The Value of a Crew

Chapter Nine

Jay sighed as he paced around the clubhouse, waiting for Carlos and Lonnie to return. Ben had been staring at the mirror Lord Hades had given them, as if worried that Mal would disappear if he stopped.

He didn't blame Ben in the slightest though. This feeling of helplessness was new to Jay, and it wasn't something he particularly liked.

"Jay, it'll be okay," Evie said, walking over to him as if she could read his mind. "Carlos and Lonnie will be back, we'll give Uma the fake wand, and we'll get Mal back."

Estelle gave a small yip as he wagged his tail, almost agreeing with Evie about her statement.

"I hope you're right Evie," Jay sighed once more but stopped as he looked over at the blue haired girl. "Why didn't you ever tell anyone that Lord Hades was Mal's dad?"

"It wasn't my news to tell," Evie said, her voice soft. "I just hope Mal'll forgive me for telling her secret now."

"If you hadn't told us, we wouldn't have known to get Lord Hades to be at least aware of what was going on," Jay said. "It's not like you were her best friend since the age of five and didn't know she was so overwhelmed that she'd rather go back to the Isle!"

He punched the wall as if to punctuate his point, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from calling out in pain. But the pain in his hand wasn't anywhere near the pain in his heart as he thought about how he let his best friend down. How he let his captain down.

And not for the first time either, he thought. How long have you had to tell Mal the truth about what happened that day seven years ago? Yeah okay maybe it's understandable that you didn't tell her the next day but you've had years to think about it.

She would never forgive him for not telling her the truth. Just as she likely would never forgive Evie for blabbing her secret to them.

"Gee, what did that wall do to you?" Lonnie's voice broke through the silence and Evie and Jay turned around to see Lonnie and Carlos standing at the top of the stairs.

"We need to get you guys a cowbell," Jay said. "You got it?"

"Oh yeah," Carlos nodded, pulling the fake wand out of his bag. Jay had to admit, if he hadn't known it was a fake, he likely would have been fooled too. "The best part about all this is the fact that none of us has magic. Uma can't ask us to test something if it wouldn't get any result in the first place...is that a Cerberus?"

"He's Mal's," Jay said.

"She never mentioned having a Cerberus!"

"Just like she didn't mention she was Lord Hades' daughter. I thought you were over your fear of dogs anyway?"

"Jay, this is a Cerberus! Why would I be afraid of him? Hi boy! Oh what a good boy you are!"

Jay blinked as Carlos got down to his knees, calling Estelle over to him. Estelle left Ben's side to sniff at the new human, giving Carlos a doggy grin after a minute. Of course, the belly rub Carlos gave him might have helped.

"...okay then," Jay sighed and looked over at Lonnie. "Any backup?"

"Well we ran into Chad when we needed to use Carlos' printer," Lonnie said. "He was unsurprisingly unhelpful. We also ran into Doug who seemed to know a little about what's going on?"

"He was in Ben's office with me when I gave Ben the news about Mal going back to the Isle," Evie said with a small sigh.

"Ah that explains that," Lonnie nodded. "He had asked after you Evie, saying something about how he didn't think getting Mal back would take this long."