“Wait! So she’s definitely not here? Evil Queen isn’t part of this group? What about Cruella or Jafar?” Mal asked.

Before anyone could answer her question, Yen Sid stepped up to the blackboard. “Welcome to the weekly meeting of the Anti-Heroes,” he said. “We are now formally in session.”

“Can I ask why you’re called Anti-Heroes?” asked Carlos, raising his hand.

“Don’t you know? Think about it,” said the professor, his eyes twinkling.

Mal scrunched her forehead, and reflected on what she had just learned from the excited group of so-called villains. “It’s called Anti-Heroes because you’re hiding in plain sight,” she said.

Yen Sid smiled broadly. “It is the only way to hide.”

To anyone who stumbled on the Anti-Heroes thread on the Dark Net, it looked as if the club despised the foursome, but of course the photos of the four of them were simply recruitment tools, subtly telling members-in-the-know that this was the place to be if they wanted to be like Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos. Mal shared her epiphany with the group, and heads happily nodded around the class.

“That is part of it, of course, but there is another reason we are called Anti-Heroes,” said Yen Sid. “What most people don’t know is that anti-hero is another word for villain—or let me put it this way, an anti-hero is the villain that you root for in the story. An anti-hero is a hero who isn’t perfect. An anti-hero doesn’t ride up in a white horse, or have shining golden hair and wonderful manners. In fact, an anti-hero doesn’t look like the typical hero of a story at all. Anti-heroes can be crude and ugly and selfish, but they are heroes nonetheless. As flawed as an anti-hero is, they’re still trying to do the right thing. You are all anti-heroes, and I’m proud of you.” He beamed at them, and the group clapped and cheered.

“So just to confirm, this is a secret club to teach villains—sorry, anti-heroes—how to be good?” asked Carlos. Mal remembered how Ginny Gothel had said “they” were right about Mal, and “there was no hope for anyone”—she must have meant there was little hope for evil anymore, if even Maleficent’s daughter had chosen to be good.

Mal frowned. “Hold on, Professor. If this club is devoted to learning how to be good, am I right in assuming Evil Queen, Cruella de Vil, and Jafar have nothing to do with it either?”

“With the Anti-Heroes? No, of course not, they’re villains through and through, I’m afraid,” said the professor. “But speaking of the villains, it is very fortunate you understood our message to return to the island, as we desperately need your help in locating and outwitting them.”

“Wait! So they’re not here? They’re really gone?” asked Carlos. “My mother, Evil Queen, and Jafar?” He tried to temper his relief at the news. As much as he had convinced himself he was ready to stand up to his mother like Mal had done to hers, he was more than happy for the respite.

“And if you guys don’t know where they are, does that mean they’re not on the Isle of the Lost?” asked Mal.

“Not exactly on the island, no. But not exactly off it either, at least, we hope not,” said Yen Sid, remaining maddeningly obscure on the subject. “Let me backtrack a little. It appears they vanished from the Isle of the Lost soon after Maleficent broke the dome open, but no one knows for sure. People panicked when they saw Maleficent turned into a lizard; they feared that Auradon would seek revenge on the island. In the chaos and breakdown that ensued, it was hard to notice anything out of the ordinary since everything was out of the ordinary, especially with the goblin embargo.

“No one thought it strange that Jafar didn’t open up shop for a while, as he was often irregular in his habits, and Evil Queen and Cruella de Vil mostly keep to themselves. But then the Junk Shop remained closed, and a few weeks later, a goblin who delivered the daily basket of supplies to Evil Queen’s castle reported that no one ever took them inside. They were just piling up by the front door, and even Cruella’s wigmaker remarked that she hadn’t come in for her regular fitting, so we knew something was wrong.” He frowned and tugged his beard. “I sent messengers to each of their homes, and runners across the island to see if anyone had seen them anywhere, but to no avail. They were well and truly gone.”

The rest of the group nodded, and it was clear this was old news to them. Carlos noticed that some of them were doodling in their notebooks or passing notes and whispering. Even if they were trying to be good, they were still naughty kids. He tried to ignore them and focus on what Yen Sid was saying.

“But if they’re not on the Isle, where could they be?” asked Carlos with a gulp. “You don’t think they’re in Auradon, do you?”

Yen Sid gazed balefully at his young pupil. “Before I answer your question, I would like to ask a few questions of my own.”

“Shoot,” said Mal.

“Have you been experiencing a series of earthquakes in the mainland? Small tremors, vibrations? And once in a while, a real rumble?” he asked.

“Yeah, we have,” said Jay as the four of them nodded in agreement.

“Have you noticed if they are becoming stronger and more frequent?”

“They certainly are,” said Mal. “I know Ben’s council is worried about it, since it’s never really happened before. Not just earthquakes, though—he mentioned that the whole kingdom is suffering from unseasonal weather: frost, hurricanes, sandstorms.”

“Then it is as I suspected,” said Yen Sid. He sighed.

“What does the weather have to do with the missing villains?” asked Mal.

But the professor was already scribbling in his notebook and ignored her question. When he looked back up at them, he had their full attention. “I think it’s time for me to tell you a little about the history of the island. As you know, when the villains were placed on the Isle of the Lost, Fairy Godmother, under King Beast’s command, created the invisible dome to keep magic out of their hands so that they would never threaten Auradon’s peace again.”

“I thought it was also because they were being punished for their evil deeds,” said Evie.

“In effect, it was a punishment, as they were kept here mostly to ensure the safety of the kingdom,” said Yen Sid. “But what we didn’t realize then was that keeping magic off the surface of the island created tremendous pressure in the atmosphere, and the magic that was kept out had to go somewhere else.”