That meant she would have to keep the cards to herself.
It would be her little secret.
Well, hers and CJ’s, obviously.
Freddie smiled at the thought of sharing a secret with her best friend, even though she was hundreds—maybe even thousands—of miles away. It made Freddie feel closer to her somehow.
“Wow,” she commented to her shadow as they both stood up. “What a cheesy thought!”
Maybe CJ is right. Maybe Auradon Prep really is getting to me.
Freddie walked to the dresser and stared hard at her reflection in the mirror for a long minute. She certainly didn’t look any less villainous than she remembered, but that was the thing about change: it happened so gradually you never could really tell until it was too late.
Next thing I know, I’m going to start twirling and whistling while I work.
Freddie shuddered. She would not let that happen. Going to Auradon Prep and wanting to sing a cappella did not make her an AK. She was still a VK through and through.
She could be a villain and like to sing catchy, upbeat songs. She would just be a different kind of villain. A new generation of villain. But still rotten to the core.
Obviously.
However, just to be on the safe side, Freddie spent the next few minutes twisting her face into a series of ferocious scowls in the mirror.
Much better, she thought.
As Freddie headed out of the dorm, her shadow following her obediently, she patted the pocket of her dress, double-checking to make sure her Shadow Cards were still safely hidden inside. She had no idea what would be waiting for her when she got to the tea shop, but she wanted to be ready.
Umm…what am I going to do at a tea shop?
Do they sell some kind of magical scone that will get me into the Auradonnas?
When Freddie arrived at the Mad for Tea shop, the place was so unrecognizable she almost walked back out to check the sign on the door. The whole shop had been completely transformed. There were ticking pocket watches on every table, a large black-and-white checkered rug covering the floor, massive fake mushrooms towering in the corners like trees, and giant neon caterpillars decorating the walls.
Ally was sitting on a couch in the middle of everything, frowning down at her phone.
“Are you having a party?” Freddie asked, confused.
“No!” Ally wailed. She lifted her head to look at Freddie, and Freddie could see that she’d been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were streaked with tears.
Freddie glanced around the unrecognizable tea shop again. “Then what is all of this?”
“A party!” Ally said as though it were obvious.
Freddie scowled. “But I thought you just said—”
“I’m decorating for a fund-raising party that’s tomorrow night,” Ally began, new tears quickly filling her eyes. “For the Auradonnas. We need new costumes for our finale song, and Mum said I could hold the fund-raiser here at the tea shop while she was on vacation. I sent out tons of ZapChats but barely anyone’s responded!” She held out her phone as though offering proof.
Freddie’s eyebrows knit together. “There’s a fund-raising party tomorrow night?”
Ally threw up her hands. “Exactly! It’s like no one even knows about it! Audrey is going to be livid when she finds out I botched up this party and we have no RSVPs. How will we ever raise enough money for our costumes if no one comes? And if we don’t have new costumes, we won’t impress the judges, and then the Sword in the Tone will win and take our championship title away from us!”
Freddie fought the urge to roll her eyes. She’d always known Ally to be a little bit on the peculiar side, but it seemed she was also dramatic. “I think you might be overreacting,” Freddie said, trying to sound diplomatic. She knew if she was going to convince Ally to let her into the Auradonnas, she had to be nice—as much as she despised that word. But she certainly wasn’t going to talk her way into the Auradonnas by being herself.
“I’m not overreacting!” Ally argued. Then, suddenly, her eyes got very wide and panicked, and she shouted, “No! Stop! Bad! Bad! You’ll be sick in the morning!”
Freddie was thoroughly confused. She blinked at Ally, who seemed to be staring right at her. “Who are you talking to?” Freddie asked.
“Dino,” Ally said. “He’s being naughty again.”
Freddie glanced behind her but saw nothing. “Uh, is Dino real or just your imagination?”
Ally scoffed and stood up, then walked to the table of cakes, pies, and cookies behind Freddie. “Of course Dino’s real.” She grabbed the orange-and-white cat who was sneaking toward one of the desserts.
“He keeps trying to eat all the whipped honey butter,” Ally explained, returning to the couch and holding Dino in her arms. “I told him not to, but sometimes he does it anyway. I’ve talked to him countless times about controlling his impulses, but he just doesn’t listen. I haven’t a clue why.”
“Um, maybe because he’s a cat?” Freddie suggested.
Ally shook her head. “No, that’s not it.”
Freddie squinted at her.
Forget that we’re from the Isle of the Lost. This girl lives on her own planet.
Ally scratched the cat between the ears and glanced around the tea shop with a heavy sigh. “This is such a shame. I worked so hard on this party. I did a whole Wonderland theme and everything. And now no one will even see it.”
Freddie peered at the strange decorations. “Is that what this is? I thought it was some kind of caterpillar disco.”
That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Ally immediately started crying again—this time even harder. Freddie worried if she didn’t stop soon, they both might drown in all those tears.
Freddie stood there, fidgeting awkwardly. She wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t have much experience consoling people. Not many people cried on the Isle of the Lost. At least not in public. Plus, Freddie’s father had never been very tender with her while she was growing up. When she was little and she would scrape her knee and tears would start to well in her eyes, her father would just pick her up, dust off the scraped knee, and say, “Real villains don’t cry.”
But now Ally was staring at Freddie with those weepy eyes like she was expecting her to say something kind and reassuring. Maybe that was what you did when you saw someone crying in Auradon: you comforted them.
Freddie sighed and sat down in the chair next to Ally, trying to remember what she’d seen the AKs do in situations like that. She vaguely remembered some back patting. Freddie reached out and patted Ally awkwardly on the shoulder with the back of her hand. She felt ridiculous.
“Uh,” Freddie said, fumbling for something to say. “It’s okay. Don’t cry. Things could be a lot worse.”
Strangely, that seemed to work. Ally sniffled and looked at Freddie with her big blue eyes full of tears. “They could?”
Freddie shrugged. “Sure. I mean, I could think of tons of things worse than no one RSVPing to a party.”
“Like what?” Ally asked, looking curious.
Freddie pursed her lips, trying to recall all the bedtime stories her father used to tell her at night. “Well, let’s see. You could fall into a swamp and get bitten by a poisonous snake. You could wake up in the morning to find your head has been shrunk. Your shadow could steal all of your stuff in the middle of the night. Or!” she added with sudden inspiration as she glanced at the cat in Ally’s lap. “Your mom’s cat could get run over by a truck!”
Ally’s eyes widened and tears started to well up again. “Oh, dear. Poor Dino!” She nuzzled her face in the cat’s fur. “I won’t let that happen, Dino. I promise!”
And she was off again, sobbing relentlessly.
Okay, maybe Freddie had gone a bit too far with the last one.
“Look,” Freddie said, quickly losing patience with all the weepiness. “Instead of sitting around crying about it, why don’t you try to figure out ways to get people to
come?”
Ally sniffled and looked up at Freddie with wide tear-rimmed eyes. “Like what?”
Freddie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you could—”
“You’re right!” Ally cried out suddenly, scaring both Freddie and the cat. The cat screeched and leapt off her lap, then scurried under the table. “We need to advertise! We need to put up flyers everywhere. We’ll design a really nice poster with a picture of a caterpillar eating a piece of cake, or a piece of cake drinking a cup of tea. Or we’ll draw a mushroom—”
“Hold up,” Freddie said, interrupting her. “What do you mean ‘we’?”
Ally looked like she didn’t understand the question. “You’ll help, won’t you? Isn’t that why you came by?”
“No,” Freddie replied. “I came by because…” Her voice trailed off as she remembered the reason she was there: to get into the Auradonnas. Was that what the Shadow Cards were telling her to do? Help Ally put up a bunch of flyers for a party? How would that get her into the Auradonnas?
Freddie bit her lip as she considered her next words carefully.
Her father had taught her that when you wanted something from someone, the only way to guarantee you’d get it was to convince them they needed you more than you needed them.
So what did Ally need from Freddie that she couldn’t get from anyone else?
Freddie glanced around the tea shop and suddenly caught sight of her shadow sitting next to her on the couch. From the way the light overhead was casting it, her shadow looked like it was reaching for something in Freddie’s pocket.
Reaching for…
The Shadow Cards!
“Oh!” Freddie said. “Of course!”
How could it have taken her that long to realize? That was why the Shadow Cards had sent her there. That was how she was going to get into the Auradonnas. It was so simple yet so brilliant she almost pulled out the cards and kissed them right then and there.
“What?” Ally asked, staring at Freddie with a curious expression. “What is it? Do you have a better idea than the caterpillar eating a piece of cake?”
“Yes,” Freddie said smugly. “I have a much better idea.”
Ally looked skeptical. “You do?”
Freddie nodded, gaining confidence by the second. “Yes, I do.”
“What?”
It was almost as though, right then, Freddie could feel the cards pulsing in her pocket, the dark spirits inside them begging to be let out, coaxing her on, whispering, “Yes. Use us. We can help.”
Freddie rubbed her hands together, feeling more powerful than she had in a very long time. “Let’s make a deal, shall we?”
I love when a plan comes together.
Ally is about to find out what makes me the daughter of the shadow man.
“What are they?” Ally asked, gaping at the deck of cards Freddie had just pulled out of her pocket.
“They’re called Shadow Cards and they will answer any question you ask.”
“Ooh,” Ally said. “Can I touch them?” She reached out her finger toward the deck.
Freddie yanked the cards out of Ally’s reach. “Absolutely not. Only the shadow princess can touch the cards.”
“Shadow princess?” Ally repeated doubtfully.
Freddie pursed her lips. “You’re right. It doesn’t have the right ring, does it? I’ll work on my title later. First things first.” Freddie gave the cards a quick shuffle and fanned them out on the table in front of them, front side down.
Ally leaned forward and studied the picture that was on the back of the cards: two open palms with an eye in the center of each.
“What curious-looking flowers,” Ally mused.
Freddie huffed. “They’re not flowers. They’re—You know what? Never mind. Let’s just get on with it. All you have to do is ask the cards what you want and they’ll tell you how to get it.”
Ally was clearly skeptical. “That’s it?”
Freddie nodded. “That’s it.”
“Are they even allowed at Auradon Prep?”
Freddie’s head teetered. “Not technically. But if you want to get people to this fund-raiser and raise enough money to buy the costumes, the cards will help.”
Ally bit her lip and stared down at the Shadow Cards, obviously contemplating her choices. “I don’t know. I don’t want to get in trouble for using magic.”
Freddie sighed dramatically and scooped up the cards. “That’s fine,” she said, slipping easily into her smooth “velvet voice.” That was the voice she used when she was trying to talk someone into something. It was a skill she had learned from her father. “I get it. You don’t want to use magic. You don’t want to get in trouble. It’s too bad, though. It’s obvious this would have been an amazing party. And you would have been an amazing hostess.” She made a show of glancing around the tea shop and admiring all the decorations. “I can almost see it now. Everyone laughing and eating those delicious cakes and pies, drinking cups of steaming hot tea, saying things like, ‘Oh, Ally! This scone is simply divine! You sure know how to throw a party.’”
Freddie snuck a look at Ally. She was gazing longingly at the dessert table, obviously imagining exactly what Freddie was describing. The velvet voice was working. Then again, it rarely failed.
“It’s a pity,” Freddie went on with a fake sigh. “It really would have been wonderful. Or should I say Wonderlandful?” She stood up and slipped the deck of cards into her pocket. “Oh, well. I’m sure you’ll figure out another way to raise money for the costumes. Good luck!”
Freddie started to walk away, but she barely got two steps toward the door before she heard Ally cry out, “Wait!”
Freddie smiled and turned around.
“How fast do the cards work?” Ally asked.
Freddie thought back to what had happened in her dorm room: how the cards had guided her to that tea shop and within minutes she had understood what she had to do. “Almost instantly.”
Ally looked torn. She chewed on her bottom lip. “Okay, I’ll do it.”
Freddie sat back down and pulled the cards from her pocket again, then shuffled them. “Great. Let’s talk about payment.”
Ally looked confused. “Payment?”
“For my services,” Freddie clarified. “You can’t receive a favor from the shadow sorceress without paying some kind of price in return.”
Ally cocked her head pensively. “Shadow sorceress?”
Freddie tried again. “Shadow enchantress?”
“Nope.”
Freddie groaned. “I’ll get there.”
“What kind of price are we talking about?”
Freddie smirked. “Not much, really. A steal of a deal, if you ask me. I help you get people to this fund-raiser and you get me into the Auradonnas.”
Ally’s reaction was easy to read. She clearly was not comfortable with that. “Oh, I don’t know. That’s not something I can just promise.”
“You are the captain, right?” Freddie asked.
“Yes, but—”
“So you do have final say in who gets into the group.”
“Of course, but—”
Freddie shrugged. “Then I don’t see what the problem is.”
Ally hesitated. “You do have a great voice. It’s just that Audrey—”
“Hey, do you want to get those new costumes or not?” Freddie was starting to lose patience.
Ally sighed. “Okay, okay. I’ll do it. I’ll get you into the Auradonnas if I raise enough money to buy the costumes.”
Freddie held out her hand. Ally just stared at it like she’d never seen a hand before.
Freddie rolled her eyes. “We have to shake on it.”
“Oh! Right. Of course.” She extended her hand toward Freddie.
And the deal was sealed.
Freddie waved her hands majestically over the cards spread out on the table. Almost instantly, she could feel the shadow spirits awaken within them, fill them with life. Her whole body tingled as her own shadow r
eadied itself.
“Masters of the Shadow Land,” Freddie began to chant, “I call upon your knowing hand.”
“Ooh!” Ally cried out excitedly. “Masters of the Shadow Land! Cool!”
Freddie shot her a look. Ally shrunk down in her chair. “Sorry! I get a little overexcited about things.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” Freddie mumbled sarcastically.
Ally giggled.
Freddie cleared her throat and began again, floating her hand a few inches above the face-down cards.
“Masters of the Shadow Land, I call upon your knowing hand. I offer you this sinner’s song, to guide the path she walks upon.”
Freddie felt her shadow start to contract again, getting thinner and thinner, until it had completely transformed into the smoky black snake. She expected Ally to yelp at the sight of it and possibly run away, but she didn’t. Ally just watched the process with great fascination, her blue eyes wide and full of wonder.
The dark, slithering shadow snake glided over and around the cards before finally forming the question mark.
“Go ahead,” Freddie said to Ally. “Ask them what you want.”
Ally glanced uneasily from the cards to Freddie and then asked in a whisper, “Do I have to say a chant, too?”
“No,” Freddie replied. “You just have to ask a question. And you don’t have to whisper.”
“Oh,” Ally whispered, and then caught herself. “Oh,” she said again at a normal volume. “Right, then.” She turned her attention to the cards and Freddie’s transformed shadow. “Um. Hello there, creepy magic cards. I love the shadow snake thing. Very nice touch.”
Freddie rolled her eyes again. “What are you doing?”
Ally looked insulted. “I’m complimenting the cards.”
“You don’t have to compliment them.”
“It can’t hurt, can it? Mum says everyone appreciates good manners.”
“Fine,” Freddie huffed. “Go ahead. Buy them a cup of tea if you must. Just get on with it.”
Ally swallowed and continued addressing the cards. “Right, then. Where were we? Oh, right, you are so very lovely and wise and…wicked!” She beamed up at Freddie, as if expecting some kind of award for using the word wicked.