Return to the Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,73
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 belonged, 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.