XF → Harry Hook [2]?

Mal and Ben watched with bated breath, peering through the leaves. They were situated so that they could see the door of Fairy Cottage, while Evie and Doug were facing the east side, Jay on the west and Uma at the back. All were just on the edge of the clearing where the vegetation could still serve as camouflage, hidden by the shadows the trees cast and the lush hedges. XJ said that this was perfect, since it was the exact distance Mal and Uma's signature was out of range to Audrey.

XJ and Harry approached the front door slowly, sauntering as if they didn't have a care in the world. They were completely visible, and they made no attempt to hide their footfalls either. Audrey would see them, assuming they were the only two who had come. If XJ failed to snatch the scepter out of her grasp, Uma and Mal would attack from opposite directions, trapping Audrey in what XJ had described – much to everyone else's discomfort – a kill box.

"But we're not killing her, right?" Mal had asked, alarmed when XJ had used the term.

"No, I'm going to stab her and then disassemble her body parts."

"What?"

Harry snickered, and XJ sighed. "With all of you complaining, I won't kill her. It'll cause me more trouble than it's worth."

"Not because it's morally wrong?" Evie asked, raising an eyebrow.

XJ had only given her a look that told Evie she knew better.

Now, XJ knocked on the door, and Mal could feel her heart tremble. Her eyes could have burned a hole in the wood with how hard she was staring at Fairy Cottage, anticipating Audrey's silhouette.

But nobody answered. Mal furrowed her brows. Audrey had to be in there, right? There was no way she could have known they were coming, since XJ had masked their movements from the scrying properties of the scepter.

XJ rapped thrice on the door, louder this time. The clearing suddenly seemed far too silent, and the knocking resembled a cannon going off. Still the door didn't open, and it seemed that XJ couldn't hear any movement from within the house.

Mal watched as XJ and Harry exchanged a look, and without any warning, Harry raised a leg and kicked in the door, the wood banging against the wall like a gunshot.

"What are you doing?" Mal shouted, shooting up from her hiding place.

"Mal!" Ben hissed, trying to grab her and pull her back down. "Audrey might be in there!"

Her blood turned cold as she realized that Ben was right. Mal's knees almost buckled to return to cover, when XJ shouted from within Fairy Cottage, "It's clear!"

"She's not in there?" Ben asked incredulously.

Mal was as shocked as Ben sounded. "I guess not," She said hesitantly.

She and Ben straightened up, carefully nearing the cottage. The others did the same, appearing from the other ends of the clearing, gazes flickering towards the windows as if Audrey would materialize in one of them.

They all finally stepped into the house, surveying the floral décor that was no doubt Audrey's work. The furniture was draped in pastel pink with hints of gold to match the mildly colored walls of the house, as opposed to the bright pink and flashy gold of her room back in the dorms.

"I thought you said she'd be here - "

"Shut up and listen." XJ interrupted Jay, holding a hand up.

The group didn't have to strain their ears much to hear the muffled thumping that came from the corner of the living room. XJ turned directly to the source of the noise, which was from behind the door of what she suspected was a storage closet.