[4] Phoenix | Descendants 3

SEVENTEEN: Better Than Ever

The de Vil boy merely grinned. "Positively thrilled."

The girl looked down at the fruit in her hands. "You know, we should really talk about what-"

"Hells!" yelled Mal, the Greek girl turned towards the door. "Come on back inside. We have to talk!"

"Well, come on, Carlos. I think we'd-" Helena began with a sigh. She turned her head to where Carlos was once standing in front of her, only to  find that he was gone. "Or just run off without me."

Carlos popped up the nearby tree he was hiding behind. He leaned up against the tree, crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the daughter of Hades run back inside the house with a glare on his face. Though it took longer than he anticipated, he got the job done in the end. Soon, he would have his revenge against that infuriating daughter of Hades. 

Carlos then began to walk deep within the woods, humming a familiar tune to himself. Soon, he reached Fairy Cottage. He opened the door and entered the building, his happy mood coming to an end when he saw the son of Cinderella.

"Welcome back!" greeted Chad, failing at hiding his nervousness.

"What? Did you miss me?" teased Carlos, Chad going on to explain how much. Ignoring the rambling prince, the de Vil boy's scanned the room before landing on the Dragon's Eye propped up against the wall in the corner where he left it. Carlos hoped that Chad may have touched it, the house would've been so much quieter right now if he did.

"Oh, there you are, my darling. Come to mama," Carlos said, walking past Chad and heading straight to the scepter. Carlos grabbed the Dragon's Eye, a bright green glow coming form the stone. Gone was the de Vil boy and in his place was Audrey in her dark, evil form with the Queen's crown back on her head.

Chad nervously approached Audrey, "So, how was your morning walk?"

Audrey rolled her eyes, walking away from Chad and heading toward the dining table where all the spell books were still laid out. "It was longer than expected. Snow White herself didn't even take that much convincing."

"Well, you know, Helena's pretty clever. And she's got all those walls up and stuff."

"Not that clever. She ate the pomegranate in the end," pointed out Audrey, letting out a wicked laugh as she did a small victory twirl. "Now, I know how EQ felt when she saw Snow White eat that apple."

Chad gulped, "The Evil Queen's poisonous apple? That one?"

Audrey read over the spell books, seeing the infamous spell and potion that her friend used years ago. "Of course, I didn't follow the Peddler's Disguise spell exactly. I had to modify it a little to get a different disguise, but it all worked in the end."

"Audrey ..." The girl looked up, seeing a shaky Chad. "What did you do?"

"I got rid of a very troublesome little girl, or she will be eventually." Audrey closed the book, running her hand over its velvet cover. "And once she's out of way, I'll be able to move onto the next phase of my evil plan."

Chad steps forward nervously, "I say we go back to my place and maybe binge-watch some TV. Huh? Or maybe order some stuff online. Yeah? Yeah." He suggests. He didn't want to say anything that would upset her, but he had try something. He had to get her to something that Audrey, the real Audrey, likes that didn't involve her moving forward with her evil plan. "Oh. What about pizza? Huh? You don't like pizza. Salad!"

Audrey lowers her hand, using her magic to get Chad onto his knees. Still, he continued to plead. "C-Come on, Audrey. It's me, Chad. I know how you feel."

"Oh, you know how I feel?" The princess repeated. Chad had really done it now.

"Yeah, I do. You're upset at Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Helena, and Ben, and I get that. I was mad when Jay took all the spotlight when he joined the Tourney team and again with Swords & Shields. And then he-"