Descendants: Dark One's Daughter

Chapter 9

Later that day Carlos joined the girls in their room.

"Where have you been?" Mal asked curiously.

"Jay made me try out for tourney with him," Carlos said as he sat on the floor in front of Mal's bed. Ruby laughed from her bed across the room where she was strumming the strings on her guitar.

"You couldn't catch a ball, even if you used that big brain of yours," Ruby said. "Why on earth would you try out for a sport?"

"You're not catching a ball in this game," Carlos responded sassely. "You're hitting a ball."

"Same difference," Ruby responded. "You still can't do it."

"Whatever," Carlos responded. He then turned to look at Mal. "So how did everything go with Jane?"

"Awful," Mal responded. "Her mother is refusing to use the wand on her. Let alone get her wand out."

"Maybe we can find a spell in your book," Calos suggested.

"Wait, Ruby, couldn't you just break the barrier with your dark magic?" Mal suggested.

"Possibly," Ruby said. "It's a magical barrier though. From what I've heard, I would have to make a potion to break it, and I don't exactly have a recipe laying around."

"But we could possibly find one in the spell book," Mal said.

"If you can find one I'll try, but I'm not making any promises," Ruby replied.

"Well, it's worth a shot," Carlos said.

"Carlos, why don't you see if you can hack into something at the museum," Mal suggested. "Maybe you can disable the barrier long enough for us to steal the wand."

"I'll see what I can do," Carlos said.

"I'll go up to the library and see if I can find some old spell books or something useful," Ruby said as she laid her guitar on her bed.

"You guys can do that," Evie said. "I need to finish Chad's homework."

"Thanks a lot E," Mal said sarcastically.

In the Library
Ruby frustratedly searched the last shelf on the first floor of the library.

"Uh, are there no books about magic here?" Ruby said angrily as she put a book back on the shelf. Then Marlin walked around the corner of the shelf.

"Ah, I thought I heard someone rummaging around over here," Marlin said. "You seem angry."

"If I see the words 'and they lived happily ever after' again I will personally burn every book in this library," Ruby said a little agitated. "I don't suppose any of these books are about magic, are they?"

"Well no," Marlin said a little confused. "Magic is a retired art here. All the books with spells have been put into the museum, and most books don't focus on magic. Why do you need one?"

"Oh...it's just a hobby of mine from the isle," Ruby responded quickly. "You know, I would get bored weaving golden string, so I would read whatever was lying around."

"I like to read too," Marlin said. "That's actually why I volunteer here in my free time. I should show you some of my favorite books. They're all about romance, war, poetry. And they all have a happy ending."

"How can one place have so many books?" Ruby asked amazed. "And how can so many of them be about happy endings?"

"Well, Auradon Prep is lucky enough to be run by a queen who loves books," Marlin said. "She personally selected every book in this library. What's wrong with a happy ending anyways?"

"Not all endings are happy, especially for villains," Ruby said. "They don't happen in real life."

"Who told you such a thing?" Marlin asked confused.

"My father," Ruby responded.

"Ruby, living happily ever after just means you spend the rest of your life with the person you love, and that makes you happy," Marlin said. "A happy ending can happen to anyone. Even villains. My parents always told me that you choose to make your ending happy or not. It depends on what you want to happen."

"Villains don't really get a choice," Ruby said. "On the Isle you don't really get to be happy. You have to be tough to survive. And there's not really a lot of time for love in there either."

"I didn't know things were so bad on the isle," Marlin said sympathetically. "It must have been hard for you."

"I don't need your pity," Ruby said. "I survived well enough. I learned to take care of myself, and care about only me."

"It wasn't pitty," Marlin said. "I actually admire you for being able to survive in such harsh conditions. I know I could never do anything like that."

"Yeah, I don't think a prince would do too well on the isle," Ruby said. "The people don't take well to royalty." Marlin laughed at her comment.

"Well, I have no plans of going near that isle, except maybe on my next swim to Atlantis to visit my grandfather," Marlin said. "No offense to you of course."

"None taken," Ruby responded. "It's not an overly enjoyable place for me either. But it's home." Ruby glanced up at a nearby clock and realised she had been in the library for almost an hour.

"Well, if there's nothing here that can help me, then I should be going," Ruby said.

"Alright," Marlin responded. "Come to your music lessons a little early tomorrow. I'm bringing refreshments."

"Alright, I'll be there," Ruby responded as she turned and walked out the door.

"And I'll have a little surprise too," Marlin said under his breath as he watched her leave.

Author's Notes
Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I updated. Life is busy as usual. And it's going to be a while till the next update because I'm leaving on Tuesday to go to Disney! But hopefully I'll pick up a few ideas for this book down there.
Thanks for reading!