Choosing Love

Chapter One

Uma sighed as she watched the Isle disappear into the horizon as the limo they were in drove toward Boreadon. Er...Auradon. She should probably start referring to it by its proper name now that she would be living there. Not that Uma was complaining about finally being free of the Isle, but she would miss some aspects of it.

Her crew for one; while Harry and Hadie were joining her on her voyage to Boreadon all the other members of her crew were still confined to the Isle. Well, and Gil but he wasn't exactly part of the crew. He had been under the crew's protection just as DeVil had been before he left the Isle.

She wasn't going to lie, she'd been surprised to have the king of Auradon present to accompany the new kids from the Isle. Though Uma suspected that they hadn't been the only reason King Beastie Jr. had been there. You'd have to have been as blind as Grandmama Odie to have missed the two squadrons of guards making their way to the Dragon's castle.

Well I guess now that she's a lizard, they'd want to make sure anything magic she had was locked up tight, Uma thought with another sigh as her thoughts turned to another magical girl with an affinity for dragons.

It may have only been a month since the coronation but Uma had noticed a change in her cousin. It started small, Mal brushing her off in the mind link saying she had to focus on classwork but then Mal started muting the mind link! She had never done that before, at least not for long periods of time—and her mind link had been muted ever since.

Despite the muted nature of the link, Uma could still get bits of what Mal was feeling even if Uma didn't know why her cousin was feeling the way she was. Waves of stress, panic and annoyance would enter Uma's head every day and she knew it was from Mal.

Oh sure, the annoyance could have been her Uncle Hades dealing with Pain and Panic but Uma knew better. After all, she had checked with Hadie and her younger cousin had picked up on the same wave of emotions. Uncle Hades usually did his best to keep his annoyance in check so Hadie didn't pick up on it.

At least when I get to Boreadon, I'll be able to talk to Mal face to face. She can't put me on mute then, she thought with a small smile. Her thoughts, though, were interrupted by a whimper by the lone non human member of their group. Uncle Hades had insisted on having Estelle come with them and Ben had agreed. Actually, according to Hadie, Ben's face had lit up upon seeing Estelle and he had been hard pressed to leave the dog's side to actually drive the limo back.

Why Ben was in the Underworld in the first place was still a mystery to Uma but she was prepared to let it go if it meant Mal got her dog and her brother.

"What's wrong boy?" Gil asked, causing yet another eye roll from Harry. Harry'd been doing that whenever Gil opened his mouth though it was better than the first mate hooking the son of Gaston like he'd almost done before they'd got into the limo. Gil was only removing a bit of rope from her hair, it must have gotten caught during her morning sparing session. How she missed it would be another mystery considering the tan coloring would have stood out against her teal braids.

"It's probably the sun," Hadie said softly. "Mom said it's always an adjustment for her whenever she goes back to Auradon and she lives on Olympus when she's not on the Isle. Estelle's lived on the Isle his whole life..."

"I should have thought of that," Ben sighed from the driver's seat. He had thought to bring some neat glasses with dark lenses that helped block out the brightness. He'd given them each a pair when they had gotten into the limo. Uma wasn't going to lie, they certainly had helped—she hadn't expected the sun to be that bright when they first crossed the barrier.