“I’ll do my best.”

Jay nodded. It occurred to him while talking to Ben that if his father, Jafar, was in Auradon, he would probably figure out a way to smooth-talk Ben into handing over not just the crown, but the entire kingdom. Whereas Jay only wanted to play tourney and hang out. Just went to show that sometimes the apple can fall far from the tree—or maybe in his case, that the baby cobra can slink away from the nest?

He wasn’t sure, but he hoped it was true.

“Hey,” Ben said, noticing Jay’s face for the first time. “Hold on. What happened at practice? Did Chad do that?”

Jay shrugged. He touched the skin around his eye and felt that it was swollen. He wasn’t a tattletale, but Chad must have flipped him harder than he thought. “Eh, it was an accident. I’m sure he didn’t mean for my face to meet the ground that hard.”

“I’ll talk to him,” said Ben, frowning.

“Nah, leave it. You’ve got bigger problems,” said Jay. “I can deal with Chad.” The last thing he needed was Chad telling everyone he had to go running to Prince Ben every time he ate a little dirt.

Ben looked as if he wanted to argue. He exhaled. “Fine.”

“Headed to dinner?” asked Jay, motioning to the dining hall, where the tantalizing smell of Mrs. Potts’s cooking filled the air.

“No, I’ve got king stuff.”

“Your loss,” Jay teased. “What’s the use of being king if you can’t even stop for a decent meal?”

Ben laughed. “Tell me about it. Catch you guys later. Take it easy.”

“Bye, Ben!” the girls called.

“Ladies?” asked Jay, leading the group to the building and opening the door for them like the gentleman he was. For a moment, he remembered the anonymous note he’d found in his gym bag earlier and wondered what that was all about. Who wanted him to return to the Isle of the Lost?

But he didn’t let it bother him too much as the girls fussed over his injuries. Allie promised to brew him a cup of her favorite tea as well as ask her mother for any of the Mad Hatter’s crazy cures. Jordan cheered him up with fanciful stories of traveling via carpet, and how he should really try it for longer trips sometime, and Freddie suggested ways to get even with Chad. “I’d substitute whipped cream for a tube of his hair gel. That would show him, don’t you think?”

Jay felt better already. Who cared about a cryptic note telling him he didn’t belong in Auradon? And for that matter, who cared about caves full of molten gold and treasures as vast as the eye could see? As he entered the cafeteria in the company of his friends, Jay felt as rich as the Sultan of Agrabah.

It was true what Ben had said to Mal in the library. The kingdom’s business waited for no man, not even the king. The United States of Auradon was a vast empire that held all the good kingdoms, from Triton’s Bay in the west to Neverland in the east, all the way to the mountain lands up north and Belle’s harbor village down south, and its governance was no small task.

After bidding goodbye to Jay and the girls outside the cafeteria, Ben opened his locker and exchanged his plain daytime crown for the more elaborate one he wore for official meetings of the king’s council. Okay, so it probably wasn’t the best idea to keep it in a school locker—being studded with irreplaceable jewels and all—but then again, this was Auradon, and nothing bad ever happened here.

No petty theft, no grand larceny, nothing. He once lost a penny and it was returned to him immediately with a second penny for interest.

That was how Auradon rolled.

Ben also made a note to have a word with Chad. Even if he knew Jay could handle it, his black eye bothered Ben more than he cared to admit. Ben didn’t expect everyone to be perfectly good all the time, but he did expect the people of Auradon to try to do better. Otherwise what was the point of keeping the villains separated? They might as well all live under a dome.

It had been a few weeks since his parents had left for their retirement-dream-mega-kingdom cruise. King Beast and Queen Belle had gone off in the royal yacht, leaving him to deal with everything. He passed the tourney fields on the way back to his own palace, wishing that he’d had time for practice. But most of his free time went toward his packed royal schedule now—pinning awards on heroes at fancy receptions instead of hanging out with friends, welcoming dignitaries like the Fitzherberts, who were in town this week, rather than playing video games.

Sometimes, Ben felt older than his sixteen years. After presiding over the recreation center opening and shaking hands (or was it paws?) with many furry and funny little creatures—those sidekicks were actually pretty hilarious—he hoped he wasn’t too late for the meeting. Just because he was king didn’t mean he wanted to take advantage of people’s time.

“Ready, Sire?” Lumiere asked, standing sentry in front of the king’s conference room.

Ben nodded and smoothed down his lapels.

“The King of Auradon!” Lumiere announced as he opened the door with a flourish.

“The King of Auradon!” the assembled councillors replied. “Hail, King Ben!”

“At ease, at ease,” said Ben, settling into his chair. The throne had been built to hold his father and it still didn’t quite feel like his own. He looked around the long conference table, smiling and greeting his advisers. Lumiere had placed the usual plate of sugar cookies and a pitcher of spiced tea in the middle of the table, and he waited until everyone had taken a bite to eat and had something to drink before starting.

“Hello, Doc, is it just you today?” he asked, greeting his most senior adviser in the room.

The old dwarf nodded after taking a sip from his glass. “Grumpy sends his apologies, Sire, but he got up on the wrong side of bed and he’s feeling out of sorts today.”

Ben suppressed a smile and moved on to the next councillor. “And how are you today, Genie? I just saw Jordan on the way over.”

“Wonderful, couldn’t be better, Your Highness,” said the big, blue genie, giving Ben his trademark grin. “I’m glad the school allowed her to live in her lamp instead of the dorms. You know us genies, we need to be bottled up.”

Ben chuckled and surveyed the remaining seats at the table, and noticed several were empty. “Is this everyone for today?” he asked.