Wicked Dawn | 'Till The Night Falls Book 1 (Disney Descendants)

Chapter 15: The Secret of the Flame

And speaking of Mal.

"Ben!" He heard her voice and he turned, spotting her hovering overhead. Even in dragon form, he recognized the ghost of a smile on her face.

"Mal!" he tried to shout but the only sound that came out was a roar.

Mal shook her head and tapped her skull. "You can't talk," she telepathed to him. "Your mind. Use your thoughts."

"Sounds like something out of a movie, huh?"

Both turned at the flat but obvious voice of Jay as he appeared, his hulking red form glimmering in the moonlight. He paused mid-stride, noticing their looks. "What?"

"You...handled the transformation well," Ben thought, unsure how the telepathy worked exactly. But Jay seemed to understand as he gave a short nod.

"Yeah. Well, it helps when you've been turned into a frog, a rabbit, and a porcupine by someone who was learning to do mag--"

"All right, Jay," Mal cut him off abruptly. "I think we get it."

"Get what?"

Evie. Her voice was high, a bit fearful. She emerged from the shadows to join them. Ben's eyes widened. She was slimmer than Mal with blue scales and startling brown eyes. She looked more like she was designed for the water. It matched her Dragonfire perfectly. "Whoa..." she breathed, glancing down at her reflection in a pool of water. "I'm...beautiful."

Mal smiled slightly as she came to hover closer. "E, where's Carlos? Is he with you?"

"No. I'm right here."

There was a shuffle and the orange dragon stuck his head over the end of a nearby building. He stared down at them with a mixture of fear and awe. "Whoa...okay...Mal? What exactly did your spell do?"

Mal smiled and landed among them and signaled for Carlos to come down which he did a bit clumsily. "This the secret of the Dragonfires," she explained. "This phenomenon can only happen when all six stones are aligned. My mother called it the Bond Effect. Your stones have literally merged with you and revealed their true powers."

"True powers?" Jay questioned. "I thought they were only good for blasting things."

"Or seeing the future," Evie put in. "Which reminds me. Where's Doug?"

Mal frowned, glancing around.

Ben did the same. She's right, he thought, counting the dragons in the ring. There are only five of us. Before he could say anything, Evie had already broken away from the others and was searching the alley frantically, half-flying, half-hopping from shadow to shadow.

"Doug? DOUG?" she screamed, her voice coming out as a roar. She fluttered into the air for a moment, her head shooting around wildly. "Doug, where are you?" Her eyes widened as she reached the end of the alley and still didn't spot him and kept going. She didn't even seem to realize that anyone or anything else was there.

"EVIE!" Mal bellowed in Ben's head. He winced slightly but Mal didn't seem to notice as she took off after her friend. "EVIE! HE CAN'T HEAR YOU IF YOU KEEP ROARING LIKE A RAGING LUNATIC! GET. BACK. HERE. THIS. INSTANT!" She sprang into the air, narrowly dodging a couple of buildings, and came down hard on the road, blocking Evie's frantic search. "Calm down!" she snapped, holding out a wing to stop her. "We'll find Doug, all right? But you're not going to do him any good by getting yourself hurt."

Evie stared at her, tears welling up in her eyes. Mal saw this and softened. "It's all right," she told her reassuringly. "Come on, let's go back to the others. Then, together, we'll go look for Doug, all right?"