Chapter Text
Luis was pretty sure he was slightly lost. All he knew was that one moment he had been in the clearing, letting Max and Red have their conversation, and the next moment, he blinked and woke up in an unfamiliar room.
He was sitting on a small bed, which squeaked as he moved his weight around, pushing up off of it. The floor underneath him was dingy, just like the rest of the room. It was dim, with a musty smell. It wasn’t like anything he’d seen in Auradon: the pale gray walls decorated with mold and stains.
“What are you doing here?”
Luis turned quickly to the voice, the floorboards creaking and sagging as he whipped around. Max stood on the other side of the bed, looking just as confused as Luis felt. “I-I’m not entirely sure?” Luis offered, hesitantly. “I just blinked, and I was here.”
Max cursed, crossing his arms as he looked away, scanning the room. “It’s probably one of my dad’s tricks. He must have transported us somewhere or something.”
“No offense, but I’m not a big fan of your dad at the moment,” Luis joked lightly, scanning the room as well. “Any idea where we are?”
“Yeah,” Max nodded. “This was my old room. On the Isle.” He admitted quietly.
Luis looked at him incredulously. “You lived here?” He asked, worried. He couldn’t imagine growing up in such a dirty room was safe or enjoyable.
“Not all of us grew up in magical houses with dozens of family members to do all the cleaning.” Max scoffed, grinding his teeth as he glared at Luis.
“No- I didn’t mean it like that. I…” Luis trailed off, struggling to find the right words. “I know that, just… I’m sorry.”
Max watched him, his expression softening at the genuineness in Luis’s voice. Luis offered him a sad smile, hoping to fix the situation, but Max just looked away and scoffed.
“We should try to look around. If you’re here, then the others are probably somewhere else in the house. Assuming my father brought us all to the same place or… I don’t know where we are, but wherever this is. Max suggested, still avoiding Luis’s gaze. Luis simply nodded in agreement, taking another look around the room with the new knowledge of it being Max’s childhood room.
There was very little furniture, although since the room was quite small, it felt more crowded than it should have. The furniture that was there- a bed, dresser, and small desk in the corner- was ragged and looked as if it would break with one use. The wood was worn and rough, splintering off around the edges. Luis slowly walked over to where Max was standing, carefully running his hand along the dresser as he passed.
“Wow, Madrigal, are you always this slow?” Max teased. “It’s my room, not a museum.”
Luis rolled his eyes at him, but smiled softly. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” He groaned jokingly. He was only a couple of steps away, a distance he crossed in less than 3 seconds.
Max rolled his eyes as Luis made his way over, pushing open the door. He stepped through cautiously, and Luis followed close behind. He grunted in surprise as he nearly bumped into Max, who was frozen in the doorway.
“Wha-” Luis started, confused about why they had stopped so quickly, before he looked up, gasping.
The room they had walked into was identical to the room they had just left.
Max groaned, stomping over to the same door in the other room and throwing it open, revealing yet another copy of Max’s room. “Shit,” He cursed. “We’re stuck.”
“Any chance there’s a plant in Wonderland that causes joint hallucinations or something?” Luis suggested hesitantly. He stepped into the room, looking around again, surprised to find that everything was the same, down to the stains and dents on the walls. “This is probably your dad, right? Any magic he knows that could do this?”
“Not that I know of,” Max admitted, biting his lip. “I’m also not the best guide for all of this. Pink or Red would probably have a better idea of what’s going on.”
“So for now, we’re trapped.” Luis sighed, sitting down on the bed, causing it to creak and bend. “Anything in here that could help?”
Max scoffed, “This is the Isle, so no.” He sat next to Luis, leaving a slight gap between them. He crossed his arms and looked away, staring at the nightstand next to his bed.
“Wonder why we’re here,” Luis commented, watching Max carefully.
“Probably to get to me or whatever,” Max chewed on his cheek and fidgeted with his hands. Luis wanted to reach over and grab one of them so he wouldn’t mess up the makeshift bandage still wrapped around his hand, but he sensed that Max wouldn’t be very receptive to such an action.
“But why am I here?” Luis countered. “We weren’t even near each other when we somehow got transported here or whatever.”
Max thought about it for a second, his brows furrowed, something Luis found slightly endearing. Luis’s face flushed as he realized what he had just thought, and he coughed, immediately looking away.
“What?” Max asked, suspiciously.
“Nothing!” Luis spluttered, avoiding his gaze and praying his face wasn’t as red as he felt.
Max looked at him, his eyebrow raised slightly, but he rolled his eyes and looked away, much to Luis’s relief. “What do you last remember before you ended up here?” Max asked, ignorant of Luis’s internal struggle. “If we can figure that out, we might be able to figure out what exactly happened.”
“Right,” Luis forced out, his voice unusually high. He thought about the question for a little while, trying to remember as much as he could about the clearing a couple of seconds before he found himself in this strange place. “I was in the original clearing,” he explained. “Felix and the Smees were there as well, but I don’t know where the girls or Robbie were.”
“Red had just left me, so I was on my way back in that way,” Max added. “Hazel wasn’t there?”
“No, she and Chloe must have gone off on their own while we were talking.”
“So it can’t be based on location, because you were closer to Felix than you were to me.” Max thought out loud, “Maybe Dad just randomly paired people together?”
Luis laughed. “Why does this keep happening to us?” He asked. “We’re separated from the group again.”
Max nudged Luis, grinning. “If I remember right, it’s your fault we got separated the first time.”
“Then we have to agree it was your fault the second time. I was following you after all.”
Max rolled his eyes, and Luis felt a pool of heat grow in his stomach as he watched him smile. “Fine, we’re both responsible for the irritatingly large amount of time we’ve had to spend with each other.”
Luis gasped, holding his hand to his chest in mock offense. “Well, excuse you, but I’ve found our time together to be incredibly charming.” He took his hand off his chest, running it through his hair instead.
Max snorted and looked at Luis, his face dropping suddenly. “Holy shit- Luis, you’re bleeding.”
Luis looked down at his chest, where Max was staring, surprised that his shirt had a red stain where he had held his hand. Max grabbed his hand, pulling it over so he could see it. Luis blushed but tried to push any thoughts about Max out of his head.
Max grimaced at the sight of blood on Luis’s hand. There wasn’t too much blood, but in the middle of it all sat a large splinter, puncturing his palm. “How did you not notice this?” Max muttered. “It looks like it’s pretty deep.”
“I must have gotten it when I was touching the dresser,” Luis offered offhandedly. “It can’t be that bad considering I haven’t felt a thing.”
Max looked at him, his mouth parted, and head tilted. “Huh,” he breathed out, turning his gaze back to Luis’s hand. “I’m going to try and pull it out,” He explained. “It might start to bleed more,e though.”
“It’ll be fine,” Luis assured him. “I can rip up some more of my shirt, and we can make matching band-aids,” he joked.
Luis swore he saw Max’s face flash a slight red as he swallowed sharply. “We can just use a sheet,” Max offered instead, his voice slightly weak. Luis nodded, although slightly confused about why his idea had been shot down so quickly. “I’m just going to pull it, alright?” Max explained.
“I’m ready,” Luis promised. “I already told you that I trust you.”
Max bit his lip, trying to hide a smile as he nodded. He took a deep breath, grabbing the splinter and pulling hard, trying to get it out.
Luis looked away, expecting it to hurt, but the feeling never came. “Did you get it out?” He asked.
“Yeah, I got it,” Max confirmed. Luis looked back, watching as Max ripped some of the sheet and used the fabric to wrap around the wound. “It’s bleeding a lot, so it must have been pretty deep. Did it hurt at all?”
“No,” Luis said softly, staring at Max, confused. “It didn’t hurt.”
“Luis,” Max started slowly, looking up at him with a worried expression. “Did you happen to see any purple fog before you woke up here?”
“Maybe?” Luis struggled to remember. “I was really tired for some reason. I might have missed something. Why? Did you?”
Max froze, taking a sharp breath in. Luis furrowed his eyebrows, watching him. “I- I can’t remember, but I think it would make the most sense.”
“Now that you mention it,” Luis thought back. “There was something near Felix. I can’t remember if it was fog, but it was definitely purple.”
“Are you sure?” Max pressed. “Are you completely sure?”
“You said it would make the most sense, right? I trust you, Max. You probably know what your father would do better than any of us,” Luis said, voice genuine.
“I-” Max hesitated, tapping his foot on the floor and biting his nails.
“Did your dad have some invention with the purple smoke?” Luis asked softly, not wanting to stress Max out more than he already was. He looked around the room as if it might suddenly offer an escape route now that Max knew how they got there.
“Yes, but if I’m right…” He paused, then muttered under his breath, “Screw it. Luis, I think we’re dreaming.
“What?”
“We’re dreaming. That’s what my Dad did. He didn’t transport us anywhere. He just made us fall asleep. That’s what the purple fog was.” Max stared at him seriously, although Luis could tell he was still nervous from the way his bottom lip trembled.
Luis’s smile grew. “Wait, so that’s great! All we have to do is wake up then,” He exclaimed.
Max stared at him exasperatedly. “What? Luis, are you serious?”
“Yeah, I mean, it seems pretty easy, right?” He explained. “Wasn’t the smartest move on your dad’s part, but at least we can get back to the others quickly.”
“I-” Max stuttered, his face going through a range of emotions as he looked at Luis. “I guess? I feel like that’s not really our main issue right now?”
“What else would be our main issue?” Luis asked, returning Max’s gaze with a dumbfounded expression.
“Luis, neither of us has ever dreamt before.”
“Yeah, but we’re in Wonderland now, so you- oh.” Luis froze, still staring at Max.
Oh.
“Yeah, oh,” Max scoffed, although his voice started to shake. “Fucking hell, Luis.”
“We’re soulmates,” Luis breathed out.
When Luis was younger, he had always dreamed of meeting his soulmate. He grew up in a large family where the concept of boundaries was more wishful thinking than reality. He had enough cousins to know what would happen the day he turned five, along with getting his gift.
And then his birthday had come, and he’d walked up to his door and grabbed the handle, and everything had come crashing down. The whispers started about how he was the only Madrigal with a repeat gift, cursed to carry the same weight his mother did. He felt as if the entire casita had been placed on his shoulders, the entire village watching him wherever he went. He still played with his cousins, but it was different, more weighed down, and they looked at him as if he was some oddity instead of their family.
His birthday came and passed, and before he knew it, he was six. A small part of him had always naively hoped one day he’d start to dream, but as he got older, the whispers continued to grow, and the sleepless nights only got longer.
He’d given up on ever having a soulmate. That last string of thread had been cut away when the barrier fell, and unlike his best friend or Chloe, he was still left with dreamless nights.
But now, here he was, undoubtedly in a dream with Max Hatter.
“We’re soulmates,” Max repeated, looking slightly faint. “What the hell.”
“Hey, at least now we know you have a soulmate?” Luis joked, laughing awkwardly. Max sent him a glare, and he immediately went silent.
“Nope, nope, nope,” Max muttered. “Absolutely not. This is some stupid Wonderland magic or something because we are not soulmates.” He pushed off the bed and started to pace around the room.
Luis sat on the bed still, watching him as he wrung his hands. He could feel his own heart racing as he processed what was happening, and tried to take deep breaths to calm himself down.
He’d never hated Max, no matter what the VK might say. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t hate most of the VKs, despite the belief of half the school. He wasn’t a royal; he was just some kid from Columbia who happened to have super strength and a talent for tourney. He’d never asked the school to idolize him, but he’d fallen into it, clinging to the popularity like water slipping through his hands.
Max had caught his eye a couple of times, if only because his friends were so closely intertwined with Max’s group of VKs. Considering Chloe and Hazel, and Robbie and Felix were dating, they’d seen a lot of each other. He’d always watched the other boy, trying to figure out what he needed, what Luis could do to help him, but Max tended to hate any sort of help, so his actions only got him pushed further away from Max.
He’d never mentioned anything to Max, nor mentioned the way his mind always seemed to drift to the VK.
“I always thought I didn’t have a soulmate,” Luis murmured, his voice heavy.
“We’re not soulmates,” Max scoffed. “It’s impossible.”
Luis was taken aback, a sharp pain in his chest. His face twisted, and his voice scraped his throat as the words came out. “Yeah, well, I haven’t exactly heard of anyone sharing dreams who aren’t soulmates.”
He never mentioned the fact that he didn’t have a soulmate to anyone. Only his family knew, and Robbie, once they had gotten close enough. Auradon was more than happy to come to their own conclusions about why their Golden Boy was never seen with a girl wrapped around him. Luis was more than happy to let them assume something wrong instead of discovering the truth.
“Then we were wrong or something,” Max insisted, still pacing. “Maybe there wasn’t actually purple smoke, and I’m completely wrong.”
Luis grabbed Max’s arm as he passed, stopping the other boy. He stared into Max’s eyes, brown into brown, his face softening. “What would be so bad about us being soulmates?” He asked, his tone almost pleading.
Max ripped his arm out of Luis’s grip and looked away quickly, although Luis swore he saw a tint of red cross his face. “You wouldn’t get it,” he muttered.
Luis was more than aware of the privilege he had as an HK. He knew firsthand how easily a gift could turn into overbearing pressure, considering he’d lived with it his entire life. Eventually, he learned how to bear the weight. He could never get rid of it, not really, but he noticed it less as he grew used to it. He started leaning into it, cracking a joke here and there, hiding the ugly truth behind bright smiles and a smug exterior.
“Try me,” Luis urged.
Max turned around, blowing up at Luis suddenly. “You’re an HK, Luis!” He exclaimed. “And we’re literally in this mess because my father decided to kidnap the Queen. You see the way Chloe and Hazel get treated, the way they’re fighting right now? Robbie and Felix broke up, and I honestly can’t name a single HK and VK who’ve actually worked out aside from Ben and Mal.”
“Max, that’s not-” Luis was interrupted.
“I’m not a good person, Luis.” Max looked down, his fists clenched tightly. “I’m not dragging you down with me.”
Luis shook his head, standing up. “You won’t,” He said firmly.
“You don’t know that.”
If he was being honest with himself, Luis didn’t know anything right now. He felt like he’d just been pushed off the deep end without ever learning how to swim. Max wasn’t wrong; the people in Auradon weren’t quiet with their opinions and gossip. HKs and VKs being soulmates were already the talk of the school. He could remember the dirty looks Robbie used to get when he was dating Felix, the way people slowly stopped sitting next to him in classes and at lunch. It hadn’t been easy for his friend, and the gossip had only been worse when they broke up.
He didn’t know what people were going to say if he were to reveal that he and Max were apparently soulmates. Although, if he had to guess, it wouldn’t be positive. A crazy part of him wanted to ignore all reason and forget about what people thought, but he couldn’t deny that a part of him was still scared.
Luis was popular; he was the one everyone loved. He had been so used to being there for everyone. He found his purpose by helping anyone he could. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do if people started hating him all of a sudden.
A part of him worried if he’d be worthless if he couldn’t be of service.
Who was he if he couldn’t help others? If he didn’t have what it took?
Max took his silence for an answer and scoffed again. “See?” He rolled his eyes, his voice quivering slightly. “You’re Auradon’s golden boy, a true hero, and I’m the son of Maddox Hatter, one of Auradon’s worst villains. We can’t be soulmates.”
“I’m not a hero,” Luis chewed on his cheek as he protested weakly. “And you’re not your father.”
“Tell that to all of Auradon,” Max spat out. “Don’t you get it? We’ll never be more than our parents, not if that’s all we’re ever seen as. It doesn’t matter who I am, or what I do. I’ll always be Maddox Hatter’s son.”
“And what? Because of that, I’m not allowed to even interact with you?” Luis exclaimed, feeling himself get heated as the pain in his chest spread. “Maybe I’m tired of being their hero. Maybe you’re too focused on what they think about you to hear what I’m saying.”
Max stepped back, surprised by Luis’s interjection. He swallowed hard, muttering, “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Then tell me.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“Jesus Christ, Max. Is it that hard to believe that I actually care about you?” Luis practically shouted.
Max froze, his breath audibly catching as he stared at Luis.
He’d realized once that his eyes seemed drawn to Max, like he was the only light in the room. He made it his mission to find a way to reach out to him, to make friends with him as he had partially succeeded in doing with Felix. And as he watched him more, he realized Max tended to skip meals.
He wasn’t even entirely sure that Max had realized what he was doing, but Luis always struggled to find him in the cafeteria during lunch, even when the rest of his friends were sitting and talking at a table. He started observing when Max did show up, carefully tracking how he would pick at his food, often throwing away more than half of it.
He’d spent hours contemplating how best to help Max without him getting mad at Luis for trying to interfere. Luckily, the perfect opportunity presented itself only a couple of days later, when Chloe dragged Hazel over to sit with her, Luis, and some of their other HK friends.
It became routine for Luis to grab just slightly more than he needed, and simply slip any extra to Hazel whenever she sat with him. They developed an unlikely alliance, never really talking about what they’d been doing, but allowing it to continue without any question. Luis knew Max had no idea about the arrangement the two of them had created, but Luis found himself smiling when Max began showing up more often, lighting up with the other VKs more than usual.
“I don’t need your pity, Luis,” Max’s voice quivered as he protested.
Luis crossed his arms, looking away with a slight scoff. “It’s not pity, Max.”
They sat in silence for a minute, neither willing to say anything to break the tension in the room. Luis’s head was spinning, trying to understand what he could have done or said wrong, and why Max was continuing to pull away after everything.
“We should wake up,” Max muttered. “If we’re right about my dad doing this, then I’m sure he’s doing something while we’re asleep. If we want to stop him, we need to wake up.”
“Fine,” Luis agreed quietly. “Do you have any idea how to do that?
Max opened his mouth and closed it again, wincing slightly. “It’s not like I’ve ever dreamt before.”
“Neither have I!” Luis protested.
“Yeah, whatever,” Max murmured. “It can’t be that hard. I know Hazel says it’s easy.”
“Chloe as well,” Luis added. “Although she never really mentioned how to end a dream.”
Max bit his lip, thinking. “Maybe it’s just intent? If we both want the dream to end, it will, or something like that.”
“Worth a try, I guess.” Luis sighed, allowing himself to fall back onto the bed, closing his eyes. He could practically feel Max’s gaze on him, but he tried to ignore it. He opened his eyes slightly, squinting at Max. “What? Might as well get comfortable.”
“Yeah, I slept in that bed for most of my life. It’s anything but comfortable,” Max laughed.
He wasn’t lying. The bed was unfortunately lumpy and had nowhere near enough cushioning. Luis could tell that if this weren’t a dream, he’d be waking up with a sore back. A stupid part of him started to worry about how Max must have felt, sleeping here every day on the Isle.
“Fine,” Luis groaned. “Now shut up and let me focus.” He closed his eyes again, trying to clear his mind of everything other than the fact that he wanted to wake up.
It didn’t work very well, considering anytime he remembered that waking up would mean leaving the dream with Max, his mind went right back to Max and his deep brown eyes. He couldn’t get the boy out of his head, not when he’d consumed his every thought in a way Luis would never truly be able to explain.
Still, he pushed any thoughts of Max away and focused instead on the task at hand. His friends were relying on him to help, which meant he had to wake up.
“Do you really want to wake up?” Max whispered, breaking the silence and Luis’s concentration.
“Do you?” Luis countered.
Max opened his mouth to reply, but Luis never heard what he said as the dream around him faded, including Max. It was a weird sensation, like he was falling asleep again, except it felt more abrupt. Everything went black for a moment, and when he woke up, he could hear chirps and people talking softly.
Luis lifted his head, looking around at everyone else. They seemed to be on some brightly colored platform, surrounded by a weird type of tree. He didn’t recognize it as any type of tree he knew, but he’d seen weird enough things in Wonderland for him to worry about it.
He saw Red and Chloe, curled up close to each other, not that far from him. Hazel was, unsurprisingly, glaring at them from where she was sitting next to Felix. The two of them seemed to be the voices he had heard before as they occasionally whispered something to each other. The Smees were still sleeping soundly, snuggled together at Hazel’s feet, and Pink and Robbie weren’t far either, the former already standing up and looking around, stunned.
He felt something move on his chest and looked, immediately flushing when he realized Max was lying on him. They caught each other's gaze and scrambled away, both blushing. Max glanced over to the other VKs, none of whom were paying attention to them, luckily, and Luis quickly stood up. He rubbed the back of his neck as he made his way over to Pink, kicking Robbie on the way to wake him up.
“Where are we?” He muttered, looking around.
Robbie began to stir, blinking in confusion as he looked at their surroundings. “Where are we?” He asked.
“My gosh, I’m even cuter tiny!” Pink exclaimed. Luis froze as her words sank in, and he looked around again, realizing the plants around him that he’d previously called trees were actually huge blades of grass. He jumped as a giant butterfly flew past him, its shadow covering the entire platform they were on. Pink’s smile only widened as she exclaimed, “Oh! Hi, Tabitha!”
Robbie scrambled to his feet, staring at Pink like she was insane. “It’s huge!”
Luis looked around as everyone else stood up, varying degrees of shock on their faces. He noticed that Red and Chloe stood a lot closer together than they had yesterday, but he pushed that observation away, trying to focus on the problem in front of him.
“We’re toast,” Felix muttered, hopelessly.
The Smees looked at each other and spoke in sync. “Literally,” they exclaimed.
Hazel rolled her eyes at their antics and pointed her hook at a flower at the edge of the board. “Smees, go climb that flower to get a better look!” She yelled at them.
“Aye-aye!” Squirmy saluted her, dragging his brother over the flower. They both approached it cautiously, something that surprised Luis considering he’d always seen them rush into things without a second thought. They whispered something to each other, and one of them- Luis was pretty sure it was Squeaky- went even closer to the flower, heading over to its stem, likely to try and climb it.
Hazel watched them closely, letting out a small sound of surprise as she watched them actually think for once. Luis let out a small chuckle at her expression, and she turned to him, glaring. He stopped laughing immediately, freezing as she motioned her hook across her neck.
To his surprise, Max rolled his eyes and stopped his best friend, muttering something in her ear that made her turn away from Luis. A warm feeling grew in his chest, and he couldn’t stop the small smile from growing on his face.
Unfortunately, the smile didn’t last long, as Squeaky let out a yell and everyone looked back at the twins. The flower had somehow changed colors, turning into a deep purple with not-so-friendly teeth. Squeaky, being the closest, seemed to be the flower's first target, and he barrelled into his brother in an attempt to get away.
“Hey!” Squirmy shouted, helping himself and Squeaky back up. “Leave my brother alone!” He shouted at the flower. Its only response was to roar in his face, causing him to freeze in fear. Luckily, Squeaky seemed to gain some confidence and pulled the two of them back over to the others before the flower could eat them.
“Okay,” Robbie started. “I’ve got an aggressively hot tip. We stay on the board.”
All the VKs groaned in unison, and even Red rolled her eyes. Luis exchanged a look with Max, who looked exasperated.
“Uh-oh.” A voice rang out from the bushes, sounding like it had come from every direction, and everyone immediately started looking for the owner of said voice. “Looks like you’re trapped.”
Max gasped, staring at the bushes in front of him. Luis followed his gaze, watching as a purple and orange creature appeared partially in the plants, a mischievous look on its face. “Chessy,” Max muttered, his tone sour and face firm.
Chessy laughed at Max’s words. “Aww, so the young Hatter does remember me.” The creature came more into view, and Luis realized that it was an extremely large cat. “I was worried you wouldn’t.” She turned her attention away from Max and looked at everyone else. “I’m here to tell you that you’re all pawns in Maddox’s game. It’s simple. If you ever wanna get off this board, you need to capture the king.” She paused, smiling menacingly. “Unless you’re captured first.”
“So we’re literally pawns,” Felix muttered sarcastically. “How creative.”
Chessy shot him a glare before continuing as if there’d never been an interruption. “Make your move,” She warned. “Tick-ity tock-ity. Time's running out.” She disappeared without another word, leaving them all standing around without an idea of what to do.
“He’s challenging us to a game of chess,” Max thought out loud. “Line up on the squares. We have to accept his challenge.” He raised his voice, addressing everyone.
Luis immediately jumped into action, moving towards one of the squares. “Come on,” He shouted at the others, directing them. “Red, you go there. Chloe, there. Robbie… Perfect.”
As soon as they had all lined up along the edge of the chessboard, it began to rumble, the entire board shaking as purple magic rushed past them. Luis ducked down, covering his face with his arm and attempting to keep his balance. When he looked up again, there were a bunch of knights standing on the opposite side of the board, ready to challenge them. Max, who was standing right next to him, sighed.
Chloe stepped forward slightly, not leaving her square but drawing attention to herself. “Chess is all about strategy,” She explained. “The classic first move is pawn to E-”
Red laughed, interrupting the girl right next to her. “I don’t think Maddox cares much about strategy, Chloe.” Chloe looked slightly downcast at her words, but nodded silently anyway.
“Normally I’d agree with you, Chloe, but this is my dad,” Max groaned. “Knowing him, he’s rigged the entire thing.
“So if we’re gonna defeat Maddox,” Red started. “We gotta think like a villain.”
“Well, thanks for that brilliant observation, Captain Obvious,” Hazel drawled.
Luis quickly jumped in before any of the girls could start at each other's throats again. “So what do you recommend?” He asked, directing his question to Max. Max seemed surprised to be asked to lead, but he swallowed and stepped forward slightly.
“Alright, everyone, listen up.”