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In the middle of a colorful swirl of gowns and measured dance steps, a sea witch’s daughter stood alone at the edges, observing but not partaking.
Ever since the Isle barrier had fallen, the continuous parties had gained a dull sheen to Uma. How often could these Auradon kids and their parents make a celebration out of every little thing? For a bunch of goody-goodies, they sure knew how to throw money around for all kinds of shindigs. Uma supposed that side-effect came from all too many times where good had triumphed over evil, happy endings piling atop each other without any kind of end.
Uma’s lips twisted distastefully, and not from the fruity cocktail she had taken behind a princess’s back. She set it down on the nearby counter as she watched the carefully timed dance, an irritatingly familiar tune wafting through the air.
“Are you looking for someone to sweep you off your feet?”
The voice startled Uma from not only its nearness but also its warmth. Her eyes flitted to the golden-boy king who stood beside her, leaning into her space so that his words wouldn’t fall unheard over the music. She shifted uncomfortably; King Ben always had a way of getting under her skin, but not in a way that was . . . unpleasant. Not exactly.
Her eyes retreated back to the dance floor as she tapped her fingertips along her chin as if she were making a tough choice. “And who’s to say I won’t do the sweeping?” she asked, her voice light. However irritating it was, it had always been easy to talk to Ben. It was almost like talking to her crewmates, her near-brothers, Harry and Gil. But there was an edge there nonetheless: Uma didn’t play nice with anyone, even boys with soft smiles and gazes that spoke of promise instead of deception.
Ben’s answering laughter was just as soft and warm as she remembered. “Right,” he said. “That makes sense. Has any Auradon gentleman caught your eye tonight?”
Uma’s eyes slid back to Ben, and she considered him in his carefully tailored blue suit that spoke of his rank in this kingdom. It was a far cry from the first time she had met him, decked out in mock-Isle gear to try and hide the vulnerable Auradon kid beneath the affected grit and grime that had hardly fooled anyone, least of all her. Even without having seen him on television all her life as he grew from child prince to boy king, Uma would have been able to mark Ben as different: there wasn’t a mean bone in his body. Perhaps a bit oblivious, and privileged, but never mean.
“I don’t exactly like the gentlemen,” Uma said softly. Gentle and I don’t mix well.
Ben didn’t answer right away. “So should we go look for a princess instead?” he asked at last, his voice a bit hesitant.
Uma couldn’t hold back the laugh this time. There you go with being oblivious. “Not tonight,” she said. “But maybe I’ll take up the offer another time.”
“I won’t stand for it if you show up at my wedding solo,” Ben said, and she could hear the smile in his voice without even looking at him.
With anyone else, she might have snarled that she was perfectly fine with being alone, no tethers or chains holding her back – but she had to admit she had always had a soft spot for this young king. Even when she had had him at her mercy back on the Isle, she hadn’t even laid a finger on him. Her mother would have been so disappointed.
“Speaking of your wedding, where’s your lovely bride-to-be?” Uma asked, her gaze flicking around the room restlessly. Mal’s giveaway purple head of hair should have been easy to spot, but there was no sign of Maleficent’s daughter at this royal gathering. Uma herself had only been invited because Audrey had gotten extra tickets from her mother, and Audrey had been trying to get on Uma’s good side ever since the princess had started dating Harry. In truth, Uma had no ill will against the girl; it was just fun to watch a princess humble herself just to impress her new boyfriend’s best friend.
Again, the quiet lasted a beat too long. “She’s taking a break,” Ben said. “She can only handle so much royal responsibility in a week.”
Can’t exactly blame her, Uma thought, but she didn’t voice the words just to spare Ben hurt feelings. The differences between Isle and Auradon upbringings were all too clear on nights like these, at parties like these, with people like these. Mal didn’t grow up on a diet of golden spoons and pretty things and loving arms; if anything, there had been only tarnished objects and ugly words and careless spite. No matter how much true love existed between Ben and Mal, he would never be able to fill the hollow spaces the Isle had left in Mal, in every villain-born child.
But he believed he could. Ben probably thought he could love Mal enough that his love would be a balm over any wounds she still had.
Ben was kind, and honest, and perhaps too good – but he was also a fool.
And fools always, always paid for their naiveté.
Instead of warning him and guarding him against what heartbreak might come, Uma held out her hand to him expectantly.
Ben just stared at her as if she were an entirely different person, a stranger he had never glimpsed before tonight.
“It won’t do if the king of Auradon doesn’t get one dance in tonight,” Uma said, “and it looks like you’re stuck with me, Your Highness.”
It took only a moment before Ben’s mouth curved into a smile that looked so much more at home on his face than any hint of sadness. “It would be my pleasure,” he said.
As Ben led Uma across the crowded dance floor, a soft medley began from the small seated orchestra. The whirls of dancing couples parted, as if they had just been waiting for a cue from their king, and Ben settled one of his hands on her waist while the other held her hand in a gentle clasp. He was still smiling at her, and Uma wondered what it would be like to see that smile every day, rain or shine, and she was reminded of the enchantment she had cast that had ultimately been broken by Mal giving True Love’s Kiss to Ben.
In another world, would Uma have been able to keep hold of this boy? In another time, would she have been able to enchant him in normal, natural ways that would have made him hers for the rest of their lives?
Useless questions. Such useless questions.
Uma closed her eyes as she was led into the dance, her feet gliding in tune with the music.
Ben leaned in to whisper in her ear as her heartbeat thrummed in her throat, “You’re a natural.”
She shook her head, her braids swishing with the movement. “I played too many prince-and-princess games when I was little,” she admitted. No one else knew that other than Harry, who had been her clumsy dance partner when they were kids playing on the beach just by the wharf.
“Maybe I should have played pirates more when I was a kid,” Ben said, leaning back to meet her eyes with his.
Uma felt a smile tug at her lips before she had even realized it. “And why is that?”
“Maybe then I would understand you a bit more,” he said, and the words carried with them an undercurrent that anyone else might have missed.
But just because Uma noticed didn’t mean she was going to take the bait. “A game is nothing like real life,” she said.
“So then why do you make people play games just to get close to you?” Ben asked.
The words weren’t mean-spirited, but Uma felt slapped by them anyway. Her first instinct was to spit in his face and run; the second urge was to push him away; and the third urge was to tell him just exactly what she thought of him and all his little Auradon puppets.
But Uma had learned a few things from Auradon in the short time she had been here.
Isle kids weren’t the only ones who played games.
This king had been learning too.
Well, she would play – but not how he thought.
“I don’t play games,” Uma said, “not unless I know I’m going to win.”
“And what are you hoping to win? Respect?”
They had halted in their steps, the dance forgotten, and Uma just stared up into those eyes that so wanted to know her, know everything about the Isle, know how to repair all the mistakes his parents and their allies had wrought.
Well, Uma wasn’t his little experiment.
Uma allowed the king one last smile as she stepped back, the orchestra’s song whispering to its end. “I only try to win what I can’t steal myself,” she said.
Just like I couldn’t steal your heart no matter how much I wished I could have.
Ben just stared at her, not even having a shred of insight into what she was feeling, and she felt a vicious gladness that her secrets were still her own.
“Thanks for the dance,” Uma said. She even gave a half-curtsy that all the princesses in the room would probably have laughed at her for attempting.
And it was another relief when the king of Auradon did nothing to stop her or follow her as she fled out into the night.