“A homing beacon,” echoed Mal.
“I was just guessing,” said Evie. “I don’t know anything about anything.” Carlos wanted to tell her that she was selling herself short, when he realized that he always did the same thing.
“No, you don’t” said Mal sharply. “But you’re still coming with us.”
Evie jumped back. “With you? Where? I agreed to come to Carlos’s, but…” She shook her head and tugged her cloak tightly around her shoulders. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“No way, you have to help us find the Eye,” said Mal. “You’re a natural at this. You’re so good at it. I need help, and you want to help me, don’t you? Don’t you want to be my friend? I want to be yours, Evie.”
“Oh I—I don’t know….”
“Shush! It’s settled. And I’ll take this, thank you very much,” Mal said, reaching for the box.
“No way!” Carlos said, as Mal tried to pull it from him.
Mal tugged it to her side. “Let go, Carlos!” she growled.
He yanked it back. She was not taking it. He’d made it himself!
Mal glared. “I mean it! Let go, or you’ll be sorry!”
Carlos shook his head, trembling all over.
“Fine. You win. Keep the box, Carlos, but you have to come with us if you do!” Mal ordered.
“Come again? Go with you—where?” No way. He wasn’t going anywhere. Especially anywhere dangerous.
Mal told him about the forbidden fortress hidden on the island and where it might be and how they had to find it.
“Nope I’m not going to Nowhere! I’m staying right here,” Carlos said, crossing his arms.
“You’ll do what I say, you little…” threatened Mal.
Carlos opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it. In the end, it was Maleficent who wanted to reclaim her scepter, not just Mal; and if word ever got back to the Mistress of Darkness that he had opposed or hindered the search in any way, he might as well start calling himself Slop, because that’s what he would be.
“Okay fine, I’ll go. But only if Evie goes too,” he said.
“Evie?” asked Mal. “You’re coming, aren’t you, lovely?”
Evie sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. I guess I’ll come. Beats looking in the mirror all day for flaws.”
“So we’re good, then?” asked Jay. “Four of us looking for the Dragon’s Eye?”
“I guess so. And I guess I want to know what this thing really did,” said Carlos. “If it really did burn a hole in the dome and let magic into the island.”
As if in answer, the machine beeped.
Beep!
Mal nodded. “All right, then, let’s go. We’ve got a library to break into and a map to find.”
“Not just yet,” Carlos said, raising a hand. “We can’t go anywhere until my chores are done. And it’s laundry day.”
Her mother was a famous beauty in a land of famous beauties, and so it was only to be expected that Princess Audrey, daughter of Aurora, was gifted with the same lilting voice, lovely thick hair, swan-like neck, and deep, dark eyes that could drown a prince in their warm embrace.
Like a kitten scenting catnip—or perhaps like an isle of banished former villains sensing magic—a young prince could hardly be expected to resist such sparkly, dimpled charms. In point of fact, Princess Audrey, like her mother before her, was exactly the sort of princess who gave princesses their rather princessy reputation—right down to her very last perfect curl and the last crystal stitched into her silken gown.
And so it was to Princess Audrey that Prince Ben went the next day, to lick his wounds and seek some comfort after the disastrous meeting of the King’s Council—like the discouraged, catnip-seeking kitten he was.
“It’s such a mess,” he told her as they walked around the garden of the “Cottage,” as Aurora and Phillip’s grand castle was nicknamed after King Hubert had declared that the forty-room palace was a mere starter home for the royal newlyweds. “Starter home?” Aurora had said. “What are you possibly imagining that we’ll start? A shelter for homeless giants?” The king had not been pleased to hear it, but Aurora was a simple girl and had lived as Briar Rose for eighteen years of her life in an actual cottage in the woods, so she found the castle more than spacious enough for her family. (And at least one or two stray passing giants.)
“So what happens now?” Audrey asked, looking perfectly charming with a flower in her hair. Naturally, it happened to match the silken lining of her dusty-rose bodice. “Surely even a prince can’t be expected to do everything right the very first time he tries?”
Easy for you to say, Ben thought.
A dove alighted on Audrey’s shoulder, cooing sweetly. Audrey lifted one pale-pink nail, and the dove nuzzled her gentle fingertip. Ben found himself looking around for the royal portraitist.