Into the Depths

Chapter 14

Aurora smiled and leaned down, giving a tender kiss to the top of Audrey's brunette head. "You'll be fine," she said softly. "You've been raised for this. It's in your blood."

"Yes mother," Audrey said, the small smile still on her face. She went over and gave her father a hug goodbye.

"We'll call you as soon as we reach Snow's castle," Phillip Sr. promised. "That way you can be sure we're not dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Not funny dad," Phillip Jr. stated as he went to hug his mother. "It wasn't funny the first time you made the joke and it's not funny now, the thousandth time you've made it."

"Now see, I thought it was hilarious," Phillip Sr. chuckled. "Which reminds me, Audrey, we'll be home in time for your birthday. You still like clowns right?"

"Father, I know you're joking but I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear. I have not and will never like clowns," Audrey said, shaking her head. "But especially not at my seventeenth birthday."

"Duly noted," Phillip Sr. nodded.

"Come along dear. You said it yourself, Snow's waiting for us," Aurora sighed. "Be good kids. Audrey, remember—"

"My phone is only to be used to call you in an emergency. Otherwise I'm grounded from it," Audrey recited. "I know mother."

"Just wanted to double check," Aurora said as she and Phillip Sr. left. As the door clicked shut, Phillip Jr. shrugged and went back to his room. Audrey couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy at that. True she could relax a bit more ever since Ben broke up with her and she wasn't slated to be the next queen of Auradon.

Must be nice being the spare, she thought before shaking her head. She'd been having these bitter thoughts for a while, ever since the viewing where the future version of King Beast had told Mal he'd talk to Ben about how Ben broke up with her.

King Beast must not have...but wait, he was at the first viewing since Blue Fairy had all of Family Day there. He knew how Ben broke up with me. If you could even call it that—he never actually sat down and talked to me, stating that we were through. Even after the love spell wore off, he still stuck with Mal.

Not that Audrey could blame Ben in a way. After all, they were together primarily out of a political alliance—ironic considering both their parents married for love. And now, after learning that he and Mal were True Love...Audrey really couldn't be bitter.

About the two of them. Oh she could still be bitter about their breakup. Even if he had been spelled the first time, when the spell wore off wasn't she owed an explanation as to why she'd been dumped so publicly? After all, they'd been friends before they had been dating.

Shaking her head, Audrey decided to go back to her room and revel in the rare time she had to relax. However, she'd barely begun her ascent up the stairs when there was a knock on the front doors.

"I'll get it Pierre," Audrey said as one of their attendants rushed to open the door.

"But princess-"

"I want to see my grandfather," Audrey said kindly. She'd been making an effort to be kinder to the attendants, figuring it wouldn't help her if her parents overheard her bossing them around. She'd like to not be queen and still be grounded.

"Very well princess," Pierre nodded and backed away from the door. Audrey smiled and went to open it.

"Hello Grandf—"

Audrey trailed off in shock, the smile quickly slipping off her face as she saw not her kind, portly grandfather in front of her but her grandmother.