Call Me a Schemer

The contract was written on newsprint and signed in black walnut ink. It was simple, only a formality really. Maleficent and Mal already had a public verbal agreement. They wouldn't break that. They were fae.

The contract read: "We the undersigned agree to steal the wand of the Fairy Godmother (aka the Good Faerie/Faery/Fairy) and deliver it to the hand of Maleficent. Upon the use of the wand to take down the magical barrier around the Isle of the Lost, we the undersigned will be granted the exclusive rights to the kingdom of the Moors as well as a second kingdom of our choosing as per further negotiation with those with previous claims on the second kingdom."

Una signed the contract last. Next to Mal Bertha Sidhe, Genevieve Haas, Carlos de Vil and Jalal Sultan, she added her own name (not her Name, never her Name), Una Ursulasdatter.

Before they left the Isle, Uma pulled Una aside. "This is yours." She slipped her sister a pale pink, almost white, hardback notebook with plastic purple jewels on the cover. "A copy of everything in Ursula's spellbook, plus some extras from Mama Mors."

Una raised her eyebrows questioningly.

Uma shrugged like copying out a paranoid Sea Witch's entire spellbook by hand without them noticing was no big deal (and Ursula hadn't noticed; Uma's lack of stab wounds proved that). "It was going to be your birthday present." That explained Mama Mors's involvement. Dr. Facilier's wife took birthdays very seriously.

Una tucked the book into her bag. She would read it cover to cover, she would memorize it, even the spells she couldn't do. Whatever it was that the Rotten Four had planned to trick Maleficent and overthrow their parents, she wanted to be ready for it.

They were welcomed in Auradon by the Fairy Godmother, Princess Audrey of Auroria and the Moors (somehow none of the Auradonians reacted to the burning flash of magic that flared up around Mal upon that introduction), Prince ("soon to be King") Ben of Auradon, and a marching band of no consequence. Una wanted to burn that smile off of the Good Faerie's face. She wanted to break the princess's teeth. She wanted to make the Beast King's son bleed. She kept her hands clasped tight in front of her and focused on Jay's hand squeezing her arm near her elbow until all of them were gone and she and the Rotten Four were left with the stuttering son of Dopey and the magic writhing like eels under their skin.

The magic was partly to blame for the stuttering. Evie was even more alluring than she had been on the Isle thanks to the power she'd inherited from her mother (the succubus power, not the witch power; anyone who was anyone on the Isle knew that the Evil Queen had come back wrong).

"Remedial Goodness, huh?" Mal said. "New class?"

"Uh, yeah," Doug, son of Dopey, said. "Bu...but you get to pick an elective and the class for your language requirement. We've got Arabic, French and Auradon Sign Language. Uh, Una's already in ASL."

Una bared her teeth in something that tried to be an apologetic smile. She didn't care that they were pigeonholing her. It was a good thing. Fit the mould they made for her and it would make it even more fun when she put a knife through someone's heart.

Jay tightened his grip on her arm. Mal's eyes flicked towards the movement and the look that passed over her face disappeared behind a mask too quickly for Una to figure out what it was.

"Jay will take ASL," Mal said. "The rest of us will take French." Her tone left no room for argument.

Doug blinked behind his glasses before nodding and making a note. "Er, your rooms are this way."

They went up a set of stairs and down a hallway lined with closed doors. Doug stopped at the one door without some type of lacy, pretty, ribbon-and-paper sign on it. Una thought that those signs were something like the tags the gangs on the Isle left all over their territories, marks of ownership. There were brands for that too, but they couldn't be painted over.

"This is Mal and Una's room," Doug said.

Mal let out a barking laugh that was almost drowned out by the rest of her gang.

"No way," Carlos said.

"Not happening," Jay growled.

"That's a very bad idea," Evie said.

Doug shrank back against the closed door. "What? Why?"

"Unless you want to be cleaning up bodies, you won't put Mal and Una alone in a room together," Jay said. Which bodies they would be cleaning up he didn't say. Una thought there'd be as much chance of her and Mal teaming up to massacre the school after they'd driven each other mad as there was of them killing each other.

Doug gulped. "We...we can switch Una and Evie? Una would be rooming with Lonnie, Mulan and Li Shang's daughter."

The five Isle kids shared a look. "Acceptable," Mal said. "You're lucky Shan Yan isn't here." The daughter of Shan Yu would have hunted down and gutted Li Lonnie (was that really her name?) within minutes of learning she existed.

Mal and Evie disappeared into their room and slammed the door in Doug's face. He stood blinking at it until Carlos clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"So, where to next?" Carlos asked.

Doug adjusted his glasses. "We can see if Lonnie's in her room?"

Lonnie wasn't in her room, but Doug gave Una her key and she had a quick look inside before rejoining the boys. The walls were painted a light green and the furniture was made of darker wood than anything on the Isle. There were two beds that each looked like they could comfortably fit Una and all of her sisters. Una made note of the tree right outside one of the windows. It had wide, sprawling branches that looked perfect for climbing.

Jay and Carlos had a room on the next floor up. While they were looking around their bedroom, Una found their washroom and, after gawking at the size and shininess of it, turned on the faucet and stuck her hands under the cool, clear water. She drank handfuls of water leaning over the sink. The air was so dry and the ocean felt so far away. She'd always thought that she wasn't like Uma, needing to be as near to the water as possible even though they were trapped in human form, but apparently things were different when magic was so prevalent that she could practically taste it. The air was too dry and she needed to hit someone. Or brew up a thunder storm. That could work too.

When she looked in the mirror above the sink, her eyes were shining silver.

Una turned off the water when Jay knocked on the door. She looked at him for a second before flicking drops of water in his face. He started slightly and the red glow in his eyes faded. Una lightly punched the air in front of her and raised her eyebrows.

"Good idea," Jay said. "Doug was going to show us around outside. We could probably find space there."

Una nodded and dried her hands on her shirt.

Outside was green. All the plants on the Isle never got to be that colour. The trees and grass that had grown there before the barrier went up were dead and dry. The dried herbs that Mama Mors and the Tower girls used all had a dusty tinge. Una stared at the green grass and the green trees and the other green plants that she didn't know the names for as Doug took them around the school grounds. It was all so alive.

"What's in there?" Jay asked, pointing towards a swatch of trees that seemed to go on forever.

Doug adjusted his glasses. "Just, uh, forest. We go for hikes there sometimes and if you go far enough you'll reach the Enchanted Lake."

Jay looked at Una and raised an eyebrow. She pointed at the forest.

"Can we check it out?" Jay asked.

"Sure, I guess so," Doug said. He looked around at the other small groups of students who were outside. None of them would meet his eye. "Let's go this way."

Doug tried to stick close to the edge of the forest where they were still in sight of the school. He failed because Jay and Una, and Carlos, once he realized what they were doing, kept walking deeper into the trees to study things they'd never seen before. Well, that's what Una and Carlos were doing. Jay moved with a single-minded purpose, not pausing to linger over interesting insects and curious birds. It wasn't long before he called them over to a clearing about the area of the quarterdeck of the Lost Revenge and told Carlos to watch their bags.

"Watch your bags?" Carlos asked. He looked at Jay and his face paled. "Watch your bags. Will do. Try not to kill each other."

Jay flashed a grin. There was lightning in his eyes again. "Wasn't planning on it."

Una glared at Carlos as she and Jay dropped their bags at his feet. Carlos used a sign that everyone on the Isle knew, a hand held up palm out to say "I'm going to work with you for now", and Una nodded. He would watch her bag, not just Jay's.

Una and Jay headed to the centre of the clearing while Doug was asking what was going on. They stood a few feet apart, watching each other. Una lost what little patience she had first. The magic inside her boiled over and caused lightning to crackle over her skin as she threw a punch at Jay's gut.

Jay caught her by the wrist. She saw his eyes glow brighter than they ever had when they were on the Isle before he twisted her arm behind her back and pulled her closer to him. If it had been a real fight where they were playing for keeps he would have put a knife in her heart, but they weren't actually trying to kill each other. Instead, he wrapped his other arm around her and grabbed her other wrist so that both of her arms were pinned. The tiny bolts of electricity that were still arcing across her skin didn't seem to bother him at all. Of course they didn't, Jay was a djinn.

"You're going to have to do better than that," Jay said.

Una hooked her foot around Jay's ankle and pulled him off balance. He took her down with him as he fell but Una recovered faster than him. She rolled away and jumped to her feet while Jay was still on the ground. Her shoulder made a popping sound but didn't end up getting dislocated, which was better than she'd hoped for. Jay barely gave her a chance to breathe before he came after her. His punch connected with Una's throat and she choked for a moment before retaliating with a fist driven underneath his rib cage.

Una and Jay kept exchanging hits. As they fought, the magic that had been burning Una's insides slowly quieted. It was still there, but it wasn't making her feel like tearing off her own skin or anyone else's. She might even be able to function in polite Auradon society.

Ha bloody ha. Not likely.

When Jay's eyes stopped glowing and Una's skin wasn't covered in lighting anymore, the two of them stepped back. They'd mostly avoided head shots, but one of Jay's cheeks was starting to bruise and Una could taste blood at the corner of her mouth. They both had smudges of dirt on their clothes that would be easy enough to wipe off. Una retied the black scarf keeping her braids out of her face that had gotten pulled skew during the fight. Jay's hat was still snugly in place on his head because Jay never lost his hat.

"Are you guys better now?" Carlos asked. His eyes darted from Jay to Una and back again.

Jay stretched. "Yeah, man. Magic stuff, you know?"

Carlos nodded.

"Magic stuff?" Doug asked. "How? What? Why? Magic is highly restricted! It's so highly restricted it might as well be illegal!"

Somehow, Una wasn't surprised. After all, it wasn't like nearly everything was illegal in Auradon.

Secret 3

There's a school for witches on the Isle of the Lost, but they aren't the only ones who know about magic. With all the villains who were brought back from the dead, it couldn't be any other way.