“Thank you,” said Ben. “That means a lot, coming from you. Although we did need magic to send her back to the Isle of the Lost, and to close that passage. And to go home.”
“Details, details,” said Merlin with a smile. “Who reads the fine print these days?”
“Will you give this back to Artie for me?” asked Ben, handing Merlin the sword.
“With pleasure,” said the old wizard with a smile.
“Bye, Merlin,” said Mal, and the rest of the group waved.
“Can we get going already?” asked Grumpy.
Merlin rolled up his sleeves. “Return everyone here to where they need to be,” said the wizard. Raising his wand for the last time, he sent them all back to where they belonged.
It was Sunday afternoon when they returned to school; the practice fields were quiet and empty, and students were taking advantage of their free time to read under the trees or lazily throw Frisbees across the lawn. Mal blinked at the sudden brightness and serenity, a stark contrast to the dark mine they’d just left. She was still holding the Dragon’s Egg tightly in her hand. She was about to put it away when she noticed something—at the edge of the purple was just a hint of green.
The Dragon’s Egg births a weapon. The most powerful talisman. Mal shuddered and stuffed the egg back in her pocket for now.
“Home safe,” said Ben. He thanked Mal, Jay, Carlos, and Evie for all their help, but he had to go back and meet with his councillors to update them on everything that happened.
“See you in a bit,” he said, giving Mal’s arm a squeeze.
“Not if I see you first,” said Mal, returning his smile.
Ben headed over to Beast Castle as they made their way back to the residence halls. It was almost impossible to believe they had been gone for less than a day, and the weekend wasn’t even over yet. It felt like they’d been in the Catacombs of Doom for a lifetime.
“Well,” said Carlos. “I guess that’s it for now.”
“Not quite,” said Mal. “We still need to figure out how we’re supposed to get rid of these talismans.”
Jay nodded. “Tomorrow.”
“I need a nap.” Evie yawned.
As they strolled back to the residence halls, they saw Audrey and Chad having a picnic under a tree while Jordan and Jane lounged on towels nearby. The Auradon kids waved when they saw them, and they stopped to say hello.
“Hey, Jay,” said Chad. “Sorry about…um…what happened with your eye the other day. And good game yesterday.”
“No worries, man,” said Jay. The two shook hands and Mal was just a tiny bit disappointed that Jay didn’t jump at the opportunity to steal Chad’s rather shiny wristwatch.
“Are you feeling better?” Jane asked Carlos worriedly. “You looked so sick at the dance last night.”
“Much better,” said Carlos, blushing. “Thanks.”
“Oh, Jordan,” said Jay. “About what happened in your lamp the other day, with the limousine keys. Sorry about that. I returned them to Ben, though.”
“It’s all right,” said Jordan. “I figured you must have needed them badly enough if you had to wish for them.”
“See you guys later,” said Mal. Evie looked like she was going to fall asleep standing up, and gave a limp wave with her fingers.
“I’m going to stay a bit,” said Carlos, taking a seat on a towel next to Jane.
“Me too,” said Jay, who was already lounging next to Jordan’s towel.
Mal and Evie exchanged meaningful smiles, but didn’t tease the boys. They’d save that for later. When they arrived in their room, both of them collapsed on their beds and slept until the alarm woke them up for school the next morning.
Before Mal headed to her classes, she had one more thing to do. She skipped breakfast and went straight to the room at the back of the library. The guards at the door didn’t recognize her, and there were a lot more of them this time.
“I need to get in there to see my mother!” she demanded.
“Sorry, King Ben said absolutely no visitors.”
“But I will make an exception this time,” said Ben, who had heard the ruckus and walked over to see what was happening.
“You’re up early,” said Mal.
“Tourney practice. Playoffs are next week,” said Ben. “What’s up? You wanted to see your mom?”
“Yeah,” said Mal.
“Let her through,” said Ben.
The two of them went inside, and Mal couldn’t help running ahead. She skidded to a stop in front of the domed pedestal.
Maleficent was missing.
The lizard was gone.
And there were only three people who could have taken her.
She gasped. Somehow, the villains had gotten past the guards! “What are we going to do?”
But Ben didn’t look alarmed. Instead, he looked sheepish and a bit embarrassed. “Mal, I have to show you something,” he said. He brought up a screen on his phone, which showed a lizard in a similar domed pedestal. “That’s a live feed.”
She looked at it. “But how? But that’s…”
“Maleficent. When I returned from Camelot, I had her moved from the library to the museum just in case someone tried to do something funny. She’s been there the whole time. She hasn’t changed or transformed at all, and she’s safe.”
“But all the guards?”
He looked abashed. “They’re there for show, but there’s nothing to guard.”
“And mother’s still just a lizard,” Mal said with a laugh.
“Just a lizard.” Ben smiled.
Later that day, Ben asked the four villain kids to meet with him to discuss the problem of the talismans. “Obviously, we can’t have them around,” he said.
“Yes, we have to neutralize them,” agreed Mal. “But how?” Where could they find magic powerful enough to purge the talismans of evil? And she still had to figure out how to hatch her Dragon’s Egg. She’d peeked at it this morning, and it was definitely starting to glow green at the edges.
“Shall we ask Merlin?” said Carlos.
“The three good fairies?” said Jay.
“Neverland, for sure,” said Evie.
But Ben surprised them. “No, I think the person we’re looking for is right here.”
“Fairy Godmother,” said Mal. “Of course!” It was her magic that had collected all the villains of the land and trapped them in the Isle of the Lost in the first place. The most powerful sorcerer in Auradon was their chubby-cheeked middle-aged headmistress, who preferred to teach children how to live without magic, but she would know what to do.
“She’ll be back from Cinderella’s ball by the end of the week, and we’ll consult her then. For now, keep an eye on those things,” said Ben.
“And we still don’t know where our parents are,” reminded Jay. “We saw signs of them in the Catacombs, but they still haven’t turned up.”
But Mal had a theory about where they could be. “Evie, will you do the honors?” she said, motioning toward the Magic Mirror.
“You think it’ll really work this time?” Evie asked.
Mal nodded encouragingly.
Evie held up the Magic Mirror. “Magic Mirror in my hand, show us where the villains stand!”
The mirror swirled, cloudy and gray, and then…
There they were: Evil Queen powdering her nose back at her castle, Cruella de Vil pawing through the racks of fur coats for just the right one, and Jafar inspecting a device a goblin had just brought into the shop.
“But how did they get back there?” asked Evie, who sounded as if she didn’t quite believe what she was seeing.
“Merlin, right?” Ben guessed, turning to Mal. “They must have been somewhere in the Catacombs nearby when he cast the spell.”
“Yeah, I think they were following us out of the tunnels,” said Jay. “And they must have overheard us talking. They knew we’d found the talismans.”
Mal nodded. “Then Merlin sent everyone back where they belong
ed, and it must have returned them to the Isle of the Lost.”
“If they’d been down there for so long, I wonder why they never found the talismans?” asked Evie.
“Maybe because they didn’t have a map?” said Carlos. “Yen Sid said you could be lost down there forever. It is called the Endless Catacombs.”
“Hold on, what’s that Jafar’s got in his hand?” asked Mal, leaning in for a closer look.
“It’s the remote that turns off the dome and lets down the bridge,” said Carlos with a groan. “That goblin must have found it in the ditch!”
“Wait—it’s broken, though, look, it’s cracked in half,” said Jay.
“But once it’s fixed…” said Evie nervously.
Once it was fixed, there was no need to explain what would happen next, thought Mal. The villains would be able to leave the island, and now that they knew who had their talismans, nothing would stop them from heading back to Auradon to take what was theirs.
More than ever, she, Evie, Jay, and Carlos would have to destroy the talismans while Ben prepared the kingdom for a showdown with their enemies on the Isle of the Lost. Ben looked confident, but Mal and her friends weren’t as hopeful. They knew how twisted their parents could be, and what they were capable of, and no one would sleep well that night.
“I’m not worried,” said Ben. “In Auradon, we can count on our heroes to protect us.”
“I don’t feel like a hero,” said Carlos.
“That’s okay,” said Mal with a rueful smile. “Remember what the professor said? We’re the villains you root for in the story.”
Thank you to the heroic teams at Disney Hyperion, Disney Channel, and Disney Consumer Products, who continue to believe that villains rule! Thanks especially to my ever-patient editors, Emily Meehan and Julie Moody, my awesome publicist, Seale Ballenger, as well as the rest of the fun-loving D-H crew who I’m proud to call my friends: Hannah Allaman, Mary Ann Zissimos, Elena Blanco, Kim Knueppel, Sarah Sullivan, Jackie De Leo, Frank Bumbalo, Dina Sherman, Elke Villa, Andrew Sansone, Holly Nagel, Marybeth Tregarthen, Sara Liebling, Martin Karlow, Dan Kaufman, Marci Senders, James Madsen, and Russ Gray. Thank you to DCP grand pooh-bahs Leslie Ferraro, Andrew Sugerman, Raj Murari, and my dear Jeanne Mosure. Thank you to Channel stars Jennifer Rogers-Doyle, Adam Bonnett, Naketha Mattocks, Laura Burns, Kate Reagan, and Carin Davis.
Thank you to the beautiful young people who star in Descendants—Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, Booboo Stewart, Mitchell Hope, Sarah Jefferey, Brenna D’Amico, Diane Doan, Jedidiah Goodacre, and Zachary Gibson—for being so inspirational, helping promote the book, and for being so nice to my kid at the premiere! Thank you, Kenny Ortega, for making such a fun movie!
Thank you to Richard Abate, Rachel Kim, and everyone at 3Arts. Thank you, Colleen Wilson, for your patient dependability.
Thank you to my awesome DLC-Green-Ong-Gaisano-Torre-Ng-Lim-Johnston family. Thank you to Team A.U.: Margie Stohl and Raphael Simon for the late-night pep talks (texts?). Big love and thanks to Team Yallwest and Yallfest: Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, Marie Lu, Kami Garcia, Brendan Reichs, Sandy London, Veronica Roth, Leigh Bardugo, Holly Goldberg Sloan, Aaron Hartzler, Ally Condie, Richelle Mead, Patrick Dolan, Andria Amaral, Emily Williams, Steph Barna, Shane Pangburn, Tori Hill, and Jonathan Sanchez, for the laughs and camaraderie. Thank you to my dear family of friends, especially the CH Mama Crew: Jill Lorie, Heidi McKenna, Celeste Vos, Jenni Gerber, Lindsay Nesmith, Maria Cina, Dawn Limerick, Carol Evans, Bronwyn Savasta, Gloria Jolley, Fatima Goncalves, Ava McKay, Nicole Jones, Heather Kiriakou, Kathleen Von Der Ahe, Maggie Silverberg, Dana Boyd, Dana Rees, Heidi Madzar, Angelee Reiner, Vicki Haller, Betty Balian, Jen Kuklin, Lisa Orlando, Bridget Johnsen, and Tiffany Moon. I love you and your kids and I thank you for all the support during the writing of this book and the one before it (and the one after this!).
Thank you to all the rotten little Descenders! You guys are amazing!
Thanks most to my husband, Mike Johnston, who makes every book of mine so much better and makes me feel like a queen, and to our little princess, Mattie. Thank you to my office buddy, our Maltese, Mimi, who’s kept me company through every draft!
MELISSA DE LA CRUZ (www.melissa-delacruz.com) is the author of the #1 New York Times best seller The Isle of the Lost, as well as many other best-selling novels, including all the books in the Blue Bloods series: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations, The Van Alen Legacy, Keys to the Repository, Misguided Angel, Bloody Valentine, Lost in Time, and Gates of Paradise. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
Melissa de la Cruz, Return to the Isle of the Lost
(Series: The Descendants # 2)
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