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“Why, yes, of course,” Jafar said. “I will let him know. Please, come inside.” There was a pause, and then Jafar bellowed in a booming voice, “JAY! MAL WANTS YOU!”
“THERE IN A SEC!” Jay yelled back.
“What’s the deal with villains and birds?” asked Mal, entering the junk shop and finding Iago on Jafar’s shoulder. She thought of how Maleficent showered Diablo with so much affection.
“Excuse me?” Jafar asked, while Iago narrowed his beady eyes at Mal.
“Nothing.”
Jay appeared. “Oh, hey, Mal, funny you’re here, I was just about to head over your way. We should talk more about that—”
“That homework assignment,” Mal said, shooting dagger looks at him. Nobody else could know about the Dragon’s Eye.
“Right, yeah. Homework. Thanks, Dad, I’ll take it from here,” Jay said, indicating pointedly for his dad to leave.
Jafar pulled his robe around him and huffed, Iago squawking and flying behind him.
“Is there somewhere we can talk?” Mal asked when she and Jay were finally alone.
Jay motioned to the junk shop. “What’s wrong with here?”
Mal looked around the messy shop, noticing a few things that were hers in the pile and taking them back without comment. She supposed it was as good a place as any—and seriously, what was she hiding, anyway? It wasn’t as if anyone else would steal Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye. Who would be dumb enough to do that…?
She squinted at Jay, who was inspecting a beaker that he’d pulled from his pocket. His dark eyes shone with mischief.
“Where’d you get that?” she asked. “What is it?”
“I dunno. Reza had it in his bag. He was all protective about it, so I took it,” Jay explained with a sly smile.
Mal made an impatient gesture. She couldn’t wait to get started and couldn’t afford to get distracted. “Listen, I know you don’t think we can, but we need to figure out how to find that Dragon’s Eye. I mean, it does command all of the forces of darkness when it works. And, who knows? Magic might return to the island one day.”
Jay raised his eyebrows. “Yeah—I was just about to say the same thing.”
“Really?” she asked, shocked that he had taken so little convincing. She began to get a tad suspicious.
Jay blew on his nails. “Yeah. I mean, come on, if it’s really here, we need to get our hands on it. But are you sure your mother’s right? I mean, she is a little crazy in the horn-head.”
Mal rolled her eyes. “You can’t deny Diablo’s back. He was frozen in stone, but he’s alive now. He’s already eaten almost everything in our cupboards.”
“Whoa.”
“I know, right?”
“Iago’s the same. I think he eats more than me and Dad combined.”
They shared a chuckle.
“Okay, great—I was hoping to start searching as soon as possible,” Mal said, willing to overlook the possibility that Jay was only agreeing to help for his own selfish motives. She could handle him.
Jay was about to say something when he turned around, his reflexes swift and suspicious. “What’s that noise?” he asked, just as the door to the back room crashed down and Jafar tumbled through, Iago sitting on his stomach.
“I told you that you were too fat to lean on that door!” Iago scolded.
Jafar made a valiant attempt to take back his dignity, and pulled himself up to stand and brush the dust and detritus from his hair. “Oh, we were just about to ask if the two of you wanted dinner, weren’t we, Iago? But we couldn’t help but overhear…forgive me if we are wrong, but did you say that Maleficent’s Dragon’s Eye scepter is lost somewhere on this island?” Jafar asked, his dark eyes gleaming.
Mal narrowed her eyes at Jay, mentally berating him for not having found a suitable place for them to talk privately. But it was clear that it was too late, and Jafar already knew everything.
Jafar looked solemnly at the two teenagers in front of him. “Follow me, it’s time we had a real conversation.”
