Anarchy

VII

CHAPTER 7,
"FOR AFTER."

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❝Measure not the work until the day's out and the labor done.❞

— Elizabeth Barrette Browning

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They stood around a table in the boys' room, which happened to be more average than the girls' room, plotting. Scheming had always calmed her nerves. It gave her the illusion that she was in some form of control, even if she consciously knew that she never was.

"Carlos?" Mal asked.

"I get the limo so we can break the barrier."

"Evie, you spray the driver with this. Two sprays and he'll be out like a light," she handed Evie a blue perfume bottle. "A?"

"I guard the door incase anything goes wrong." Anna declared, "If it does, I wolf out and scare the daylights out of everybody."

She nodded, "We're set."

They each sighed. Going over the plan hadn't relieved any of them of their anxieties. Not even Anna's, which only told her just how bad this was, just how deep they'd sunk in. Auradon was making them weak.

The wolf-girl ran a hand through her hair, causing her curls to bounce, "Are we sure about this?"

"We can do it," Mal nodded.

Carlos and Jay went to sit on their beds, and Anna sat down with her journal at the table; Mal started reading in her spell book.

Evie peered over Mal's shoulder, "You want to break Ben's love spell?"

Anna looked up in confusion.

Mal nodded, "You know, for after. I've just been thinking. 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... Having Ben still in love with me just seems a little extra... cruel."

Evie nodded.

"Isn't that kinda the point?" Anna questioned in a bored tone. "If you're looking for a good deed in it all, Ben might be so in love with you that it makes all of the cruelty and evil a little less painful. Plus, having someone who'll do whatever you ask and would be willing to give their life to protect your well-being may come in handy."

Mal clapped her grimoire shut and left the room without responding, almost like she was mad at Anna for not understanding why she'd want to break the spell. They had been fighting a lot lately — well, not fighting. Bickering, making comments. Anna wasn't sure why.

"A, just leave it," Evie spoke up, catching the irritation on her friend's face.

Anna stared at her blankly for a moment before getting up to follow Mal and the teal-hared girl sighed.

The castle's wide corridor was just as dark and shadowy as it had been when the three girls had travelled down it to Carlos and Jay's room.

"Mal," the werewolf closed the door behind her, "what's with you? This can't just be about your mom or the weight of the situation. Use your words."

The witch sat on her bed, the corner of her spell book poking out from under her pillow. Rage boiled beneath her skin, and Anna didn't have to see the tint of anger burning across her cheeks to know that; she had smelled the chemo-signals in the hall.

When Mal didn't respond, Anna moved to sit down on my bed across from her, "Talk to me."

That last demand didn't exactly sound like a demand; it sounded like a plea. It burned her throat after she said it. Auradon really was making them weak.

Or maybe Anna was the only weak one. Maybe she had always been weak, and she just hadn't felt all of it until leaving the Isle. Maybe these abilities she'd hankered for her entire life were showing her just how much lack of control and therefore weakness that came with the allotted strength.

"You don't get it," Mal spat after a moment of seething.

"What? What don't I get, M?"

"God," she scoffed, her voice becoming more high-pitched and grating, "you aren't even trying! You were raised for this. You're so savage, so ready to take a chunk out of anyone and everyone.

"Me and my mom —"

My mom and I, Anna mentally corrected.

"— we don't even talk unless I'm trying to gain her attention. You and your dad, you have your problems, but at least you talk! You agree on things!"

Her head was turned toward Anna then, and her eyes began to glow green. Mal jumped and lowered her head, blinking a couple of times to clear her vision.

Maybe Anna wasn't the only one dealing with new abilities and emotions. Things had changed, and she was no longer alone in trying to figure it all out.

"You think my dad and I talk?" Anna queried after a moment. "He batters me around and threatens me. That's not talking. I envy you. Your home is relatively peaceful."

"We're villains, A. We don't want peace."

"I do," she admitted softly. "At least, I think I do. Now that I've gotten a taste of it."

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