“That would improve her stew, if you ask me,” said Hades. “Now scram!”
r. Facilier would’ve been proud to know that, at that very moment, his daughter Celia was cutting class and sneaking around the Isle of the Lost instead of sitting through another boring lecture about the history of evil. After failing to sell Evie on another fortune reading, Celia had snuck out of Dragon Hall through the basement, which led to an underground tunnel system that snaked all around the island. It was an easy way to get around without being seen.
The tunnels were dark and damp, and rumor had it that magic had once run wild down here, creating wondrous lands underneath the island, along with a pathway that led to Auradon itself. That is, until Mal and her friends had shut off the entrance to the Catacombs and the magical barrier was reinforced once more, Celia recalled glumly. Now there was just the one underground channel, through a leftover mine shaft.
Celia was winding through the mine shaft and approaching Hades’s cave when she heard a new voice inside with him. Hades hardly ever had visitors. It was why she ran errands for him sometimes. So who was there now? The voice sounded highly annoyed. Celia strained her ears until she recognized it with a start. That could only belong to one surly pirate queen: Uma. Uma was back! What were they talking about? Celia tried to press her ear to the wall, but she couldn’t make out much. Something about the barrier, it sounded like. “Click—open and out,” she heard Uma say, but it was hard to hear the rest.
“I’ll take care of Mal,” she heard Hades say. There was more murmuring, and then Hades boomed, “Now scram!”
That she heard loud and clear.
The door to the cave opened with a bang, and Celia pressed herself against the tunnel walls, hoping Uma wouldn’t see her. But Uma never appeared. She definitely wasn’t in Hades’s cave anymore, though. After his outburst, Hades’s lair had gone silent.
Take care of Mal?
Click—open and out? What was that?
What were Hades and Uma planning?
It had to be an escape of some sort. A way to get off the Isle of the Lost. That was all Uma—and every other villain on the Isle—had ever wanted.
Celia felt her heart beat loudly in her chest. She bolted out of the tunnel and ran all the way back up to Dragon Hall, where she bumped into Dizzy, who was leaving her Introduction to Scheming class. She and Dizzy had become good friends ever since Dizzy had designed her the little hat she wore—at least, as good of friends as anyone could be on the Isle. Celia loved her hat. “Dizzy!” she called, trying to push her way through the crowd of villains in the hallway.
“Yes?” asked Dizzy, pushing up her glasses.
Celia looked around the halls to make sure no one was listening. “Want to hear the craziest thing?” She liked being the first to know and share gossip around the Isle.
“Um…I guess so?” said Dizzy, looking wary.
“They’re going to let four more kids from here go to school in Auradon,” said Celia. “Just like Mal and her friends!”
Dizzy yelped in glee. “They are? Do you think they’ll finally take me?”
“You were invited. Of course they’ll take you! But this means three more kids will get to come too. Maybe I’ll be one of them!” said Celia.
Dizzy squealed. “That would be wicked! Wicked good, you know.”
“And I could finally hang out with my older sister Freddie too. She owes me some money from when I read her fortune before she left.”
“Oh, Celia,” said Dizzy. “You never change.”
“I know.” Celia drummed her fingers together and smirked. Dizzy gave her a look that said she didn’t approve of whatever Celia was scheming. But Celia just laughed. Then she remembered the next part of her news. “Oh, and…” She was about to tell Dizzy more, but the second bell rang and Dizzy had to run.
Celia shrugged. Uma and Hades were definitely planning to bring down the barrier somehow and let everyone out. Except, hmm…Uma and Hades hadn’t succeeded at anything yet, and probably wouldn’t succeed at this either. The only thing they would achieve would be getting everyone on the Isle of the Lost in trouble.
And if everyone on the Isle of the Lost was in trouble, then no one would be allowed to go to Auradon. That would definitely cut into her plan of bringing her card-reading gig to Auradon. Not ideal, since they were so very trusting over there.
She began to shuffle her cards like she did when she was feeling anxious. Was this the bad fortune she always predicted for everyone when she read them their cards?
Should she do something about it? Like warn Mal and her friends, maybe?
Maybe.
verywhere Mal went in Dragon Hall, it was like her old life was mocking her. She had her work cut out for her to convince everyone that she was straight and true, that was for sure. It was hard for them to believe she was really Mal of Auradon now. To them, she would always be Maleficent’s rotten little spawn. Or worse, if they did believe she was good, they were disappointed in her. That much was clear when she went to meet with Lady Tremaine, who had once taught her Advanced Evil Schemes. The evil stepmother was less than thrilled to see her best student fall into the “clutches of good,” as she put it.
“Oh, Mal, how far you’ve fallen,” sighed Lady Tremaine. “And now you’ve corrupted my little Dizzy as well.”
“I’m proud of Dizzy,” said Mal. “She’s a great kid.”
Lady Tremaine waved her hand dismissively. “I suppose I should rest my hopes on my other grandchildren. I know why you’re here.”
“You know about the VK program? And the Auradon Prep roundtable tomorrow?”
“Yes, yes, yes, we received the royal proclamation and heard about your…shall we say, ineffective balcony announcement,” said Lady Tremaine, sniffing. She picked up the application form that Mal had placed on her desk and read it out loud: “‘Mal and King Ben ask you to be truthful and sincere, and to always speak from the heart.’” The steely-eyed professor looked over at Mal through her pince-nez glasses. “Where on earth do you think you’ll find students who will act that way? Not here.”
Mal flushed. “We need to find them, to unite our divided kingdom.”
“Good luck,” said Lady Tremaine drily.
“I know there are students at this very school who have the courage to join us in Auradon. I was one,” said Mal. “I just didn’t know it back then.” She tried to sit straighter and project some kind of authority. Ben always seemed to be able to command the respect of the room in his council meetings. Why couldn’t Mal convince just this one person to take her seriously?
Lady Tremaine drummed her fingers on her desk. “The Mal I knew excelled at evil pranks; the Mal I knew spelled a boy to force him to fall in love with her. The Mal I knew is just biding her time to rule the kingdom.” She winked. “That is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
Mal was about to protest when she nodded. If she couldn’t beat ’em, she would at least pretend to join ’em. In the end, she just wanted to make sure the kids came to the discussion tomorrow and had access to the applications, even if she and Lady Tremaine couldn’t see eye to eye. “Exactly.”