Escape from the Isle of the Lost

by Melissa de la Cruz

  Dr. Facilier chuckled, sending shivers up their spines. “Let me remind you, you’re back on the Isle of the Lost now.”

  “What do you want?” Jay asked bluntly.

  “Yeah, spill it,” said Carlos.

  Evie looked at the boys, alarmed, but Mal nodded. “I suppose it’s the price of doing business,” she said. Mal gave Evie a look that said, Just trust me.

  “I’m glad we’re in agreement,” said Dr. Facilier with a smug smile. “I don’t ask for much. You know my younger daughter Celia, don’t you?”

  Mal narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think we’ve met, no.”

  “She feels very left out when she hears all the stories that her sister Freddie has been telling her about Auradon. Very left out indeed,” said Dr. Facilier meaningfully.

  Mal and Evie exchanged a glance. “We’re not on the admissions committee,” said Evie.

  “But I’m sure you could put in a good word,” said Dr. Facilier.

  Mal raised an eyebrow. “We’ll take that under advisement,” she said. “That is, if you honor your end of the bargain.”

  “You see that you do,” said Dr. Facilier. “So, for tomorrow, you will be speaking with students at some kind of roundtable discussion?”

  “Yes,” said Mal. “We’re going to tell them all about Auradon Prep! I believe we’ve been given the study hall for our presentation.”

  Dr. Facilier sighed. “Fine, I don’t see how I can stop you, since I’ve been ordered by Fairy Godmother to let you in.”

  Mal nodded. The four of them began to stand up to say their good-byes.

  “Also,” said Evie, “we’re going to be sending over posters—marketing materials, to encourage the kids to apply. It would be great if we could put up some here at Dragon Hall as well.”

  Dr. Facilier shrugged. “I suppose we could agree to that,” he said.

  “Great,” said Mal.

  “Just remember her name: Celia.”

  “Of course,” said Mal. “We’ll do our best.”

  The four of them shook Dr. Facilier’s hand. Evie knew they weren’t in the business of taking bribes; if Celia deserved to get in to Auradon Prep, she would. But it would be on her own merit, not because the VKs swayed the committee. They left the application forms at the headmaster’s office and reminded him of the deadline.

  “A pleasure doing business with you,” said Dr. Facilier, ushering them out of his office. “Oh, and here’s Celia now. Celia, come meet these fine folk.”

  Celia jumped back. It was obvious to Evie that she had been eavesdropping at the door. “Oh! Hi, Dad,” she said. She wore a red dress and a little top hat that matched her father’s, and she was holding a deck of cards.

  “Celia, this is Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay. They used to be my top students here, but unfortunately they go to Auradon Prep now.”

  “Nice to meet you,” said Celia. “Want to hear your fortune?”

  Dr. Facilier smiled proudly. “That’s my girl.” He closed the door, and the four VKs were left in the hallway with Celia.

  They all hesitated, but it was clear Celia was intent on reading someone their cards.

  “Sure, tell me my fortune,” Evie relented. She could humor the kid, right?

  “We’re going to talk to a few more teachers to make sure they tell kids about the Auradon Prep roundtable tomorrow,” said Mal. “I don’t trust Dr. Facilier to get those applications out. Maybe Lady Tremaine can help, since Dizzy really wants to go to Auradon.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” said Carlos. “Jay, you go find Coach Gaston in PE, and I’ll hit up Madam Mim.”

  “I’ll go meet Professor Gothel and catch up with you guys at the hideout after hearing my fortune,” said Evie.

  They nodded and went their separate ways.

  • • •

  Celia led Evie to a quiet desk in the library. She offered the cards to Evie to shuffle. Evie closed her eyes and shuffled them. Celia took the cards back and laid them out in three piles. Then she revealed the top card of each deck. “These three cards represent the past, the present, and the future,” she told Evie. “The first card is the Tower. It means you came from a difficult past. You were trapped and in danger.”

  “Pretty much. I mean, I am from the Isle of the Lost,” said Evie. “I was exiled to our castle with my mother, the Evil Queen.”

  “Dangerous indeed,” said Celia.

  “When I missed our usual Friday face mask, she wanted to murder me,” said Evie with a roll of her eyes. In truth, she did miss her shallow, beauty-obsessed mother just a little bit. Still, she would rather keep her distance while they were on the Isle; it just wasn’t worth it when her mother would never understand the things Evie wanted to accomplish. “On Thursdays we practiced smiling and waving.”

  Celia snorted. She pointed to the second card on the table. “The Ten of Pentacles. This is your present. It means you have strength behind you. That you belong to a group of people who have your back. They bring you a lot of luck.”

  Evie smiled. “I have an amazing group of friends.”

  “And the third card is your future. Oh,” said Celia staring at the card. “It’s dark.”

  “It is?” asked Evie nervously.

  “Very. This is the Judgment card. It means change, mostly for the worse. This card means disaster is on the horizon. Something terrible is about to happen. Aaaaaaand”—Celia drew out the word, quirking her eyebrows at Evie—“if you want to know how to prevent it, you’ll have to buy another session.”

  “Another session! How much was this one?” asked Evie. “I didn’t realize you charged.”

  “Of course I do. Nothing’s free in this world.” Celia smirked and named her price.

  “Okay,” said Evie, opening her purse and handing over a few gold coins. “But I’m not paying for another one.”

  “Really? I don’t advise that. You should really find out how to avoid whatever it is the Judgment has foretold. Or you should at least try to discover who is conspiring against you guys.”

  Evie knew a hustle when she saw one. “Nice try, but I’ll take my chances,” she said with a sweet smile.

  “Suit yourself,” said Celia, putting her cards away.

  Evie shook her head. She was far from superstitious and was highly skeptical that the future could be divined from a few fortune cards. She wondered about Celia’s chances with the Auradon Prep admissions committee. So far, all Evie could see was a trickster through and through. But, of course, that didn’t mean there wasn’t more to Celia—after all, there had been more to Evie and her friends. It was going to be interesting to see if Celia ended up at Auradon, that was for sure.

  he same day that Mal and her friends were meeting with Dr. Facilier at Dragon Hall, Uma returned to Hades’s lair. The blue-haired ex–god of the dead was snoring on his couch, a little line of drool dripping from his open mouth. He woke up with a start when Uma cleared her throat.

  “You again?” said Hades, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “I thought we had a deal. You agreed to leave me alone,” he groused.

  “That wasn’t our deal,” said Uma, annoyed. “And did you ever think of doing any housekeeping around here? This cave reeks.”

  Hades looked affronted. “I’m sorry my league of demons are more interested in preying on souls than vacuuming. Anyway, did you hear that Mal was spotted on Maleficent’s balcony last night? I thought it might interest you, given our agreement.”

  Uma looked furious. “She’s back on the Isle of the Lost, is she?”

  “That’s right,” said Hades, a strange look on his face. Uma thought she caught something that almost looked like regret there. But regret for what?

  “Ugh! I can just picture it. Mal and her little minions, strutting around thinking they’re so great, as if they own the place, when all they did was abandon it!” said Uma, who could never stand the way Mal and her friends acted like the Isle was their territory. The Isle of the Lost was her turf. She ached to reveal herself to Mal an
d show them exactly who was the real lady of this island. But she had to stay focused on the plan. If she showed her hand too quickly, she might lose her advantage. She had to be patient. And she had to have Hades on her side.

  “Okay, so?” said Hades, who was now looking through his record collection to find something to play on his ancient record player.

  Uma raised an eyebrow at the albums Hades picked up. They never got anything good on the Isle, only Auradon castoffs that no one on the island really wanted. Sebastian the Crab’s Greatest Hits. Genie Sings the Blues. Eugene Fitzherbert and His Polka Band.

  She shook her head impatiently. “So we need to get to Mal. If we can get to Mal, I can get hold of the remote control that opens the barrier. Click—open and out.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” said Hades.

  “Except I can’t get that close. She knows I’ll cause trouble for her, so if she sees me, she’ll run the other way. I need her to come to me, where she won’t be able to escape.”

  Hades barked a laugh and gave up searching for a decent record. He grabbed a copy of his own band’s last album instead. “She’s a smart one to avoid you, then.”

  “Obviously,” said Uma. “But we can’t give up just yet. You said you still have your ember, right?”

  “Yeah, but I hate to break it to you, kid, it doesn’t glow anymore. It’s useless.” Hades flopped down on one of the broken recliners in his cave and opened an expired canned coffee drink from the Slop Shop. He took a big gulp and grimaced. “Black as my soul indeed.”

  Uma shook her head. “Do you see all these cracks in the tunnel?” she asked, pointing to the fissures on the cave wall and ceiling.

  “Yeah? So what?”

  She leaned over so she was almost in his face. “I think these cracks might let in a little magic. We’re so far beneath the island that Fairy Godmother’s spell is weaker down here.”

  Hades perked up. “A little magic? Is that so?” He put away his coffee.

  “There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there? Bring it out,” she ordered. “Let’s see if it still works.”

  Hades sighed and got up to fetch the ember. “I usually keep it in my sock drawer…” he said. “Hmm. When was the last time I had it? Ah, here we go.” He strode over to his desk and grabbed it from where it had been holding down a stack of papers.

  “It’s dead; I was using it as a paperweight,” he said, showing it to Uma. In his hand was a gray rock. It was just a hunk of coal, nothing more. No spark.

  “Try it,” Uma urged.

  He waved a hand above it. Nothing happened. He waved his hand once more. Still nothing. “I told you, it’s useless.…”

  “THERE!” yelled Uma.

  A minuscule, almost imperceptible spark of blue light shone in the center of the gray stone. It was barely there, but still—it was definitely glowing.

  Uma hooted. “I told you!”

  Hades gazed at his ember with what looked like love. It wasn’t enough magic to get them out of there, but it was magic. He wasn’t powerless after all.

  “You need Mal to come to you, right?” he asked thoughtfully.

  “Right.”

  “Leave it to me. I’ll take care of Mal.”

  “Perfect. And, Hades? Don’t fail me. Or I’ll feed you to my mother,” Uma threatened with a toss of her turquoise braids.

  “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.

&nb
sp; 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?”