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“We follow them in, isn’t that obvious?” Mal said, mimicking the tone he’d used on them earlier.
“No bickering!” said Evie. “And quiet, or they’ll hear us!”
A few more dark silhouettes made their way down the road toward the castle, disappearing down the stone steps. After a large wave of people, the crowd trickled down to a few stragglers. “Okay, let’s go,” said Jay. “We’ll sneak in after those guys.” He scanned the area. “I think they’re the last ones.”
The four of them crept up from behind, and when the clouds drifted from the moon, they saw that the guys they were following were Harry and Jace. Carlos shrugged his shoulders when his friends turned to him questioningly. Although Jay thought that if the sons of Cruella’s most loyal minions were part of this club, then it probably meant Cruella was one of its leaders.
Harry and Jace disappeared down through the cellar door, which was left open. They waited for a beat then followed right behind. The castle dungeons were cold and damp, and as they made their way deeper and deeper into the darkness, through winding corridors and musty hallways, it grew colder and darker still.
Jay was in the lead, and when he suddenly stopped short, the rest of the group piled behind him, stumbling and pushing into each other. “Oof!” “Ouch!” “Watch it!”
“Where’d they go?” Carlos whispered. “Why’d you stop?”
“I think they heard us,” Jay whispered back. “Everyone, be quiet!” He strained to hear and squinted in the pitch-black gloom. A few moments later, he picked up the sound of Harry’s heavier footsteps. “All right, come on,” he whispered, motioning to his friends to follow him.
“Where are they going?” Mal asked Evie. “This is your castle, right? What’s down here?”
“No idea,” said Evie. “Until today I didn’t even know we had a basement.”
The darkness abated somewhat and they saw Harry and Jace disappear into a room on the left side of the hallway. Jay nodded and the four of them entered right after. Like the rest of the dungeon, the room was completely dark, but Jay thought he could sense people around them. What was going on? He couldn’t help but feel that their sneaky entrance hadn’t been so successful after all.
“Back up, back up, I have a bad feeling about this,” he said, trying to lead them the opposite way.
Too late!
The door immediately shut with a bang behind them.
“Dalmatians,” cursed Carlos. “It’s a trap!” It was just as they feared, the stuff of their nightmares.
From the darkness came a menacing voice. “Operation Welcome Home is a go.”
Carlos startled at the sound of the voice and quickly hid behind Mal. He figured it was the safest spot. He wasn’t afraid to face danger, but he preferred to do it knowing Mal was in front of him. Evie gasped but managed not to scream. Jay cracked his knuckles, preparing to throw fists. Mal was calm, and her voice was even and steady when she poked Carlos and told him what to do. “Torch, please.”
“Pardon?” he asked, before realizing she meant the torchfire zapp on his phone. He turned it on, shining a blazing light into the darkness.
The four of them were illuminated by the sudden brilliance, and Carlos saw that they were surrounded on all sides by a small but excitable group of young villains. He recognized some of the faces—his cousin Diego de Vil, who raised an eyebrow in greeting; Harry and Jace with eager grins on their faces; Yzla, Hadie, Claudine Frollo, Mad Maddy, who was holding some kind of flaming weapon in her hands.
Hold on. What was that noise? What were they doing?
He couldn’t be sure at first, but it looked as if the crowd was clapping, cheering even,
hooting and stomping feet and calling out their names. “They’re here! They’re here!” “It’s really Mal!” “Jay’s here too!” “Yay, Carlos!” “Evie looks fantastic!”
And hang on…that weapon that Maddy was holding…was that a cake? With way too many candles?
It was definitely a cake, and one that said WELCOME BACK, HEROES!
“I think they mean us?” said Jay, breaking into a grin.
“Definitely us,” said Evie, sounding incredibly relieved.
“Hmm, I think we had the wrong idea about this club somehow,” said Mal, nudging Carlos. “Or maybe we’re at the wrong meeting? They sure don’t seem very anti-hero to me.”
But Carlos didn’t notice the ribbing, he was too stunned to see a very familiar and very welcome face in the group.
“Professor!” he called, when he spotted none other than his former Magic of Science teacher, Yen Sid. He was standing right behind Maddy, the stars on his peaked sorcerer’s hat reflecting the candle flames. Yen Sid was one of Dragon Hall’s most respected teachers, even if it was rumored he wasn’t any kind of villain at all, but had voluntarily relocated to the Isle of the Lost in order to help educate the villains’ children.
“My boy,” said Yen Sid with a grave nod. “Welcome.” He turned to the gathered group. “Give them space, give them space, don’t crowd them around so much,” he said gruffly. “And I suggest you four deal with those candles before they set fire to the whole building. We wouldn’t want Evil Queen returning home to a pile of ashes, now, would we.”
