“It’s the royal carriage!” said Evie. “Ben must be back!”

“What do we do now?” said Carlos nervously. “I can’t go around it, it’s too big.”

The royal carriage was an imposing behemoth, resembling not so much a pumpkin as a giant squash on wheels. A footman opened the door and Ben stepped out, shaded his eyes against the light, and peered into the limousine.

Carlos switched off the ignition, resigned. “Oh, well, looks like we’re not going anywhere now,” he said, trying to sound disappointed, and failing.

“Let me handle it,” said Mal, stepping out of the car to meet Ben.

“Audrey?” Ben asked, when he saw her.

“No, uh, it’s me, Mal,” she said, feeling shy and a bit silly at the whole getup and embarrassed that they’d been caught sneaking out of Auradon. After all their careful planning, this was a bit anticlimactic.

“Mal?” He gaped. “What’s going on? What are you wearing? Is that a dress of Audrey’s? It’s so pink and blue. And is that the royal limousine?”

The windows rolled down, and the rest of the group waved cheerfully at Ben. Ben waved back, a bit confused. “Why does Evie look like Lonnie and why is Carlos driving? Does he even have a license?”

“I can explain,” said Mal. She quickly told him about the mysterious messages they’d received, the Anti-Heroes thread on the Dark Net, and the missing villains.

Ben listened carefully, rocking back and forth on his heels, taking it all in. “So now you’re all headed back to the Isle of the Lost?”

Mal nodded. “We have to, we have to see what’s going on.”

“I see.” He wasn’t frowning, which was a good sign, but he wasn’t smiling either. “And you weren’t going to tell me; why?”

“We didn’t want to get you in trouble—with your subjects, I mean,” said Mal. “Everyone’s a little nervous ever since the Coronation, and we didn’t think it would look good for you if you knew we were going back to the Isle of the Lost, especially with the embargo and all.”

“Hmm,” said Ben. “Okay.”

“Okay?” asked Mal. “You’re not mad?”

“No, why should I be? You’re not doing anything wrong…well, except maybe Jay shouldn’t have tricked Jordan out of the keys, you and Evie shouldn’t be pretending to be Audrey and Lonnie, and Carlos shouldn’t be driving without a license,” he said mildly, but he had a hint of a smile on his face.

“But you’re not going to stop us?” asked Mal.

“No. You guys should definitely check out what’s happening back there. I don’t know if I would have agreed to it if you’d asked me beforehand, but now that I do know about it, I think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “Tell Carlos to send me the link to the Dark Net, and I’ll keep an eye on this Anti-Heroes thread in case it looks like you might need backup.”

“Definitely. And we’ll be back in time for class on Monday,” she told him. “We just wanted to check it out. Although if something is going down, we might be delayed longer. But I don’t want you to worry.”

“I won’t. I know you can watch out for yourself,” he said, taking her hand. “I’m glad I caught you, though. I wanted to tell you, strange things are happening, and not just on the Isle of the Lost. In Auradon too.”

“You mean like the earthquakes?” she asked.

He raised his eyebrows. “Not just the earthquakes, but lately there have been unseasonal hurricanes down by the Bayou, and giant sandstorms in Agrabah too.”

“What do they think is causing it?” she asked.

“We don’t know yet. But that’s not all.” He hesitated.

“What is it? Where were you, by the way? What’s wrong?” she asked, his somber expression making her feel anxious.

“Camelot Heights,” he said. “It’s why I took the carriage; their roads are hard on cars over there. Merlin came to the council with Artie on Monday, to ask for help with a strange creature that was attacking their town.”

“What kind of creature?” Mal asked, dreading the answer already. “What kind of attacks?”

Ben held her gaze. “One that was burning forests, stealing livestock, and scorching farms. A real menace,” he said. “Everyone’s really scared. All of Camelot Heights is under lockdown right now.”

“Oh no,” she said. “That’s awful.”

“Mal, it was a purple dragon,” he said quietly, letting the words sink in. He told her about how he had set up camp with Camelot’s knights on the edge of the forest and waited for days for the creature to appear. “Artie was on watch that night and woke us all up. It came out of nowhere, but I saw it before it vanished. A huge purple dragon, with bright green eyes.”

“What. No. You can’t think…” she said, her heart racing. This was madness. There was only one purple dragon in the world. Maleficent.

“I saw it,” he said. “It looked just like her….I’ll never forget how she looked during the Coronation. Her face was right in front of mine and she was going to roast me alive, until you stopped her. I’m telling you, it was her.”

Mal crossed her arms and kept shaking her head. “No, just no. It can’t be. I just saw her this morning. She’s trapped under glass on her pedestal. Tiny. Helpless. And you know as well as I do that her Dragon’s Eye scepter is safely locked away in the museum. She’s powerless and can’t wield any magic without it.”

“I know what I saw,” said Ben, his face drawn. “I know how crazy it sounds. But just in case, I’m going to place more guards in the library, and keep cameras on her 24/7. If she is getting out, we have to know how she’s doing it.”

“I’m sorry I can’t stay here to help you,” she said, upset to hear this new information.

Ben smiled. “As much as I’d prefer that, I think it would be the wrong move. I’m going to stay here in Auradon to see if we can track the dragon down before it does more damage. We’re keeping it off the news; I don’t want to cause a panic. You guys go find out what’s going on in the Isle of the Lost. Maybe this is all part of a bigger scheme. Let me know what you find, and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it.”