Wicked Dawn | 'Till The Night Falls Book 1 (Disney Descendants)

Chapter 9: Mirror, Mirror

Thunder rumbled in the heavens as he trudged stiffly through the back alleys toward the very place he'd wanted so badly to stay away from. He kept his head down and hands in his pockets, shuffling along, attempting to come off as just another poor villain's kid. One hand remained permanently around the Dragonfire. He was determined not to let it out of his sight. Evie would already kill him for leaving her behind. He didn't want to give her another reason to bury him six feet under.

The streets seemed to grow more deserted the closer he got to the Evil Queen's castle. He supposed this was due to the overall terror factor of the new ruler of the Isle. He knew he'd be running in the opposite direction if he had the option. But he didn't. Evie was counting on him. Auradon was counting on him. This was normally something that Ben or Mal would do. They were the real heroes. But they weren't here right now. It was only Evie and him. And Evie wasn't able to complete the trial. That left him. The dwarf. The band geek. The very non-hero.

If he was all that was left, Auradon was doomed.

Even the air seemed to grow heavier as he trudged through the rain. It seemed like it was now as heavily filled with dread as his footsteps (which were progressively getting slower and slower and had almost reached a stop). He could feel the painful thud of his heart beating against his rib cage. He'd never been so terrified of anything before. Not even when Audrey had tried to take over Auradon and turned half of its residents to stone. This was Evil Queen. The worst villain on all of the Isle, next to Maleficent of course.

He knew he had to be walking straight into a trap. Unarmed and unprotected. And neither Mal nor Evie were around to help him. This was one quest he would have to complete on his own. To prove his worth to Evie. And to the others. He could be a hero too.

But that didn't mean he wasn't terrified to death.

If Evie's mother was even one-tenth as dangerous as Evie had made her out to be, he wasn't sure he'd even make it through the front door safely. This was not a good plan. He didn't expect to walk back out of it. He just needed to get the Dragonfire...get it to Evie...and find some way not to die in the process.

The rain seemed to let up as he reached the front stoop of the castle and stared up at its looming figure. He didn't want to go in through the front door. The villains would be expecting that. What about the balcony he'd seen earlier? Could he climb up and enter through the window? It was certainly a less predictable course of action. But could he do it?

He looked down at his hands and then back up at the relatively smooth side of the castle. It was possible to scale. He'd seen it done on television before. But he wasn't a rock climber. He lacked all types of strength (as Uma had so kindly pointed out). The climb would potentially wear him out and leave him nothing to fight any lurking villains with.

Could he do it? Scale such a tremendous object? Maybe. Did he really have any other option? No.

He fingered the Dragonfire nervously, feeling it warm against his fingertips. What would his father do in a situation like this? What would Snow White do? This wasn't like some hunter chasing a fourteen-year-old girl through the forest, though. This was more like walking right into the lion's den and trying to steal a cub from them while they were all still awake. It was bound to go downhill fast.

Taking a deep breath, he glanced around to make sure no one was waiting, hitched up his backpack, and then promptly threw himself at the wall, jumping up as high as he could before grabbing into a group of loose bricks. His handholds were slick from the rain and he struggled to hold on, grit his teeth, and set his mind on ascending instead. A few steps up and already his arms were burning. His glasses slid uncomfortably down his nose but he didn't have a free hand to push them back up. After a few moments of struggling, he allowed himself to look down...and immediately wished he hadn't. He found himself staring at a dizzying fifty-foot drop and the world started to spin around him.