I did not take that girl for evil. I mean, she always wore so much pink.

Audrey sat on her queen-size bed and sketched furiously in a rose-colored journal trimmed with gold scrolling. Dressed in a beaded bodysuit with pink leather pants and an open leather duster, pink ankle boots, pink feather earrings, and a sweet bluebird charm necklace, Audrey screamed goody-goody. As did everything about her dorm room, with its pink curtains, pink bedding, and pink marble fireplace. A glinting crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. Several handsomely framed portraits of Audrey and Ben through the years received prime placement on the fireplace mantel. In one particularly sweet photo, a cherubic five-year-old Audrey was seated on a miniature gold throne next to Prince Ben, who wore a teensy-tiny Auradon crown and held out a matching one toward Audrey. It was an adorable depiction of their destined royal future together.

Audrey looked up from her journal and scowled at the old photo, a sharp reminder of what was never to be. She’d followed all the rules and waited patiently, but when the time finally came, Ben chose Mal. A villain! Audrey’s heart shattered all over again at the thought of his cruel rejection. She returned her attention to her journal and attacked the page with angry strokes of the pencil. The sketch she drew was haunting: a majestic portrait of herself as Auradon’s queen, wearing a resplendent gold-and-sapphire crown atop her head. Audrey’s brown eyes filled with tears. She looked at her sketch and wondered, What happened to my happy ending?

She hurled her journal across the room and strode to her dorm room door, grabbing a fireplace poker on her way out. Her face was set with resolution. If she couldn’t be Ben’s queen, then she’d show Auradon. Ben wanted a villain. Well, he’d get one. Mal wasn’t the only one who could succeed at breaking and entering.

A CLOSED sign hung on the wrought iron doors of the Auradon Museum of Cultural History. Behind it a single guard slept obliviously at his post. Audrey snuck across the silent museum lobby, which held her mother’s spinning wheel. She crept past a glass case displaying the Genie of Agrabah’s lamp and another exhibiting Cinderella’s glass slipper, then stood thoughtfully in front of the security console. Without a sound, she deftly turned knobs and pushed buttons, which shut off alerts and silenced alarms. Then she swiftly climbed the steep foyer stairs, proud of her first successful foray into crime. See? There was nothing to this being-evil thing.

On the second floor, Audrey crept down a dimly lit hallway and tiptoed into the museum’s Room of Crowns. It was a guilded gallery that showcased the glorious tiaras and crowns of the queens and kings of fairy tales past. When Audrey was a young girl, the regal room had been her happy place. Tonight, she walked by the dazzling tiaras of everyday royals and headed straight to the far end of the room. A sign read Crown of the Queen of Auradon. She pulled back the blue velvet curtain and bounded up the few steps to a lit glass case that held the breathtaking crown. The gem-covered object of beauty was the same magnificent two-tiered gold, diamond, and sapphire crown Audrey had drawn herself wearing. In accordance with kingdom tradition, the crown was meant to sit on the head of King Ben’s chosen queen—which, Audrey fumed, was supposed to be her. Oh, how she coveted the stunning crown and everything it represented. She was not about to sit by and let the most precious heirloom in the land be worn by that dreadful daughter of Maleficent. She’d sooner steal the beloved crown than let that happen. Audrey was tired of playing nice. “Your nightmare’s my dream,” she said as if speaking to the people of Auradon. With anger and hurt boiling in her blood, Audrey hoisted the iron poker in the air and smashed the glass case.

At the sound of the shattered glass, something evil awoke down the hall in the museum’s Room of the Dark Arts. As if roused by Audrey’s villainous intentions, Maleficent’s scepter, which had sat dormant on a spotlighted pedestal for years, began to pulse with an eerie green light. There was something ominous and wicked about its glow.

Meanwhile, Audrey stood in the Room of Crowns among the scattered shards of glass, with the iron poker at her feet. She grabbed the majestic sapphire-laden crown from the case and raised it defiantly above her head.

Suddenly, a red velvet curtain flapped open across the room. A green-tinged light cascaded in from a hidden chamber behind it. Audrey, mesmerized by the sinister light, clutched the prized crown in her manicured hand. She glided down the steps and followed the mysterious beacon. In all her years of school field trips and family outings to the museum, Audrey had never set foot in the Room of the Dark Arts. And now it beckoned her. The hypnotic glow emanated from Maleficent’s scepter. Audrey floated to the forbidden object, drawn to its promise of unlimited power and sweet revenge. In the presence of the scepter, Audrey changed her mind. The night was no longer about the mere theft of the bejeweled crown. The scepter had opened Audrey’s eyes to the possibility of much more than that. “I want what I deserve. I want to rule the world,” Audrey said aloud.

An excellent student, Audrey knew the museum housed only one object powerful enough to assist in that goal, and that artifact had once belonged to Mal’s mom. Now it would belong to her. How fitting.

Her gaze darted about the Room of the Dark Arts and stopped on a straw basket lined with a red-and-white gingham napkin and filled with a dozen of Evil Queen’s poisoned apples. With a quick sweep of her arm, Audrey cleared the basket from its pedestal and set down the bejeweled crown in its place. She’d take the scepter instead. She strode toward Maleficent’s staff, her gait powered by awe and hunger, but then she paused, turned around, and returned to retrieve the crown. She didn’t have to choose between the queen’s crown and the deadly scepter. Ben wanted a true villain? Well, a true villain would steal both. So she did. Audrey placed the queen’s crown regally on her own head. “I am the queen and my reign will be endless.”

With her self-coronation complete, Queen Audrey yanked the pulsing scepter off its stand. The orb changed at her touch, instantly turning a more menacing shade of green. Audrey’s eyes widened as the potent evil force swept through her body, transforming the prissy pink princess into a dark, dangerous sorceress.

Audrey’s evil new look was heart-stopping. Her pale, anemic hair had turned a rich magenta ombré, flowing from deep rose at the roots to midnight blue at the tips. Her demure pastel pink outfit was no more. In its place, she wore a wicked getup of black-and-blush fitted leather pants and a tea-length duster with alarming black feather accents. Her necklace now featured two charms, a bright bluebird and a dark black raven. Audrey looked like a warrior enchantress—gorgeous and menacing and scary.

A maniacal look washed over Audrey’s pretty face as she decided to take Maleficent’s scepter for a test run. She raised the staff aloft and unleashed its power on the crystal chandelier above. The fixture shattered in a menacing cascade of glass and light. Audrey’s nefarious laugh echoed throughout the museum. Being an evil queen was going to be fun.