Descendants 2 [H.S. & C.S.]

Chapter 10

I knew trying to be Cole's perfect boyfriend was a bad idea.
I'm so outta here.

Harry rode his scooter out of the woods and came to a stop at the shore.

He looked across the Sea of Serenity at his far-off old home. The magical barrier flickered and shimmered over the Isle of the Lost like it was a memory, beckoning to Harry. He was still sobbing. He flipped his goggles onto his helmet and pulled his spell book out of his bag. He flipped through it and stopped. Then he incanted. "Noble steed, proud and fair, you shall take me anywhere." He waved his finger.

The scooter roared to life, bearing a new glittering graffiti paint job.

Harry put on his goggles and took a breath. "Please work." His voice was desperate. He zoomed across the surface of the sea toward the isle of exiled prisoners, gaining speed. He headed toward the barrier, and his eyes grew wide.

With a flash, Harry's enchanted scooter disappeared through the barrier.

In no time, he rolled through a dusty lane filled with disheveled, grubby pirates selling knickknacks at their rotting storefronts. His scooter was dinged and battered-looking, like it had taken a beating traveling through the barrier. A pirate leaped out of Harry's way. Another ducked behind the newspaper she had been reading. Harry stopped to scrutinize a vandalized Royal Cotillion poster of King Cole and the new blond version of himself in a pink suit with white lace gloves. It read The Evening's Events to be broadcast live on Auradon Royal television. Over Cole's face, someone had scribbled a black eye patch and a goatee, and a purple X had been spray-painted over Harry's face with Good Boy! on his body.

Harry thought back to a time when he had been the vandal supplying the design, and he felt offended seeing that he'd become the vandal's victim, and strange that he was part of Cole's goodie reputation on the Isle. He wanted to shake the good-boy image—fast.

Harry flipped up his goggles. He ripped the poster down, crumpling it up, tossed in over his shoulder, snapped his goggles back down, and continued along his way. The destitute pirates looked on in his wake, frightened. Harry's scooter roared down another equaled street. People jumped out of the way. Some shook their fists at him.

Harry smiled. He was home.

A short distance later, Harry rolled through an alley infested with grungy thieves, minions, and pickpockets and parked his bike under the stairway of his crew's old hideout. It was a house perched high on a broken bridge dilapidated support. There was a drop-down gate barring a flight of steps that led to the entrance at the top, where a sign read Isle of the Lost in mismatched flickering letters. At the bottom of the hideout was an old-fashioned ship's call horn, where visitors could announce themselves. Harry removed his helmet, taking in his familiar surroundings.

He picked up a rock and hurled it at a sign that said Danger: Flying rocks, and the gate slid up. Harry ducked under it and climbed the steps. He paused on a landing to gaze over the Isle. It was as bleak and dismal as ever. He smirked and kept climbing until he reached the top, and he entered the vacant hideout. Exposed lightbulbs and bits of fabric clung to the ceiling, and graffiti images on the walls said We Shall Rise! Revenge!, and Down with Auradon!

The hideout was just know how Harry and his friends had left it.

In Auradon, Cole reviewed official royal documents in his library office.

"Debby, please ask Lumiere to call me regarding Cotillion. Thank you," he said into the earpiece he wore. He peered at the pile of papers stacked before him on the desk, framed on the each side by the Auradon flag. He dipped his quill into an ink pot and took another paper with the Auradon crest at the top to review. The leather chair he sat in wasn't a throne, but it was the place where Cole performed most of his kingly duties when he wasn't in his official council meetings. The office was also somewhere to hide away when things got tough, like after the fight with Harry at the pond. Cole shook his head as if to make sense of it and signed the document. The framed portrait of him looked down on him from over the fireplace, as if it judged him.

Calum rapped on the door and stuck his face into the room. "Cole," he said softly.

Cole looked up, and his face brightened. "Calum! Come on in." He took out his earpiece.

He pushed through the door, closed it softly behind him, and faced Cole. His lip trembled, and his eyes glistened. He held a piece of paper in his shaking hands. "Harry's gone back to the Isle," he said, "for good."

Cole's expression turned blank.

Calum walked to Cole's desk and handed the note to him. He also handed Cole's shiny gold beast-head ring to him. It had once belonged to his powerful father.

Cole's eyes widened. He took the note and read what Harry had written, then crumpled the paper in his hands. "This is my fault. This is my fault!" he roared. "I blew it. He's been under so much pressure lately. And instead of understanding, I—I just went all Beast on him!" Cole slumped over his desk. "I have to go there and apologize," he told Calum. "I have to go back! And beg him—"

"You'll never find him," said Calum.

Cole walked behind his desk to the window to look over the tree-filled lawn.

"You need to know the Isle, and how it works, and our hideouts . . ." Calum exhaled. He looked thoughtful, then said, "You have to take me with you."

Cole spun away from the window. "Yes!" His face lit up. Then he squinted. "Uh, I mean, are you sure?"

Calum's expression hardened. "Yeah," he said, standing taller. "He's my best friend." Calum turned around. "And we'll take the boys, too, because there's safety in numbers. And none of us are all too popular over there right now."

"Thank you, Calum," said Cole.

Calum shifted to face him. "But first let's get two things straight," he said.

Cole stared at him, waiting.

"You have to promise me that I won't get stuck there again," said Calum.

"I promise," said Cole.

"Okay," he said.

Calum eyed Cole's royal-blue suit. "And there's no way you're going to the Isle looking like that."