To the Test

Mal's wish seemed to do nothing at first. Even Fairy Godmother thought so. She let Jay off with a warning and a request to come to her office after school on Monday. There wasn't any big, obvious result that Una could see over the next few hours, after Fairy Godmother had soothed ruffled feathers and gotten Parents' Weekend back on track. Then she joined the other cheerleaders in the locker room to get ready for their routine. Tamara, always the first to do her hair and makeup, took one look in the wall-to-wall mirror at the back of the room and screamed.

"What is wrong with you?" Audrey demanded. She glanced at the mirror, shrieked and dragged Tamara away. "Everyone get back!"

Getting back meant that more of the cheerleaders looked in the mirror. There were more screams, some of the Auradon girls grew pale, a few bolted for the exit, and Sally White managed to run to the bathroom before throwing up. Una just watched as the mirror showed Harry driving his hook through the throat of a man gripping Dizzy Tremaine's wrist. Dizzy broke free as the man—a criminal, not a villain—convulsed and Harry pulled out his hook, splattering blood on the street that Una vaguely recognized as being near Lady Tremaine's Curl Up and Dye, in the Rotten Four's territory. Harry and Dizzy exchanged a few words before heading away in opposite directions, leaving the man to die on the ground.

"Oh my Matrona," Audrey said.

"What is that?" Kristina Bones asked. She was the only person other than Una who didn't look like they might pass out or join Sally in being sick. She did look and sound confused, but that was her normal state of being.

Una struggled not to smile. They were seeing what it was like on the Isle. That was Jay's magic at work.

She was watching the criminal Harry had hooked drown in his own blood when Fairy Godmother came running into the changing room followed by the girl who must have gone to fetch her. The faerie, fae as she was even while being hopelessly Good, didn't balk at the sight of the corpse-to-be. She made sure that everyone was decent and ushered them out of the locker room.

When they were all standing outside in the hall, Audrey turned to Fairy Godmother with her arms crossed and an almost-frown befitting a princess on her face. "Was that the Isle of the Lost?"

That question was what made Fairy Godmother balk. She twittered out some excuses and sent them to their rooms with a tight smile. Audrey waited until they were well out of earshot before repeating her question with Una as the target.

Una took half a second to think and replied, "Yes, yes, yes." Then she nodded, because Audrey still didn't know ASL.

"I didn't know—" Audrey cut herself off. "We're talking later."

Una nodded again. She didn't particularly want to talk with Audrey about anything to do with the Isle, but she knew that the princess wasn't going to give her a choice. That was a pain.

Instead of going to her own room, Una broke into Evie and Mal's. She only had to wait for a few minutes, spinning a knife between her fingers, before the door opened and the Rotten Four arrived. Mal started to growl at her but stopped when Una held up the hand mirror she'd found on the dressing table that showed the view from the crow's nest of the Lost Revenge.

"Hey, it worked," Carlos said. He winched when Mal shot him a glare. "I'm just saying, it kind of seemed like a long shot."

"Fairy Godmother seemed off balance," Una signed.

"Good," Jay said. "We want her off balance."

"We're free to do more preparations that way." Evie walked over to the freestanding mirror across from the door and smiled at the warehouse building that Una knew held the Rotten Four's Hideout. "And then on Monday the wand will be ours."

The wand, and then the world.

"Include me," Una signed. "We have a deal."

Mal smiled a sharp, dragon's smile a second later, once she'd translated what Una had said. She did know ASL. Jay had been teaching the rest of his gang. "Yeah, we have a deal. Long live evil."

The rest of the events planed for Parent's Weekend were cancelled. The kings and queens were running around doing damage control. Several other parents signed their kids out of school to try to get them away from the magic mirrors. Judging by the rumours and the phone calls that Una and the Rotten Four eavesdropped on, it didn't work. Jay had managed to push his magic out to all of Auradon to some degree. Everyone in Auradon who could look in a mirror could see what it was like on the Isle of the Lost.

Audrey's grandmother bundled her away to Auroria, so Una didn't have to deal with her interrogation yet. Lanlei and Aziz were a different story. They were determined and impossible to dodge for the whole weekend. Una and Jay lasted until Sunday morning, when they went down to breakfast to steal food for the five of them and got dragged into an empty classroom by Lanlei and Aziz before they could disappear.

"What is happening?" Lanlei demanded.

Aziz opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then closed it and just stared.

"Nothing is happening?" Jay said slowly. "What are you talking about?"

Una wanted to strangle Jay for the terrible lie. She punched his arm instead. Hard. He didn't even flinch.

"Okay, yeah, stuff is happening," Jay said. "It's none of your business."

"Like fuck!" Aziz froze for a second like he was surprised at his own language. Then he scowled and doubled down. "Like fucking hell it's none of our business. You're my brother. You almost died."

"I've almost died a lot." Jay's eyes darted around the room. "Look…meet us at Mal and Evie's room. And if Mal asks, Una tried to stop me from inviting you."

This time, Una did strangle him, shoving Jay against the wall with her arm pressed across his throat and glaring at him. She drew her free hand across her own neck, a sign from the Isle that she used to mean both "Queen of Hearts" and "you'll die". In this case, she meant the latter.

Jay wheezed and pushed her off of him. "I'm trying to stop Mal from killing you. You're welcome."

Una rolled her eyes. "Now you are not lying."

Lying to your gang leader was bad, and not in a good way.

"Good point," Jay said. He turned back to Lanlei and Aziz, who were staring at them with wide eyes. "Meet us there. Ten minutes."

Lanlei bit her lip and then nodded. "We'll be there."

Una and Jay headed straight back to Mal and Evie's room. They passed around the food they'd grabbed and then Jay had to explain why Lanlei and Aziz were coming for a visit. Mal wasn't pleased at first, but then Una could practically see her brain scheming at lightning speed.

"We're going to get them on our side," Mal said.

Well, that wouldn't be too hard. Lanlei had been highly sympathetic since they all shown her the most basic respect by calling her by the name she wanted, and Aziz was thrown off enough by the reveal that Jay was his long-lost brother that he'd be wide open to manipulation.

"How far are we going?" Carlos asked. "Alliance?"

Mal shook her head. "Not yet."

Odd that Mal thought they might ever be able to trust two Auradon kids, but whatever. This wasn't Una's gang, so it wouldn't impact her too much in the long term if Mal turned out to be wrong.

There was a hesitant knock on the door. Jay answered it and Lanlei and Aziz quickly slipped inside. They stood by the door. Aziz shifted his weight from foot to foot while Lanlei looked around the room at the Rotten Four and Una.

"So," Mal said, "I hear Jay promised you things he didn't have any right to promise."

"I didn't promise anything," Jay said.

"We just want to know what's going on with the mirrors…and why," Lanlei said.

Mal crossed her arms and sat back in her chair. "And how do I know you're not going to go running straight to Fairy Godmother with whatever we tell you?"

"Because we're your friends," Aziz said.

That didn't mean anything. People in Auradon kept calling Una and Mal friends.

"Because we've seen children stabbing each other over mouldy bread and you have to have a reason for showing us that," Lanlei said.

Mal and Evie looked at each other.

"We wanted your parents to see what they did to us," Evie said softly. She reached over from where she was seated on the end of her bed and picked up the hand mirror that looked over the Undertakers' territory. "This is all just the Isle of the Lost. It's all just our life."

"It shouldn't be," Lanlei exclaimed.

"Well, it is," Mal said. "And there's nothing you can do about it."

So, Mal was going for the double dog dare approach plus a guilt trip. That was a good choice. Aziz immediately rose to the bait.

"I'm the cr—I'm a prince of Agrabah. Lonnie's parents are generals of the army of Northern China. We can do something."

"We want to get the other kids off the Isle," Jay said.

"We'll help," Lanlei said.

Hook, line and sinker.

Evie, Jay and Carlos were nervous about leaving Mal behind to travel to the coronation with Ben. After Jay had expertly lied to her, Fairy Godmother had declared that Mal's wish coming true wasn't her fault or Jay's, but half of Auradon seemed to be blaming them anyway. Mal would eviscerate anyone who tried to hurt her, but splitting up still didn't sit well with her gang. Una could understand that. Something this big, this dangerous—she wouldn't want to leave Uma alone either.

The dress that Evie had made Mal for the coronation was pale purple lace that screamed Auradon princess with a high collar echoed Maleficent. Mal looked almost as beautiful as Evie, which wasn't really a fair comparison considering that Evie had magic that was literally meant to make her beautiful. But the Isle didn't do fair, so neither did Una.

"He won't be able to take his eyes off you," Evie said.

Not that Ben would want to look anywhere else with the love spell he was still under.

Mal and Evie exchanged smiles in the mirror. Then Evie looked over at Una and Lanlei, who were helping each other get ready on the other side of her and Mal's room, and sighed.

"Lanlei, your hair."

Una dropped the second thin braid braid she was weaving into Lanlei's hair to sign "What?"

"The braids are uneven," Evie said. "Just redo that one half an inch higher and add…" She opened one of the many boxes she'd managed to accumulate in her sewing area and pulled out a thin blue ribbon that matched Lanlei's dress. "Add this in the braid."

Una shrugged and took the ribbon. She wasn't going to argue with Evie about hair styling. It wasn't worth the effort.

Once Evie had declared all four of them presentable, they went to check on the boys. Aziz had to get ready and arrive with his parents because of how he was officially royalty, but Jay and Carlos were in their room. Both of them were struggling with their suits.

Evie rolled her eyes. "Honestly. Do I have to do everything around here? Jay, you missed a buttonhole. Carlos, that's a tie, not a garrote."

"If it's going to be around my neck, it may as well be," Carlos grumbled.

Una redid Jay's buttons while Evie negotiated with Carlos. She got him to agree to drape his bow tie around his neck but not tie it so it would fall off if anyone grabbed it.

"We need to get to the limos in ten minutes," Lanlei said.

Evie straightened Carlos's jacket one last time. "We're ready."

For a split second, Mal's eyes flashed green. She smiled. "Let's do this."

Secret 7

There are plenty of families in Auradon who broke the rules of the country before it existed. It's easy enough to break them again, especially to do what's right.