“Oh,” said Audrey, looking condescendingly at Jane. “It’s okay if you don’t.”
“I know it’s okay,” said Jane, rolling her eyes and struggling under the weight of the box. “Carlos?”
“Yes!” he said hopefully, standing at attention.
“Will you help me bring this box back to my dorm?” she asked sweetly.
That was so not what he expected to hear, and Carlos’s smile wavered a little. But he rallied. “Of course!”
Jane doesn’t have a date for Cotillion.
One day at a time, he thought.
It was the afternoon of the final R.O.A.R. tryouts. Carlos had already won his spot on the team, and now it was Jay’s turn. The field was whittled down to the last four guys, and Jay crushed them all in quick succession. If he did well in the final round, he would make the cut too.
“Ready?” said Chad, suiting up.
“Believe it,” said Jay, examining his sword.
“We’ll see,” Chad said with a smirk, but he didn’t have his usual overconfident tone and his curls appeared a tad wilted.
“Something wrong, man?” asked Jay.
Chad shrugged. “Nothing. Audrey dumped me. Whatever.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Jay. “Sorry about that.”
“It just doesn’t make any sense!” wailed Chad, adjusting his face mask.
The coach blew his whistle to start the match. Chad tapped his sword against Jay’s. “Let’s go!”
“En garde!” said the referee. “Prets. Allez!” On guard. Ready. Go.
“Allez,” said Jay, pulling down his face mask. He raised his sword as Chad did the same. On the balcony circling the courtyard, a group of cheerleaders and random students gathered to watch the match.
Chad came out swinging, literally, and Jay feinted and parried, advanced and attacked. If the breakup with Audrey had affected Chad, he didn’t show it. Years of lessons had turned him into a graceful and formidable swordsman. But Jay held his ground, executing riposte after riposte.
“You’ve gotten better,” said Chad. “But not good enough.”
Jay snorted. Chad moved left, seeing an opening, and Jay feinted right. But at the very last moment, he struck toward the left, his sword coming up underneath Chad’s chin in a decisive victory. “Touché!” Jay called triumphantly, breathing hard from exertion.
The whistle blew, signaling the end of the match.
Chad removed his face mask in annoyance. “You cheated!”
Jay hesitated, but the coach was clapping his hands, and there were cheers from the balcony. Jay looked up and saluted Mal, Evie, and Carlos, who had come to support him.
“It’s a legal move,” said the coach. “He won fair and square. Good job, Jay. Welcome to R.O.A.R.”
Chad threw his sword and shield down on the mat in disgust.
“Thanks,” said Jay, grinning widely.
“You beat the captain of the team,” said the coach.
“Chad was captain?”
“Not anymore,” said the coach. “Now you are.”
Chad stormed off in agony. He’d lost his pride and his captaincy all in one fell swoop.
“Good job,” said Lonnie, who’d been watching from the balcony.
“Thanks,” said Jay, pleased with how everything had turned out. He smiled when he realized he hadn’t even had to steal anything to get what he wanted. He’d done it all by playing by the rules.
“Turn around, let me see it twirl,” said Evie, as Arabella stood in the middle of the room in her Cotillion dress. Arabella spun, and the dress floated gracefully around her ankles.
“It’s gorgeous!”
“You’re gorgeous in it,” said Evie, and she took a few pins, adjusted the pleats on the neckline, and fluffed the sleeves.
The dress was an exact replica of Ariel’s dress, a pale lavender color with silver accents, but with a few Evie touches—brocade instead of plain silk, a few more layers of taffeta to accentuate the waist, and lace instead of satin ribbon around the sleeves.
Arabella was back to her old fun self now that the trident had been returned to the museum, and her grandfather had no inkling of the danger she had brought to the kingdom. “What are you wearing to Cotillion?” she asked, still admiring herself in the mirror.
“I haven’t even started on my dress,” said Evie. “I haven’t had any time for myself, I’ve had so many orders to fulfill for all the other events coming up first.”
“How did you learn to sew so well?” asked Arabella, as she removed the garment and changed into her jeans and T-shirt.
“Back on the Isle,” said Evie, putting Arabella’s dress in a garment bag and zipping it up, “I was castle-schooled. I spent a lot of time at home, and I had to amuse myself.”
“The Isle of the Lost must have been good for something, then,” said Arabella with a smile.
“Yeah, I guess it was,” said Evie. “I’m never going back, though.”
“Of course not.” Arabella shuddered. “Who would ever want to go back there?”
Evie nodded. The past was past, and it was time to concentrate on what the future would bring. She escorted Evie out of the door just as it opened again.
“Hi-ho,” said Doug, who’d shown up to take her to dinner.
“Hey, Doug.” She gave him an affectionate hug. “I’ll be ready in a sec, I just have to make a few more adjustments to this dress,” she said, taking out the beautiful blue-and-gold dress that she’d hidden from Arabella.
Doug took a seat at her desk and saw all the messy receipts, calculations, and dress orders. “Is this how you’re keeping track of all your clients?” he asked.
Evie glanced over and looked embarrassed. “I’ve been meaning to get organized, I just haven’t had time. Orders keep piling up, and I need all my free time to sew.”
“Here, let me do it,” said Doug, taking his laptop out of his backpack. “I’ll make a spreadsheet and keep track of payments.”
“You will?” she asked.
“Yeah, dwarfs are really good accountants. We have to be, with all the diamonds and jewels in the mine,” he explained.
“That would be such a great help!” she enthused, watching as he began to plug numbers into a column.
They worked side by side for a moment, Evie on the dress and Doug filing away all the order slips. When he was done he showed her the invoicing system he’d set up. “So you just enter the name here, and then the dress here, and the amount here,” he explained.
“You are a lifesaver!” she said. “Oh, and I came up with a name for my label.”
“Yeah?”
“Evie’s 4 Hearts. You like it?” she asked. “I got it from Mal’s spell. You know, the one that says ‘The Power of Four Hearts Are Better than One.’”
Doug smiled. “I love it.”
Evie sat back down at her sewing machine. Doug watched her thread a needle. “Oh, and Evie?” he said finally.
“Yes?” she asked, the needle in her teeth.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, will you be my date for Cotillion?” he said nervously.
“Me?” she said coyly.
“Um, I don’t see any other princesses in the room?” he said. “Unless you’d rather go with a prince?” His shoulders slumped.
“Why would I do that when I have you?” Evie said warmly. “Of course I’ll be your date. I’m honored. I was wondering when you would ask me, actually.”
Doug mopped his forehead in relief. “I still can’t believe you’re real, that we’re real. It’s like a fairy tale.”
“Fairy tales come true,” said Evie with her sweetest smile.
“By the way, where were you guys?” asked Doug. “I was looking all over for you the other day.”
Evie put away the dress and grabbed her purse. “Oh, let’s just say we had a little excitement under the sea. But we’ve got to hurry. Ben wants us all there in five minutes. So I’ll tell you all about it at dinner.”
“Great. Oh, an
d I wanted to warn you, we’re eating with my dad and Uncle Sneezy tonight. I’ll try and make sure you’re not sitting next to him.”
“Does he always have a cold?” asked Evie wonderingly.
“Allergies,” said Doug.
Mal’s final class of the day was her favorite: Freestyle Painting, where she could do whatever she wanted. She was looking forward to working on her self-portrait, which covered an entire wall in the studio. When Mal turned the corner, she was surprised to find the classroom not only empty of other students and the usual mess of paints and canvases, but also sparkling clean and overwhelmed with dozens of flower arrangements.
“Um, what is happening?” she said, just as Ben stepped out from behind a garland.
“Mal,” he said, taking her hand with a look of adoration in his eyes. “Remember I wanted to ask you something?”
“Sort of?” she said, not quite sure what was happening, as her heart began to pound painfully in her chest. But as she glanced around the room, she got a better look at the flowers. It was sweet of him to have remembered that her favorites were black dahlias and bat orchids. The room was bursting with their sweet-but-spicy scents.
“Mal, will you be my lady at Cotillion?” he asked.
She looked at Ben. “Um, okay?” she said. Ben looked so sweet and sincere kneeling before her, and of course she would do whatever he needed her to do.
“Great!” he said, folding her into his arms.
Mal smiled, looking deep into his eyes, just as hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling and the paparazzi came out of their hiding places, dozens of cameras flashing.
“Ben, I’m so sorry, I tried to keep it a secret, but they followed you guys in here,” said Jane, wringing her hands.
“It’s all right,” said Ben. “I’m sorry they’re here. I wanted this just to be our moment,” he added to Mal.
“It’s okay. You’re the king. Everyone wants to know what’s going on with your life,” Mal said, glad that she had changed out of her torn jeans and leather jacket and worn a cute dress that Evie had loaned her as part of the beginning of her makeover.
“Oh!” she said, shielding her eyes from the glare of the flashes. She tried to pose prettily.
“Hooray!” said Evie, rushing out to give Mal a hug, followed by Jay and Carlos, who were holding even more flowers. Jane appeared to have begun berating one of the journalists in attendance.
Mal smiled at all of them, feeling as if she had just won something that she didn’t quite ask for. Ben pulled her into a hug and she whispered in his ear, “By the way, what’s Cotillion?”
“It’s a dance,” said Ben, waving to the cameras with kingly grace. “You get introduced to the kingdom and officially become Lady Mal.”
Ben looked completely happy, but now it was Mal’s turn to be nervous. Lady Mal? That sounded…fancy and serious. She’d never had a title before. Unless you counted Mal the Worst, which is what she’d been called back on the Isle of the Lost. There were so many ways to be wicked; she could dream up so many if she tried….
“Oh,” she said again. “When is it?”
“Soon, but there are all these events leading up to it first, sort of wrapped up with the Celebration of Auradon. We’re going to tour the kingdom, make sure you meet all our subjects,” said Ben.
Mal gritted her teeth in determination. She could do it. She would be perfect from this day forward, all the way up to Cotillion. She would play the part of royal girlfriend to the hilt. “Ben, can I ask you something?” she said.
“Sure. Anything,” he said, kissing her hand.
“Can I move my mom out of the library and into my room? I don’t think she’s a threat to the kingdom as a lizard.”
Ben thought about it and smiled. “Yeah, I think that can be arranged.”
“Thanks, Ben.”
Mal took a deep breath. Cotillion was not too far away, plus she had all those Celebration of Auradon events to accompany Ben to. Agrabah’s festival was next on the calendar, so a royal visit to Aladdin and Jasmine was in the works. She was going to do her best, she promised herself, thinking of the spell book temporarily hidden back in her dorm room.
She just had to make a few changes here and there….
Uma, Harry, and Gil stood on the deck of the shipwrecked Lost Revenge. Their clothes were almost dry from the storm, and they were no worse for wear. But the ship was another story altogether. The mainmast was broken, there were holes in the hull, and it was clear she would never sail again. She would be a permanent addition to the dock from now on. The three of them leaned over the railing on the topmost deck, watching the colorful, messy lives of pirates and villains unfold in the rickety wooden tenements right across from the bridge.
Uma stared moodily at the lively scene in front of her without seeing anything. She still couldn’t understand what had happened out there on the Isle of the Doomed. She definitely swam down to the ocean floor and grabbed the trident—that was a memory, not a dream, she was sure. But how was it that she had ended up back on the rowboat without the trident, using her mother’s necklace to call it up? And why had she lost to Mal, of all people? Mal, who wasn’t even a proper villain anymore, but an Auradon turncoat. Mal, who wasn’t worthy of her mother’s name, let alone her legacy. Mal, who had gone soft and was dating the king of Auradon—gross. Mal, who’d beaten her once again.
It was way too painful to dwell upon, so Uma decided she’d been robbed, not beaten. That trident had been rightfully hers, but Mal had done something, used some horrible Auradon magic, and cheated Uma out of her victory.
“So what now?” asked Gil.
“Rough up goblins?” suggested Harry.
“Ooh, or taunt first-years and make them walk the plank!” said Gil.
“Uma?” asked Harry. “Captain’s choice?”
She shook herself out of her reverie. She still had Mal’s glove in her pocket, but she planned on burning it in the kitchen fire soon enough. “I’ve got a better idea,” said Uma.
She led them out across the bridge and into the bazaar. The stalls were full of hawkers, and she and her pirates had a fun time swiping scarves, taking things that weren’t theirs, and causing the usual chaos and mayhem.
“Look,” she said, stopping in front of a puke-inducing poster of King Ben and Mal. “Spray paint,” she ordered, holding out a palm, and Harry slapped a canister in her hand.
“Let’s give him a nice little mustache and horns, shall we?” she said, drawing them over Ben’s head and face.
The pirates snickered. “There’s more over there,” said Gil.
The crew vandalized every poster of King Ben that they could find, especially ones that depicted him and that Isle traitor Mal. It was a petty victory, but it did make Uma feel better, especially when she scrawled the pirates’ motto all over their faces: WE RIDE WITH THE TIDE.
Uma examined her handiwork with a smile. Once she was satisfied that there wasn’t a poster of the king that wasn’t defaced on the Isle of the Lost, they headed back to their ship.
“Still, it’s too bad we lost,” said Gil, leaning back on the railing with a frown. They were facing the other way now, looking out into the ocean at Auradon in the distance.
“Lost? We didn’t lose!” said Uma. “We never lose!”
But Harry’s sly pirate’s face burst into a grin. “Exactly! We never really had a chance anyway!”
“Huh?” Gil looked confused, but Uma had an inkling of what Harry was trying to say.
Harry’s smile grew wider. “Come on. We’re trapped here. Look up there!” he said, pointing to the sky. “That invisible barrier? It’s impossible to get off the Isle of the Lost. The deck was stacked against us from the beginning.”
Uma raised her fist to the sky in annoyance. Harry was right. They were playing long odds, betting against the house, and the house always wins. She knew that, since she and Harry ran a dice game at the fish shop every other Thursday.
“Listen, we might not have the
trident, and we might not have a way off this island,” said Harry. “But we’ve got a serious crew here.”
Uma looked around at the pirates on the ship—Desiree, Jonas, Bonny, even Gonzo. They were hers. A real crew.
“We’ve got a lot to do,” said Harry. “So much trouble to start, eh?” He slung an arm around Uma, and another around Gil.
“Ugh,” said Gil. “You smell like shrimp.”
“Um, that’s me,” said Uma.
“No, it’s me,” said Harry with a wiggle of his eyebrows. “I just had breakfast.”
But the three of them stood there for a bit, with their arms over each other’s shoulders, looking out to the ocean and to the distant skyline of Auradon. Because Harry was right. They might not have much, but they were each part of a pirate crew. And on the Isle of the Lost, that was more than something—it was everything.
“One day, when those Bore-a-don snobs least expect it, we’ll pounce,” promised Harry. “They’ll make a mistake, maybe even wander into the wrong neighborhood. Fall into our net! And you know what we’ll do then!” he said, making a slashing motion across his neck with his hook.
“Um, what will we do?” wondered Gil.
“We’ll have our revenge,” Uma declared, her eyes glittering with malice. “Mark my words. This isn’t the end of our story. It’s only the beginning.”
TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT…
Premieres Summer 2017
As ever, a huge, heartfelt, sliding-in-right-before-the-deadline thank you of gratitude and relief to my main peeps who help make these books happen: my editors Julie Rosenberg and Emily Meehan, my publicist Seale Ballenger, and our faithful compatriots at Disney Channel: Naketha Mattocks and Carin Davis. Thanks for believing!
Thank you to everyone at Disney Publishing and Disney Channel including Andrew Sugerman, Raj Murari, Mary Ann Naples, Gary Marsh, Jennifer Rogers-Doyle, Adam Bonnett, Laura Burns, Kate Reagan, Hannah Allaman, Mary Ann “MAZ!” Zissimos, Elena Blanco, Kim Knueppel, Sarah Sullivan, Jackie De Leo, Frank (Frankie BOOM!) Bumbalo, Dina Sherman, Elke Villa, Andrew Sansone, Holly Nagel, Alex Eiserloh, Maggie Penn, Sadie Hillier, Marybeth Tregarthen, Sara Liebling, Guy Cunningham, Dan Kaufman, David Jaffe, Meredith Jones, Marci Senders, James Madsen, and Russ Gray.