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But Ben had a stubborn streak in him that wouldn’t give it up. “Don’t try to change the subject, Audrey. Come on. Don’t you wonder about them at all?”
“The villains?”
“Yeah.”
Audrey sat back, shaking her head. “No. Good riddance. Mother says one of them tried to put her to sleep for a hundred years! After she’d already spent her entire childhood in foster care and protective custody! My own mother! And then that same horrible woman turned into a dragon who tried to kill Papa.” She shivered. Audrey must have had heard the story more times than she cared to say, Ben understood, but she’d never mentioned any of it to him before today.
He didn’t blame Audrey for not wanting to talk about it, and he softened his voice now, taking her hand.
“Her name is Maleficent,” said Ben, who had studied his fairy-tale history. His mother had read the old tales to him, before he could even read himself. “She was the Mistress of Darkness, the most evil fairy who has ever lived.”
Audrey’s frown deepened. “Don’t say her name here,” she whispered. It was practically a hiss, she was so upset. “She might hear you—and curse you! She takes away everyone and everything my family loves.”
Now it was Ben’s turn to smile. “No way—that dome will hold them forever.” He leaned forward. “And who exactly does your family love?”
Audrey smiled in return. One blink, and the storm in her eyes was gone.
“My family loves all who are good and kind and deserving of such love, Your Highness.” She held up her delicate hand, and he kissed it obligingly.
I shouldn’t give her such a hard time, Ben thought. Not after everything her family has been through.
“Dance with me, sweet prince,” she urged.
Ben stood up and bowed. “Happy to please my lady.” Dancing in the forest was her favorite thing to do, he knew.
Ben held her in his arms. She was beautiful. Perfect. A princess, who was in love with him. And he was in love with her…wasn’t he?
Audrey sang softly, I know you, I walked with you, Once upon a dream…
It was their song, but this time, it caught him off guard.
With a start, Ben realized he didn’t know her. Not really. He didn’t know her soul, her dreams, and she didn’t know his. They didn’t really know each other.
And worse, he had never dreamt about her. Not once.
For Audrey, that song might be about him. But for Ben, that song wasn’t about her.
No.
Not Audrey.
He had dreamt about another girl.
One with purple hair and green eyes glittering in the dark, a sly smile of mischief on her lips.
Who was she? Where was she? Would he ever meet her?
And would he ever get her out of his head?
Ben closed his eyes and tried to focus on the melody and the girl right in front of him, but the memory of the girl from his dream was too hard to forget.
For the next several hours, Mal, Jay, and Evie helped Carlos with the painstaking task of finishing his mother’s laundry. Or, to be more specific, Jay and Evie helped Carlos, while Mal “supervised.”
For a woman who lived on a semideserted island full of ex-villains, Cruella sure had an elaborate wardrobe, Mal thought. There were fringed scarves and silky black gloves, fishnet stockings and slinky black dresses, chubby wraps and whisper-knit cardigans, bulky coats and frilly corsets. Cruella De Vil might be exiled, but that didn’t mean her clothes were going to be anything less than stunning.
Mal looked around at Evie, who was humming as she folded black-and-white towels. The blue-haired princess had been relatively easy to sway, which boded well for when they actually found the scepter.
Mal would make sure Evie would be the first one to touch it, absorbing the curse and falling asleep for a thousand years. It was the evil scheme to end all evil schemes, and Mal was looking forward to sweet revenge, as well as picking up straight E’s for the semester.
