. Drac neared, holding his hand palm up toward the mirror.
"Whoa."
"What?" Camilla asked wondering if something was wrong.
Drac shook his head and stepped back, "I've just. . . only ever felt power like that radiating from the scepter." he dropped his hand, "So onto the next problem."
"Which is?"
"How do we work it? It only works for Evie. Chad tried once and got nothing. . . I forgot about that until just now." he said sounding embarrassed.
Camilla shook her head and rested her hands on her hips grinning, "No, it works for anyone with magic."
She remembered Celia telling her the mirror had worked for her and Freddie when they found it. Back after Cruella had poisoned her own daughter with one of the Evil Queen's apples, Celia, Freddie and Uma had used the mirror to find Camilla. All three had magic and the mirror answered to them. . . so it should answer to Drac.
She turned to him with a smirk but he still looked unsure. He took a deep breath and approached the mirror.
Nothing happened, no face appeared, no voice echoed from it. Camilla stepped aside wondering if the mirror could see her, someone without magic, if that could be stopping it from working.
Drac stood there and still nothing happened. Then his eyes cast upward and he noticed writing along the round frame of the mirror, writing in letters he had never learned but somehow knew was the fae language. And because Maleficent, the dark fairy, was his mother, someway, somehow, he could read it too.
"The age can be wicked, to those who walk alone. When I look into the mirror, I see myself as I might become." he read the incantation then looked dead into the reflective surface. "Mirror, mirror on the wall. How will the Queen of Hearts fall?"
From where Camilla was standing she couldn't see into the mirror, she could only see Drac's face as the mirror showed him the answer. And all she saw, were his eyes grow wider and wider.
Drac had been silent the entire walk back to the school. Camilla took the lead this time as they headed to the hall with the girl's Stardust room and Drac's Nova dorm. She opened the door barging right in and left Drac standing in the frame.
"Where could that book be?" Chloe was asking exasperated as she paced the room, "Who could we ask? Not Ella. I still can't believe how awful her family was to her. I just - I don't understand how someone could grow up like that and turn into. . . well, my mom." She plopped down on the window seat. "I mean, how could one person change so much?"
"Tell me about it. My mom changed her entire personality. It's like, everything she does now is to make people afraid of her. And to hide the fact that she used to actually be nice." Red said from where she was lying on the bed. She'd taken her braided buns out and Camilla noticed how much her head was hurting from being braided all day. She walked over to the floor length mirror and began to take it out, separating the black strands from the white ones.
"What book?" she asked and Red grabbed a pillow and put it over her face with a groan.
"We went and talked to Ella at her house." Chloe explained, answering Camilla's question, "She said the villains hang out at the Black Lagoon, so that's where we went."
"And?"
"They were all there. Hook, Mordred, Maleficent, Hades and Uliana. She's got some kind of secret lair there and Red and I spied on their little meeting."
"Uliana summoned the spirits of the sea." Red said tossing aside the pillow, "And they showed her this thick spell book with a skull on it. I think the cover said Sorcerer's Cookbook. It showed her a recipe for a cupcake that will turn Bridget into a monster."
"Pointy nose, boils, warts, green skin, the whole thing." Chloe added.
"Wow." Camilla said turning back to the mirror and running her fingers along her scalp, massaging it. "No wonder she went bad from that cheerful, bubbly girl."
"Well, whatever we do we have to make sure she stays that way. My mom's life depends on it." Chloe said, "Think about it. What if your mom had grown up to be like Bridget?"
"You mean. . . completely clueless?" Red asked sarcastically.
Camilla scoffed at the mirror as she ran her fingers through her hair, "You are so damaged."
"Or kind, generous and open hearted." Chloe explained, "She wouldn't have become a tyrant."
Red smiled, "Yeah I could, eat what I want, and sleep when I want. And wear what I want. And be what I want." she listed getting more and more excited with each realization, "I'd be free. . . of my mom and her rules, and her judgy face."
"She might not be judgy at all. She might be loving and kind." Chloe smiled.
But then Red's smile dampened like she was too cool to be this excited. "It doesn't matter, it's not like I actually care about that."
"I think maybe you do."
"Everyone does." Camilla said turning from the floor length mirror, "My mom. . . my mom hated the idea of me falling in love so much, she thought the best thing was to put me under a sleeping curse. That it would be kinder. That it would save me from myself and making the biggest mistake of my life. And. . . I was ready to be done with her. To cut all ties to her."
"And?" Red asked.
Camilla exhaled a breath blowing her loose hair a bit, "And my brother brought us back together. And, for a short, fleeting moment, I thought maybe we could become a real loving family."
"But what happened?" Chloe asked telling from her voice that it didn't work out.
Camilla licked her lower lip and broke eye contact with them, looking at the carpet, "We're still working on it. Happy endings. . . they don't always come as easily as the fairytales make them seem. Some happy endings, you need to work harder for. And hope that hard work pays off."
"In Bridget's case." Chloe said picking up the watch, "What if the watch brought us back here because what you really want is a mom who can love you the way that you are. A mom more like Bridget?" Chloe paused then giggled, "She'd probably still be making cupcakes."
"That's it!" Red exclaimed, "We should ask Bridget about the cookbook!"
Chloe and Camilla exchanged a smile then Chloe turned to the door and her expression dimmed. "Where's Drac?"
Camilla turned to the door but he wasn't there. "He was right behind me."
"Maybe he went into the Nova room across the hall?" Chloe asked, her eyes filling with worry.
Red rose from the bed, "We need to find him." She grabbed her jacket and threw it on, "You two search the student areas, the common room, the library. I'll clear the dorms."
"We shouldn't split up." Camilla urged.
"I can handle myself, I've thwarted my mother's guards all my life. Uliana and her cronies don't scare me. Just watch each other's backs."
Meanwhile, across the campus Drac was walking through the dark corridors thinking about several things. What he'd seen in the magic mirror was one of them, absolutely. But as things usually did, this snowballed into other worries. How was Auradon faring back in his universe? When he returned would it be at the exact moment he left and everything would be fine? Or would time have passed and Auradon would be in ruin when Mal saw him next? And the other unknowns. Why was he here? Why had he been pulled into this mess? What was the purpose? Was he just here to help Red and Chloe or was there something he would discover here that would help him in his world? His mother in this universe and the one in his world seemed to have the same past – if they were both students at Merlin Academy.
There had always been those questions in the back of his mind as well. Questions about his parents. How they met. Why they'd gotten together in the first place. Had they ever genuinely cared for one another? Or was it all about power? Questions neither his mom or his dad would ever answer even if he plucked up the courage to ask them.
A roll of thunder cracked across the sky as Drac walked through the stone overpass that went over the courtyard. He turned and rested his hands on the ledge of the glassless window that looked down on the fountain Uliana had fallen into earlier that day. It lit up as another bolt struck across the sky.
"At it again brother?" Drac heard and looked under him to see Hades walking out into the quad, his gaze to the cloudy sky. Another bolt flashed through the clouds and even from where Drac was hidden in the shadows he could see Hades' jaw clench with anger.
"For years I have waited and watched from the sides, while others were given their dues." He sang, "Overlooked and forgotten, my words cast aside. I did what I needed to do." He continued walking across the courtyard. "The past is a story, it tells us all who we are. It robs us of glory, and leaves us with nothing but scars."
His fist clenched and Drac saw a flicker of blue flames between his fingers before it faded. Hades paused before the fountain and rested one foot on the ledge as Drac noticed Maleficent enter behind him, her arms crossed as she watched her beau sing.
"All I ever wanted, was a life that was rightfully mine. To never play second in line! A time to thrive not just survive. All I ever needed, was a moment to even the odds. With power to rebel the gods!" he rose his fist into the air toward the lightning. "The stars aligned to my design!" his fist opened and his hand moved almost like he was picturing touching the stars and moving them to patterns that pleased him. Then his fingers slowly curled inward as Hades formed another fist. "It's all I ever wanted."
Maleficent wandered to the stone wall where thick ivy was growing all the way down to the ground. "There was always a standard to which I was held. A fairness to which I was sworn. But life took a turn and the hard way I learned, every rose has its thorn." She looked at the leaves deep in thought, "Casted to the outside. Watching as others delight."
"A thirst on the inside." Hades continued, staring at the sky, "For darkness to conquer the light."
"All I ever wanted, was my time living life in the sun." Maleficent said longingly, then she looked over her shoulder and ran her hand over her shoulder blade where her wings used to grow, "When those fools all regret what they've done to me, they'll see that I'm not through."
"All I ever needed, was a moment to conquer my fate." Hades sang rounding the fountain, walking along the ledge Uliana had fallen off of. His hand burned blue and he threw the fire into the water where it created a grey mist that slowly danced off the water and into the air. "To never be second to great!" his hair ignited, the grey fog rising behind him, "A world that's prime and mine to take. . .It's all I ever wanted."
"Days turn to hours and hours to years. Hope becomes twisted and rooted in fear." Maleficent's hand in the ivy twisted and she viciously clawed out a chunk.
"Balance and order are cast to the side. Vengeance for justice that I've been denied!" Hades jumped off the fountain's edge and turned to Maleficent who turned and looked to him as well.
"All I ever wanted."
"All I ever wanted." They continued together.
"Was a chance to even the score. Why settle for less when there's more?" Hades shrugged closing the distance between them.
"To conquer all that came before!" Maleficent stretched her arms out wide.
"All I ever needed."
"All I ever needed."
"Was a slip in the balance of time. To regain what's rightfully mine." Hades' hands rested on his chest.
"To change the end and start again!" Maleficent sang as he reached out to her and she grabbed his hands, intertwining their fingers.
"It's all I ever wanted." Hades finished softly, taking their joined hands and kissing Maleficent's knuckles as she let go of his other hand to cup his face and stroke his cheek with her thumb. All while Drac watched on wondering how his parents had gone from this to hating one another.
AN: I've been DYING to give Hades and Maleficent a duet SO BAD