27. Reunion and a dangerous offer

Mal's P.O.V.

We stood there frozen. That couldn't be true. A mean grin graced their faces and everything in me contracted. They weren't my parents, but it was no less dangerous. And in the eyes of the others, I only recognized pure panic. Carlos, in particular, looked completely scared and I could understand it. Anger spread through me. How could she do that to him? Cruella DeVil smiled cruelly.

"You're still just as useless as before! You couldn't even steal a wand, but you could betray us! You'll bitterly regret that now!" Carlos swallowed but remained strong. Evie reached for his hand and squeezed it. Jay put both hands on his shoulders and I put one hand on his arm. None of us said anything when Cruella suddenly yelled: "Stop!". Wow, when that woman screamed it really hurt your ears. Poor Carlos. It was instantly silent and many confused and frightened looks were upon us. I hadn't noticed how fast I was breathing and how hard my heart was beating. But Carlos' breath was choppy. Damn it! He would not be able to keep it up for long. "Oh, look at you, you can't even fight without suffocating," laughed Cruella and the anger in me made my eyes light up green. How could she say that?! Her son would die! Carlos tensed and his breath went faster.

"Carlos, hey, calm down," Evie said softly, but I noticed the panic in her voice. She was as scared as I was.

"He's sick!", Jay yelled, who was probably as angry as I was. Jafar laughed.

"Oh, how cute. A cold, Jay?" Jay clenched his fists.

"No, no cold! He'll die of it soon!" I didn't expect them to show compassion, and they didn't. They didn't care. And that made me mad. How could anyone care so much about this wonderful person? Behind Cruella, you sometimes heard horrified panting from people who care about Carlos and who hadn't known about the disease until now. I turned the sword in my hand.

"Get out of here! You haven't lost anything here!" The evil queen laughed.

"Oh, honey, do you really think we'll just go like this? I would have thought you wiser." Evie snorted angrily and Jay clenched his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Carlos only looked into space and scared me a lot.

"Okay, I have an idea. We want some fun too," grinned Jafar, throwing his sword up to catch it again. I raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Jafar was very sneaky and I doubted it was a fair idea.

"Yes?", I said anyway. He laughed badly.

"You against us. If you win, we'll go back to the island, never come back and leave you alone." I looked at him suspiciously. Where was the catch now? "But if we win, Auradon will be ours!" Oh, there he was. I heard horrifying gasps now and then footsteps.

"Mal, think about what you're doing. Carlos won't be able to do that. And I don't know if that's not too risky," I heard Ben say softly. But my decision had long been made. We had no other choice. Auradon had no chance against all the villains who had been preparing for this day all their lives. So there was still a small way to save the country. But the argument with Carlos bothered me. I looked at him briefly and saw more determination in his eyes than ever before. He nodded to me, letting me know what to do. I looked at the people around me again. They were all exhausted and just waiting for my decision. There was no way out. We had no other option. I reached out and handed it to Jafar.

"OK."