So Many Ways to be Wicked

Chapter 16

Jay was casually swinging Mulan's sword as they all walked up the steps, watching with amusement at the terrified looks on the guards faces. The guards' faces hardened, determined to protect their king, queen and prince despite being terrified of the four children that radiated power. Their act of bravery did nothing to qualm the VKs amusement, easily seeing through the facade to the scared men and women beneath.

"I'll give you an option," Mal drawled. "Let us in and we will make your deaths quick. Try to stops us and I'll have Carlos skin you alive and wear your skin as a coat." Mal wasn't joking and it seemed the guards knew that as they looked at Carlos who spun his dagger between his fingers.

"Tick tock," Evie giggled, smiling sweetly at the guards. They all felt a shiver run down their spines.

"No," one guard said, standing up straight.

"What are you doing, Karl?!" Another guard demanded. "Just let them through. I'd rather die quick than have that freak skin me alive."

"Excuse me?" Jay asked, eerily calm. "Did you just call him a freak?" Jay didn't wait for an answer, instead stabbing Mulan's sword deep into the guards abdomen. "Don't you ever call him a freak again."

"Not like he'll be able to, since he'll be dead soon from blood loss," Evie commented as Jay withdrew the sword. The other guards watched in shock as their fellow guard crumpled to the ground, wailing in agony.

"Oh shut the hell up," Mal said, kicking the guard in the side. "I've been stabbed before and it does not hurt that much." Mal scoffed and stepped over the body. "This is taking way too long. Everyone, do as you please as long as it doesn't take more than a few minutes." The four VKs sprung into action, pleased as they incapacitated and murdered the large group of guards efficiently. Evie's seemingly non-stop supply of poisons were doused onto multiple guards while Jay and Carlos worked as a team, back to back as they swung their sword and dagger at the unsuspecting guards. Mal fired curses in latin, her hands beginning to flame once more when guards would get too close. In no less than five minutes, half of the army had fled and the other half were dead. Mal knew as soon as she took the throne, the guards that left would be rounded up and executed. They were too much of a flight risk to be enslaved and forced to work as guards to the core four. However, they had more pressing matters than some escaped guards. Mal climbed the rest of the steps, hopping gingerly over the bloody bodies of the Auradonian guards. Worthless and pathetic, Mal thought to herself. She stopped at the large doors, looking to her side where Evie stood, then looking backwards to where Carlos and Jay were leaning on each other casually.

"Let's do this," Mal breathed, excitement running through her veins. She tried the doors only to find them locked. She easily whispered an unlocking spell and finally, finally the four VKs stepped foot in the castle. They needed to find their way to the Great Hall where the ceremony was still taking place.

"Evie, can you have the mirror tell us where to go?" Mal asked. Evie nodded, pulling the mirror out of her purse.

"Mirror mirror in my hand, where are all the royal citizens in the land?" Evie asked it. The mirror glitched slightly before showing a map of the castle, heat signatures in a room not too far down the hall from them.

"Let's go," Carlos urged, too excited to wait any longer. He could taste the freedom, the power already and he was not nearly patient enough to stand around and wait. Unknown to them, a bright light shot through the sky and hit the barrier, bringing it down for a minute before it magically repaired itself. Mal took the initiative, striding quickly down the hall, leaving bloody footprints in her wake. None of them noticed but their coronation clothing that Evie had made were splattered with blood. If any of them had noticed, though, they would've thought it was an improvement to the garment. Who didn't think splattered blood was a great accessorizer? Evie, Carlos and Jay quickly followed Mal to where she stood before the doors to the Great Hall. She could hear Faemina talking which meant they hadn't missed the ceremony. Not yet, anyway. Mal swung the doors open and everyone went still and quiet, eyes and heads snapping towards the sound of the doors crashing against the walls.