Elodie was forever grateful for the Fairy Godmother letting her skip the rest of classes to talk with her parents. But now, she had to shove it aside so she could focus on planning to steal the wand. Earlier when the redhead rejoined her friends after the call, Mal had stated they needed to come up with a better plan.

"Okay, we all know what this looks like." Mal said, pointing to the sketch of Fairy Godmother's wand she drew. "So we'll be up on the dais under the Beast's spell jar, and we'll be coming in from here. I will be up at the very front. You all will be up in the balcony."

"Okay." Evie agreed, also getting a head nod from Elodie.

"Carlos?" Mal asked.

"Okay, so I'll find our limo, so we can break the barrier and get back on the island with the wand." He said, nodding his head.

"Perfect."

"Evie? You will use this to take out the driver. Two sprays and he'll be out like a light." Elodie said, handing over the potion contained in a perfume bottle. Mal had trusted her with making it, knowing how experienced she was.

"Okay." She replied, sharing somber looks with the rest. The began to walk away from the table they were standing at, Mal sitting down in a chair and going over the spells she was contemplating using on Ben to break the love spell.

"M? You want to break Ben's love spell?" Evie said, shocked. It wasn't a surprise she didn't know, as she had began to go to bed earlier, whereas Mal and Elodie stayed up.

"Yeah." Mal hesitated. "You know, for after. I've just been thinking, you know, when the villains finally do invade Auradon, and begin to loot and kick everyone out of their castles and imprison their leaders and destroy all that is good and beautiful, Ben still being in love with me just seems a little extra.. cruel."

Everyone gave her sympathetic looks before she abruptly got up and left, leaving everyone in silence.

"How much does everyone want to bet she changes her mind on this whole thing?" Elodie said, breaking the silence.

⚔︎

"Evie! Where is my red nail polish?" Elodie yelled out from the bathroom.

She, and everyone else, were finishing up getting ready for Family Day. Though, they already had the video call, Ben wanted Mal to go, therefore the rest of the VK's were forced into it, much to the redheads dismay.

"It's on the desk! My desk!" Evie yelled back in reply.

"Why the fuck is it on your desk if it's my nail polish?" Elodie said angrily while walking over and snatching it up. She unscrewed the wand and began touching up the chips in the polish that was already on.

"Let's go!" Mal yelled, taking both Evie and Elodie by the hands and dragging them towards the door.

⚔︎

Finally getting outside, the villain kids seemed to arrive during a performance — one that didn't sound as good as the one on the tourney field.

Mal lead their way over to a table full of food. Elodie had done enough research over the course of weeks, knowing that the small cone shaped red fruit Mal picked up was called a strawberry.

The purple haired girl once again lead the way to an empty spot on the grass to watch the performance of her 'boyfriend'. Ben's face immediately lit up seeing the girl.

Carlos shoved Dude in Elodie's arms, quickly dipping something into the chocolate fountain that was on a table. "Give a girl a little warning next time." She grumbled under her breath.

She didn't have it in her to focus on the boy though, because Mal was soon beckoned over by Ben. She watched the interaction from afar, jealousy slowly brewing up inside the girl.

That godforsaken soon-to-be-king was getting on her nerves more and more every day.

Evie nudged her, snapping the redhead out of her thoughts. The blue haired girl gestured over to were Mal was pointing at them. "Maybe wipe the jealousy off your face, El. Dude's gonna whine soon from how hard you're squeezing him." She whispered in her ear, before promptly turning her attention elsewhere.

Elodie's face morphed into one of pure shock. But like always, she didn't have time to dwell because Mal and Ben were making their way over.

"Croquet?"

⚔︎

"Have we met?" A woman with blonde hair spoke, getting Elodie's attention. She was holding some kind of grey creature

"I don't think so?" Elodie said, though as more of a question.

"Hmm, there's something familiar about you I just can't quite place. My name's Queen Elionwy and this is Gurgi."

"E-Elionwy?" The redhead stuttered. She grew up hearing many stories from her father about her and Taran and Gurgi. "Like as in Taran and Elionwy?"

"Oh yes, my husband is back at the food tables. How do you- oh." The realization that hit the Queens face made every bone in Elodie's body shake. "You!" She gasped, drawing attention from everyone at family day.

"Queen Elionwy-" Elodie tried, though she was cut off.

"I can't believe this." Elionwy whispered to herself.

"Queen Elionwy I can assure you she's not going to cause any harm. She is not her father." Ben said, rushing over.

"What is going on over here?" A man Elodie assumed to be Taran said, wrapping an arm around Elionwy.

"Taran," The blonde spoke, confirming who it was. "this is the Horned Kings daughter."

The shock that spread throughout his face was instant, though it turned quickly into what appeared to be sympathy. "I am so terribly sorry."

"What can you be sorry for? He's actually not bad, I promise." Elodie laughed.

"She doesn't know?" Taran asked Ben, who was gesturing for him to keep quiet.

"Know what?" Elodie asked, suddenly very serious. If something concerned her father that she didn't know, she would do whatever it took to find out.

"Your father was flown in and placed into the intensive care unit at Auradon Hospital last night." He paused, not sure if he should keep going but did anyway. "He didn't make it. We think it's due to dying and coming back by accident, since we only wished for Gurgi to come back and not him." Taran clarified, completely missing the rage and sadness building up on Elodie's face.

"He what?" The redhead asked in a hushed whisper. Her eyes were flickering between their normal shade and a glowing electric blue. Blue wisps we're swirling at her clenched fists.

"King Taran-" Ben tried to get him to shush.

"I mean, we all knew he was living on borrowed time. But, that didn't make it not sad you know. He had such an impact in our lives."

Elodie wanted to scream, but she held back. Tears were silently streaming down her face. She turned to Ben, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Mal told me not to!" He said, putting his hands up in defense.

Every bit of emotion swirling inside of Elodie turned into rage, but before she could explode like Carlos and Jay very well knew she would, they each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her away from the scene.

The redhead let them, and when they were far enough away from wandering eyes and open ears, she collapsed into their arms, crying like never before.

⚔︎

"I am going to kill her!" Elodie screamed. Pure rage practically steaming out of her ears. "Why didn't she tell me?" She asked aloud, sobbing.

Tears were streaming down her face, making the expression 'cry me a river' come true. Jay and Carlos watched her cautiously, wanting nothing but to ease some of her pain.

"I mean, come on. This is how I had to find out? By her fucking boyfriend, not even her?" She asked, hiccuping.

"I'm so sorry, El." Carlos comforted.

"I don't want pity, Car. I want my dad." She said through her teeth, before breaking down again.

The moment was interrupted by two girls walking over. The three VK's heads snapped up, anger taking over their faces when they saw who the intruders were.

"Get out of here, Mal." Jay said, meaning it as a warning, because if he didn't do something, he knew Elodie would.

"No, Jay." Mal replied, before directing her attention to Elodie. "I'm so sorry, El. I had no idea-"

"Go away." The redhead said.

"No, El-"

"Mal, I said go away." Elodie stood up, blue wisps forming a ball in her hands. Though, that only made Mal walk closer. "You knew, Mal. You knew and you didn't tell me." She said, jabbing her finger in the purple haired girls chest.

"No, I didn't." Mal scoffed.

"Ben told me. He ratted your ass out back there, so stop the lying." Elodie said, gritting her teeth. "I'm giving you five seconds to leave before I gut you."

"El-"

"One."

"Come on-"

"Two." That was all it took for Evie to drag the dragon away. But, Elodie still shot a ball of electricity towards the girl, making her jump in pain. "I fucking hate you." She yelled after them.

⚔︎

A couple of hours later and Elodie had packed all of her stuff up and out of the shared dorm. Thank God for Fairy Godmother and her kind heart, otherwise the redhead probably wouldn't have got a room change.

It was an empty one, meaning the girl wouldn't have a roommate for awhile. Fairy Godmother thought it was the best option, giving the girl time to grieve on her own.

"That's the last of it." Elodie sniffled. Jay and Carlos had graciously helped her move all of her things to her new room.

"We'll make sure not to tell Mal and Evie where your room is." Carlos said, smiling.

It was nice, treating Elodie like she wasn't some fragile doll that was going to break any moment, even though she was. Elodie felt grateful for them.

Jay and Carlos slowly retreated out of the room after a moment of silence, leaving the redhead to digest what happened. Though, that didn't happen as there was a knock a couple minutes later.

"El? I, uh, just wanted to say I'm sorry. I know since we've become friends I should've told you earlier, but Mal told me not to, not wanting to distract you from your quote unquote mission. Whatever that means." A voice assumed to be Ben's said through the door.

Elodie slowly walked over to it, quietly turning the doorknob. "Why?"

"Why what?" Ben chuckled.

"Why are you apologizing to me? I'm a villain, remember? You're not supposed to apologize to a villain."

"He was your dad." He sighed, "Regardless of what he did in the past. Mal told me some of the things he did for you. Like, taught you how to use your magic and polite manners so you didn't end up exactly like him and your mom."

Instead of saying anything, Elodie King hugged him, something she'd only ever done a couple of times. "This really, really hurts. God, when was she planning on telling me?"

"Honestly? I don't know. But, I do know she was doing it to protect you. She really does care about you, El."

"Not in the way I wanted her to." The redhead mumbled below her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Thank you for this, Ben."

⚔︎

Emily speaks !

hello sorry i haven't updated in a while, but i've had school and been busy, i'm leaving you all on a cliff hanger but i'll try and write another tonight!

i have a lot of motivation and this was kind of hard to write but i need the angst between mal and elodie. if you guys haven't picked up on it, el's got a crush on her and so this betrayal is gonna be fun to write.

edited 10/22/22 - yes i did. add on to this chapter, because it was hard to continue it onto the next with the next chapter being the coronation.