Into the Depths

Chapter 14

Audrey sighed as she watched her mother frantically pack her bag. Apparently, Snow White's kingdom was experiencing a crisis and the elder queen had enlisted her mother and father for help.

This, of course, meant Audrey was in charge for the first time—something that she was a little nervous about, she wasn't going to lie. There was a difference between being in charge of her brother for a day and being in charge of an entire kingdom.

"Now, you know you're still grounded from the first viewing," Aurora said, "but you are allowed to use your cell phone if you need to call your father or me in an emergency. That does not mean that you can call if your brother is not listening to you."

"I know what an emergency is mother," Audrey said as she took her phone back with a small chuckle.

"I'm fifteen, not five," Phillip Jr called as he passed by in the hall. "Unless Audrey orders me to dress in drag and do the hula, chances are I'll listen to her."

"Do not order your brother to dress in drag and do the hula just so you can call us when he argues," Phillip Sr said as he walked into the room.

"Yes father," Audrey nodded. "I mean, I wasn't going to do that anyway so thank you for the idea!"

"Audrey," Aurora reprimanded but with a slight chuckle. "Now, your grandfather Hubert should be here soon. I know you don't need a babysitter, especially since we're so close to your seventeenth birthday, but I still feel better knowing someone's here with you kids."

Audrey nodded. Personally she didn't mind her grandfather—she felt he sometimes favored Phillip Jr a bit but after everything that happened with her grandmother, she couldn't blame her mother for changing their guardian up a bit.

They had all been shocked when Ben had called with the news. Normally, a council decision would be given notice via a letter. However, a queen had never been removed from power via a council decision before so it would make sense that a historic decision be met with a historic phone call.

Plus, it was Ben. With something like this, he wouldn't want to do something as impersonal as a letter. As well, it was his decision—Ben always tried to put his name on his decisions in anyway he could so people knew he stood by them. Whether it was bringing villain kids from the Isle or removing queens from power.

Her mother had definitely been taken aback—first at the news that she was now the queen of Auroria but also that she would now sit on the council in Grammy's place.

Apparently, it should have been her mother's seat to begin with—Phillip Jr. had done some research after Ben's call and found that their grandfather's seat should have gone to Aurora after his death. Their grandmother had only taken it as Phillip Jr. was only three when their grandfather Stefan died. Why Grammy held it for so long, they'd never know.

"Now, do we have everything?" Phillip Sr asked. "Snow's waiting for us after all."

"I believe so," Aurora nodded. "Kids, be good. We should be gone for about a month. But your father or I can easily come back if you need us."

"We'll be fine mom," Phillip Jr. said as he came back toward the room, having heard his mother's statement. "We can handle anything the kingdom tries to throw at us, plus you're leaving Audrey three of your advisers. Plus we have our handlers."

"We're in good hands mother," Audrey said with a small smile. This was her chance, to prove to her mother and father that she had truly changed since the first viewing. Obviously she couldn't prove she had changed since the last viewing since she hadn't been in the last viewing.

But regardless, she had longed for the chance to show that she could rule. That she would be a good queen of Auroria and that her parents had no reason to worry when the day finally came.