HOOKED ↝ DESCENDANTS

[6]

"Ben?" a voice sounded through the corridor outside the office, causing Rosalie to jump out of where she'd been sitting in the king's desk chair. She reached for the closest item to be able to defend herself in case Audrey had decided to come back, though unfortunately for Rosalie, the only usable item she could find on Ben's desk was a tourney trophy from the season prior.

"Ben?" the voice called again, and this time Rosalie recognized it as Mal's, causing the girl to sigh in relief as she set the trophy back down, crossing the room to the office doors and rushing out into the hallway to find her friends.

"Any chance this was already here?" Rosalie heard Carlos ask as she turned the corner, coming face to face with the group in the corridors.

At first Rosalie was relieved, happy even, to see the faces of Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, and Celia in the hallway, knowing that they were safe after Audrey's initial attack, as well as Dude the campus mutt with them. However, her blood turned to ice in her veins as behind Carlos stood Uma, along with Gil and Harry besides her. Her breath hitched in her throat and fear laced her insides as her eyes met Harry Hook's, the boy instantly beginning to chuckle as he studied her face.

"Rosalie!" he crooned excitedly, his laugh echoing in her mind as she saw a brief flash to them standing on the docks of the Isle of the Lost, the point of his sword aimed just below her throat, and she took a step back instinctively. "Long time, no see."

"Thank God you're safe," Evie sighed in relief, pulling her friend into a hug and breaking Rosalie's eye contact with Harry, though the girl continued to look around at the newcomers, confused.

The VKs weren't fighting with the Pirates, as they had been the last time Rosalie and her friends had encountered them, and they seemed eerily calm at Uma being in their midst, despite the disgusted glare evident on her face as she stared at the Princess of Corona, as if studying her next move. For all she knew, Harry and Gil had still been stuck on the Isle of the Lost, though Rosalie doubted Audrey had anything to do with their escape.

"What are they doing here?" Rosalie asked, and Carlos shot her a sympathetic smile.

"It's okay," he assured her, "You're safe. They've agreed to a... temporary truce with us."

"Audrey stole Maleficent's scepter and the queen's crown." Jay informed her, but Rosalie simply nodded.

"I know," she said. "But how-?"

"Where's Ben?" Mal asked adamantly. "Is he in there?"

"He was." Rosalie explained, her eyes wandering to where claw marks scratched across the wall, leaving a trail around the corner down the path the Beast had chased her nearly an hour before. "We were at the lake for Jane's birthday party when Audrey showed up and put everyone to sleep. Jane, Krissy, Ansel, and I managed to escape by hiding underwater until the fog disappeared."

"So Jane's okay?" Carlos asked, and Rosalie nodded, causing a relieved smile to break out on the boy's face.

"I split up with her and the twins at the lake after Audrey left." Rosalie continued. "I knew that there was a high chance she'd go after Ben, so I came back here to make sure he was alright. She never saw me here, but I overheard the two of them talking. She got mad, and put some sort of spell on him before she left. When I came in, she'd turned him into a Beast, like the old stories of his dad."

"Rosalie," Mal said, the girl's voice catching in her throat. "Where's Ben?"

"I-I don't know," Rosalie stammered, the eyes of all eight villain kids trained on her. "Whatever she did to him with the spell turned him into some sort of animal. He didn't recognize me, didn't speak. He chased me, and I managed to hide until he left. The last I heard of him, he'd left the castle, but I didn't see where he went from there."