Wicked Ones ♛ MAL [✓]

➣ eighteen.

018. | MAKE THE TRADE

"Mal, are you sure you can do this?" Evie asked Mal as we headed to the the alleyway where we were going to meet Jay and Carlos.

"Yeah." Mal nodded, glancing at me. "I'll be fine."

When the limo pulled up, and Jay and Carlos hopped out, I was surprised to see Lonnie was with them. But my surprise quickly turned into relief; Lonnie was a talented swordswoman, and we definitely needed her in case there was a fight.

"Oh, Lonnie!" Evie said in surprise.

"I made them bring me," Lonnie said as she approached us.

"Oh, I'm so glad," Mal said, hugging the taller girl.

Evie hugged her as well. "Hi. Welcome to the Isle."

Finally she hugged me, and I said to her, "It's good to see you."

"Thanks," Lonnie replied. "It's good to see you still in one piece." When I raised an eyebrow she explained, "Carlos filled me in on what happened."

I nodded, running over to where Jay and Carlos were getting the swords out of the trunk. Only, an uninvited guest was inside it as well - Dude the dog.

"And Dude," Jay said in exasperation.

"I told you to stay," Carlos told Dude.

Dude just looked up at him. "I flunked obedience class."

I rolled my eyes. "Great. And he can still talk."

Carlos sighed. "You're lucky I love you." Picking Dude up, he said, "Come on." before setting him on the ground.

We all started to run off, only to have Mal turn to Jay and Carlos. "Ooh. Here, let me see." They handed her the duplicate wand, and Mal breathed out slowly; it looked exactly like the real thing. "Wow, what a beauty."

"It's noon," Carlos said grimly.

Mal nodded, turning to us. "All right. Are we ready?"

Evie and I held up our bags, which were filled with the smoke bombs. "Yeah."

Mal gestured for us to follow. "Then let's do this."

After Carlos told dude to stay, we ran off towards the pier. As we ran, I couldn't help but worry about Ben and what Uma was doing to him. I knew the girl pretty well; she wasn't a deceptive sneak like Harry, or a brute squad-type like Gil. Rather, she was a combination of both - strong, deceptive, and most of all, manipulative. She had a knack for getting inside people's heads and making them question a lot of their common sense and sensibility; how else could she have gotten such a huge band of pirates on her side?

When we walked into the tunnel, Mal turned to me, stopping me as she took the bag of smoke bombs from me.

I frowned at her. "Hey, what are you–"

"Uma can't know you're back with us," Mal explained. "That might give us and Harley away. So you stay here, and if things go wrong, I'll call you."

"Mal, I–"

I was cut off when she held up a hand to stop me. Then she pulled me into a hug and whispered, "You have to trust me. Okay?"

I didn't like it, and I certainly didn't want to do it. But I trusted Mal, and after our talk at Lady Tremaine's place, I had figured out that she was still looking after me, even though she wouldn't be coming home with us. So I nodded, and Mal gave me a reassuring smile before running off to join the others.