“The Dark Net,” Carlos whispered, still staring at the screen, unwilling to believe it was true. “There’s a rumor going around that after the dome broke when Maleficent escaped, the Isle of the Lost was able to start up a secret online network of their own. And I’m not talking about the kind of Internet where people share funny kitten videos.”

“But we don’t have access to the Internet on the Isle. We’re cut off, remember?” said Mal.

“Maybe something happened when the dome broke open,” said Evie.

“Anything’s possible,” said Carlos. “Especially during that time when the dome let magic back onto the island.” He looked up at them. “Supposedly since the Dark Net is effectively hidden from Auradon’s servers, it’s a way for the villains on the Isle of the Lost to communicate with each other. Think about it, on the Dark Net, they can hatch evil plots without anyone here knowing anything about it.”

“So they use the Dark Net to send each other evil e-mails?” joked Mal.

“And post evil insta-messages.” Evie giggled.

“I’m serious!” said Carlos. “It’s not funny.”

“You’re right, you’re right,” said Mal, sobering. “With an online network, they can organize their evil schemes more effectively.”

“Yeah, exactly, so I’m going to poke around, see what else I can find,” said Carlos.

“But, Carlos, you just said the villains are behind it!” Evie cried. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“I would say Danger is my middle name,” said Carlos cheerfully, warming up to the task as his dog slid from his lap to nestle at his feet contentedly. Now that he had a new thing to explore, he didn’t feel as frightened. He could do this. “But my middle name is actually Oscar.”

He saw their faces and muttered as he typed, “Hey, it could be worse, right? Mal, your middle name is Bertha.”

“Unfortunately, yes. Anyway, see what you can find,” Mal said with a crisp nod. “But I think we have to make plans to return no matter what.”

“Return? To where?” Carlos asked, although he had a feeling he already knew the answer.

“To the Isle of the Lost, of course,” Mal said as she rolled up her sleeves.

“But why? We might be falling right into a trap,” Evie argued. “Isn’t that just what they want us to do, whoever they are?”

“Well, we can’t stay here—we need to find out what the villains are up to back home,” Mal said. “Plus, I’m not going to be intimidated by whoever’s sending these messages. We have to take the risk, or something like what happened at the Coronation could happen again.”

“We sure do,” said Jay, who’d appeared at the doorway, his face bruised and one eye swollen shut, holding up a crumpled piece of paper covered in purple ink. “Did you guys get one of these today about returning to the Isle of the Lost?”

“Old-fashioned note! Of course!” said Carlos, who couldn’t help but be pleased at the cleverness of their mysterious nemesis.

“Sort of,” said Mal as the other two nodded. Jay looked relieved.

“What happened to your eye? Are you all right?” asked Evie. “Do you need Mal to conjure an ice pack for that?”

“Tourney practice. It’s nothing,” Jay said, waving off their concern.

“But as I was saying, we have to go back home, because we all know the villains won’t rest until Auradon is reduced to rubble and we’re all minions,” Mal said fiercely, as if she would take on an army of them right now.

“Goblins,” said Jay. “Maleficent had goblins for minions, why doesn’t anyone remember that?”

After the group left Carlos to explore the Dark Net to see if he could find any more information on the villains’ plans and whereabouts, Mal decided to visit her mother. It bothered her too much to think that the mysterious M in her note might actually be Maleficent and she wanted to see for herself that her mother was still a lizard. It was late when she arrived in the library, almost time for lights-out. The royal guards, trained in imperial battle tactics by Mulan, stood in front of the double-locked doors and barred her way.

“Really? You know it’s me,” Mal said. “Open up. Family visitors are allowed under the royal decree,” she reminded them like she did every time she grudgingly visited.

The guard on the left grinned. “Oh yes, I see the resemblance now, I think it’s the forked tongue,” he joked, like he always did.

“Ha-ha,” said Mal, pushing her way inside.

The guard on the right grunted. “You have five minutes.”

“I know,” she said as they locked the door behind her and she made her way to the pedestal in the middle of the room with a glass dome sitting on top of it.

When she was a little girl, Mal had been very frightened of her mother. Maleficent was not the help-with-homework, bake-cookies type, after all. She was more the fearsome mistress who sent you on hopeless quests—like the one to retrieve her Dragon’s Eye scepter—and she didn’t take no for an answer.

Even so, these days Mal found it hard to believe she had once feared Maleficent. It was difficult to feel scared of something so small.

But the anonymous message from M had spooked her. Mal stared at her mother, who appeared to be sleeping. Under the glass dome, she looked like any ordinary lizard, harmless, cute even. But Mal knew better. No matter how harmless the reptile looked, it was still the Mistress of Darkness at heart.

So did Maleficent have some secret talent they didn’t know about? Would she able to transform back into herself after transforming to the itty-bitty size of her heart? Was the lizard in there really Maleficent? What if Maleficent was already gone?

Mal stared hard at the tiny purple creature that, when awake, had green eyes just like her mother to see if she could sense something different about it. But the snoozing reptile looked exactly the same as it did the last time she’d visited.

“Hey, Mom, can I talk to you for a second?” she said, careful not to tap on the glass. She’d heard lizards didn’t like that.

The lizard was still, not even a flick of her tongue.

The handful of times when she’d visited Maleficent in the past, it was like this. She never got a reaction of any sort. Mal always found it hard to accept that this small, tiny creature held the soul of the most powerful villain in all the land.