“The boulders!” said Mal, pointing to the giant stones at the top of the mine shaft.

Jay and Carlos ran in front of the animal, pushing the rocks right into the rampaging rhino’s path. But just as she was about to be crushed, Mim turned into a crafty hen and flew out of the way.

“Where’d she go?” asked Ben.

“Don’t know,” panted Mal. “But at least now we know that Camelot’s dragon wasn’t my mom.”

“For sure,” said Ben.

Mim must have discovered the entrance to the Catacombs, thought Mal, and she was using it to get her revenge on Merlin, who had bested her during their last battle by giving her the pox. The loony old witch was having fun wreaking havoc in Camelot and stealing food from Auradon. She must have told her granddaughter what she was doing. It’s a wonder Maddy hadn’t tried to escape to Auradon herself. Maybe she’d been too scared about getting lost down there; she knew the dangers from being in the Anti-Heroes club.

“Mmm, you look tasty!” Mim cackled as she turned into a crocodile and opened her jaws wide.

“GAH!” said Carlos as they ran away from her snapping teeth. Mim reared on her hind legs, her purple hair falling into her face.

“It was you!” cried Mal. “That pink-and-purple thing we saw in the tunnels earlier!”

“Cotton-candy tiger?” said Jay. “I take it back, she’s definitely scary!”

They barely got away from her, but Merlin soon came to their rescue. “You’re surrounded, Mim!” said Merlin, waving his wand. “The only way out of this tunnel is through me. Your place is on the Isle of the Lost! Surrender!”

“Never!” Mim shrieked, turning back into the fat purple dragon, fire spewing from her mouth. “I’ll never go back there! You can’t make me!” She shot a fireball at him, but Merlin transformed into a blue sparrow and flew away from her. But Mim deftly conjured a cage, trapping him.

“Some powerful wizard!” scoffed Mal. “Can’t he turn into something…I don’t know…scarier?”

“I read the history of Camelot,” said Carlos. “And when he battled Mim back when Arthur was a kid, Merlin did the same thing—Mim turned into ferocious creatures but Merlin fought her by turning into small and seemingly helpless animals like a rabbit and a turtle. Maybe it’s the way his magic works?”

There was no time to discuss further, as Mim was headed their way, ready to spew another fireball.

“No!” cried Ben, rushing forward, but Mim swatted him with her tail and he was thrown hard across the cavern, hitting the ground with a thump.

“BEN!” cried Mal. She started to run toward him, but Mim stomped in front of her, blocking the way. Then the dragon pushed forward, pressing Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos against the wall.

There was nowhere else to go.

“What do we do?” cried Evie. “She’s going to roast us!”

“Talismans?” said Jay. “If we use them to hurt someone, I have a feeling they’ll come to life again! I can use my cobra staff to hypnotize her!” he said, shaking his wooden stick.

“Or my ring to make her do what we want,” said Carlos.

“Poison is always good,” said Evie, removing the golden apple from her purse.

“Mal, you’ve got the Dragon’s Egg,” said Carlos. “You could command all the forces of hell.”

“Not until it hatches,” said Mal. “And the only way for it to hatch is if it sits under a dragon.”

“You mean you have to put it under Maleficent?” asked Evie.

“Maybe?” said Mal.

“Weird,” said Jay.

“But we have ours. Let’s use ours,” said Carlos, rather desperately, as Mim drew closer.

“No!” said Mal. “We can’t use our talismans! Don’t you see that’s what the evil in them wants us to do? If we use them like this, it would only make their power stronger. We’d be drawn to the magic…and we’d turn into our parents.”

“You’re right,” said Evie, putting away her talisman reluctantly as the boys agreed.

“Then brace yourselves,” said Carlos, “and prepare to be roasted.”

The four of them huddled together, seeking comfort in each other before the end, and the purple dragon reared back and opened its mouth. But before it could set them on fire, Ben appeared, holding a sword to the dragon’s heart.

“Recognize this?” he asked. “Artie loaned it to me; he thought I might need it.”

“Excalibur!” cried Carlos, who recognized the sword from Auradon’s history books.

“The one and only,” said Ben, still facing Madam Mim. “The most powerful sword in Auradon. You know what it can do.”

“So I suggest you save yourself the pain, Mim,” said Merlin, who had gotten out of the cage by turning into a caterpillar and was now back to being a wizard.

The purple dragon snorted as Ben pressed the blade against its chest. Finally, it turned into a fine purple mist, and Mim was a hag once again, her shoulders slumped. “I’ll miss Auradon so,” she said. “The sheep were tasty.”

“But alas, Auradon is not the place for you,” said Merlin. With a wave of his wand, Madam Mim was sent back to the Isle of the Lost.

“Say hi to Maddy for me!” said Mal.

“We need to close this tunnel so that no one else can use it to escape into Auradon,” said Ben.

“My thoughts exactly,” said Merlin, and with another wave of his wand, the passage behind them was closed forever with an impenetrable wall that no one and no magic would ever be able to breach. “There, it’s permanently sealed. No one from the Isle of the Lost will ever be able to use it again.”

“Let’s go home,” said Ben, reaching for Mal’s hand.

“Sounds like a good plan,” said Mal, squeezing Ben’s hand tightly. “You guys ready?”

The other three nodded.

“About time,” said Jay. “We’ve got class tomorrow.”

“And homework tonight,” said Carlos.

“I hope our feeds updated correctly,” said Evie. “Right now we’re all supposed to be in bed, sneezing from the flu.”

“Did someone say Sneezy? I’m Grumpy,” said Grumpy.