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“What is it?” Mal hissed.
“I saw something—in the shadow. Hide!” he whispered fiercely, disappearing behind a rock.
Carlos yelped and tried to climb a tree, the bark scratching his knees. Evie screamed softly and dove behind some blackberry bushes.
But Mal froze in place. She couldn’t move, for some reason. At first it was because she felt annoyed to think that any daughter of Maleficent would have to hide from anything. But as the shadow loomed larger and approached, she worried she had made the wrong decision.
The shadow had a pair of large horns and a spiky tail. Was it a dragon? But her mother was the only dragon in these parts, and had lost the ability to transform into one, once the magic-shielding dome had been put in place.
Then there was a moan, a terrible wailing unlike anything they had ever heard.
It was a hellhound, for sure. A creature of myth and legend, a creature of tooth and fang, blood and fur.
Then the creature emitted what could only be called an adorable purr.
“Beelzebub!” Carlos cried from the tree.
The monster emerged from the shadows, and a little black cat with a wicked grin appeared on the path. The shadow had distorted its ears to look like horns and its tail to appear as if it had spikes. But it was just a little kitty.
“You know this foul beast?” asked Mal contemptuously, to hide her embarrassment at having been scared. Her heart was still beating loudly in her chest.
“It’s just my cat,” Carlos said. “I got her when I was little.” He added sheepishly, “She’s one of Lucifer’s litter. She’s my evil sidekick.”
“Oh, cool. I got one too. You know, at my birthday party,” said Evie. “Mine is Othello, a baby parrot—well, not such a baby anymore. Othello’s got quite the mouth on him too. Not sure where he learned all those words.”
“Cool—you got one of Iago’s babies? I got two electric eels—Lagan and Derelict. You know, from Flotsam and Jetsam. They’re huge now. Monsters,” said Jay. “They hardly fit in their aquarium anymore.”
Carlos let the cat rub his cheek. “Go on, Bee. Go back home, stop following us. I’ll be back soon—don’t worry.”
“What’s your evil sidekick?” Evie aske
d, turning to Mal.
Mal colored. She remembered exactly when they had each received their sidekicks—at that fabulous party long ago, to which she had not been invited. “I don’t have one,” she said shortly.
“Oh!” said Evie, and turned away, looking embarrassed.
Don’t worry, thought Mal. You’ll pay soon enough.
Finally they stood face-to-face with the gray fog that circled the island and marked the edge of Nowhere. The mist was so thick, it was impossible to see what lay beyond it. It would have entailed a walk of faith to see what was on the other side. And all their lives, the four had been told to keep away from the fog, to stay back from the edge of the gray.
“Who goes first?” asked Jay.
“Not me,” said Evie.
“Nor me,” said Carlos.
“Duh,” sniffed Mal. “As if either of you would.”
“Mal?” asked Jay. “After you?”
Mal bit her lip. It was, after all, her quest. “Yeah. I’ll go, cowards.” She squared her shoulders and tensed. She stepped into the fog. It was like walking through a cold rain, and she shivered. She reminded herself that there was no magic on the island, and that nothing could hurt her; but even so, the gray darkness was impenetrable, and for a moment she felt like screaming.
Then she was on the other side.
Still whole.
Not disintegrated.
