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

Chapter 13: Dragonfight

Doug felt his body smash into the brick wall and fall hard among a mountain of boxes and furniture. For a moment, he lay there, stunned, pain screaming through his nerves. He gasped, head still fuzzy from being knocked unconscious but struggling frantically to fit all the missing pieces in the puzzle together. The Dragonfires...she has the Dragonfires...Evie? EVIE!

He scrambled to his feet, searching around frantically for the bluenette. Instead, his gaze fell on her mother. Their eyes met and Doug immediately scrambled back, his heart throbbing relentlessly. He wanted to hide, to escape her deadly glare. But where could he go? He was trapped. There was nothing around him that could offer protection. He was stranded in the middle of the sea of useless boxes...and his family's archenemy was standing feet away from him, looking poised to kill, the Dragonfires shining dangerously in her hands.

He tensed, ready to bolt at a moment's notice, holding the Evil Queen's glare evenly. If he let her see how frightened he was, then he was already as good as dead. He stood there stiffly as the stones began to glow and pulse once more with light.

"Doug...?"

There was a groan from a few feet away and the dwarf tore his eyes away from his enemy to locate Evie who was just beginning to emerge from among a pile of old chairs and cushions. It was only a momentary distraction, but it was all that Evil Queen needed.

Before he knew what had hit him, he found himself once again flying through the air, the force of the impact propelling him backward through a full length mirror and tumbling head over heels across the dusty and icy ground. Great, he groaned, still not a hundred percent comprehending what was happening. Seven years of bad luck for me. He struggled to stand back up, but the Evil Queen was quicker and was on top of him in a matter of second. She grabbed him by the throat and dragged him roughly into the air to match her height. He gasped, struggling to pry her hands from his neck even as he dangled helplessly in midair.

"You were a fool to come here," Evie's mother hissed. "And you were a fool to ever trust my daughter. True love is nothing more than a fairy tale, a pitiful lie. Tell me, dwarf, why would Evie ever love someone like you? You...you're a nothing. She would never love the likes of you!"

"Mom..." Evie gasped, stumbling to her feet but falling back down almost as rapidly. "Please..."

"NO! ENOUGH!" Evil Queen bellowed, dropping Doug who hit the ground on all fours and remained there, gasping for breath. The Queen, meanwhile, turned back towards her daughter with fire in her eyes. "Evie..." she began, her voice immediately softening. "I'm so sorry that you had to go to that dreadful place. And after all you did for me, I hated to leave you there. But it's about to be all alright again. Don't worry. Mommy's here. I have an ally. She's on her way. And when she gets here, you won't have to worry about this underling's poisonous influence ever again. She'll take care of him. And then we can be together again."

"She?" Evie groaned, obviously ignoring everything else her mother had just said. "Who's she? Maleficent?"

"EVIE!" Mal's voice echoed off of the walls.

Doug coughed and looked up, squinting through broken lenses to see the purplette charge into the room, followed closely by the other VKs, along with Ben, Jane, and Lonnie. Immediately, the panic in his heart loosened. Mal would save them! They were going to make it! They were going to be all right! He gave a small smile that was not missed by the Evil Queen as she spun to face the new arrivals. "FOOLS!" she screamed at them all.

Mal stepped forward, holding her Dragonfire in front of her like a kind of weapon. "Let them go," she ordered, her eyes glowing green. Evie's mother certainly wasn't Maleficent. Perhaps all Mal would have to do was intimidate her and she'd back down. "Now."