Francesca, The Great and Terrible: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance

by JB Trepagnier

  Dorothy was hysterically sobbing, and I could tell Locasta just wanted to smack her in the face, but was maintaining the façade of a sweet old lady. Dorothy couldn’t see it, but I could. Locasta had her arm around Dorothy, and she was sobbing into Locasta’s shoulder. Locasta was looking over her head with this sour look on her face.

  I tried not to giggle when Galen’s hex bag must have started working. Locasta didn’t wear a corset. The strap of her bra slipped off her shoulder as she tried to comfort Dorothy. Locasta scowled and hauled it up on her shoulder. Dorothy started wailing, and Locasta’s strap slipped again when she went to rub Dorothy’s shoulder.

  Right then, a fly flew through the open window and started buzzing around her face. Locasta swatted at the fly and was trying to regain her composure. I was wondering if that was a regular fly or one of Gugu’s flies. Locasta let go of Dorothy.

  “Now, now, girl. You’re much older than the last time you were here. Dry those tears. You can stay with me in the North while we figure out how to get you home.”

  “Can I stay in Emerald City while you figure it out? All my friends are there, and I’m so lonely here.”

  Locasta looked like she was ready to punch Dorothy in the face, but she quickly hid it. “I don’t make many trips to Emerald City, girl. I’m an old lady.”

  “I know! I don’t want to put you out. Couldn’t I stay in Emerald City, and when you figure out how to get me home, I could come back to you? Oh, please. I’m so lonely, and I actually know people in Emerald City. I’ve made friends there.”

  “I suppose so, dear. Why don’t you stay the night, and I’ll get you back to Emerald City tomorrow?”

  Locasta looked like that was the last thing she wanted to do. I had a feeling if Dorothy stayed the night, she’d be staying in the North permanently. She’d end up in that jail like Glinda was. Dorothy needed to find a way out of this. She was clever. She could do this, right?

  “Could I go back tonight? I’m supposed to play a game of Pink Ladies with my friends.”

  Locasta couldn’t help it. “Pink Ladies?” she practically shrieked. She cleared her throat and composed herself. “Yes, of course. You want to be with your friends. I insist you stay for dinner. We dress a certain way in the North. Why don’t you have my servant here take you to go get changed and clean up? We’ll meet for dinner in an hour.”

  Fuck. Dorothy couldn’t get out of that. We wanted to get in and out without casting suspicion on Emerald City. We wanted Locasta confused. We wanted her wondering if it was Emerald City or the South that rescued Glinda. She wouldn’t attack until she was sure. She didn’t have the numbers to attack both.

  “Can I have a tour of the North first? It’s so beautiful here. I’d love to see outside the castle. I only got to see the path here. I’d love to explore the shops and street carts. Maybe I’ll like it and want to stay.”

  Locasta’s eyes glittered with a feral glint. She wanted Dorothy in the North more than anything, and it was going to make her careless.

  “Yes, of course. I’ll have my best men give you a tour.”

  It wasn’t going to be hard. Gugu told us the best time to attack. The streets were packed at this hour. We just needed to disappear into the crowd and get to an alley to teleport to Gugu. I hated that part of the plan. I wanted to teleport to the jail and help my friends.

  I didn’t like this. This was too easy. If this was too easy for me, it meant my friends were going to have problems. I hadn’t heard any alarms, and no one had come to get Locasta, but I trusted my gut.

  And my gut said when one part of a dangerous mission seemed to easy, shit was about to get really bad.

  Chapter 26

  Idris

  I

  didn’t like this. We were separated. It was always Francesca, Oprix, and I together. Oprix and I were part of one rescue team, and Francesca was guarding Dorothy. I didn’t trust Locasta. I knew Francesca could handle herself, but I was worried about Dorothy. She’d gotten better with the staff, and she seemed to have gotten braver, but she was going up against a centuries-old sorceress.

  We were waiting for a sign to move in. We wanted eyes off Emerald City. We wanted Locasta confused if it was the South or Emerald City that broke her out. As soon as Dorothy disappeared into the palace, we moved into place. None of us had invisibility potion on because we didn’t want to hurt each other. We teleported with Gugu’s potion to just outside the jail and hid behind some bushes.

  Shira strutted out in front of the jail. From the outside, it didn’t look like a jail. It looked like a castle. Shira said the entire first floor had been converted to cells. I would give it to Shira. She may be a wolf, but she could strut and taunt like a Flying Monkey. She struck a pose right where the guard could see her.

  “Hey, asshole. How is that bite on your arse doing?”

  “You bitch! I had to get stitched up. Guards! The wolf came back for seconds.”

  Shira snarled. “Seconds? I believe I was the one that kicked your ass last time.”

  I wasn’t in my monkey form. None of the Flying Monkeys were. We didn’t want anyone tipping Locasta and the Fisher King off the Flying Monkeys had been a part of this breakout. They’d wonder who we were. We didn’t look like anyone in Oz with our long, dark hair and coffee-colored skin. They’d want to know who we were, but Zusim confessed Glinda hadn’t figured out my secret because our cloaking dropped when we shifted. She knew our secret because she had a Flying Monkey for a mate. She just straight up lied to me to keep her kids safe.

  The guards in that prison must have really wanted Shira back, or she had really pissed them off on her way out. They all came spilling out with nets, blowguns with darts, and bows. We were waiting behind a hedge with our own weapons. We wanted as many of them out in the open as possible, but we didn’t know how well trained they were.

  Shira was just supposed to get their attention and run, but I saw her brace herself for a fight. She wasn’t here for a rescue. She was here for blood. Fuck. She was going to blow this entire thing or, worse, get herself killed. She was surrounded by soldiers, and I saw one aim his bow at her. I shot a dart at his neck before he could let his arrow fly.

  One of the tigers with us just growled. “I knew Shira was too hot-headed for this. We’ll have to attack now, or they’ll kill her.”

  We went charging out from behind our hedge. Shira was like a mad wolf. She was dodging arrows and darts and going straight for throats. Her muzzle was coated in blood and flesh. She was woefully outnumbered, and I had no idea what the fuck she was thinking. She took a dart to the hindquarter and went down by the time we got to her.

  I had to snap a man’s neck to keep him from putting an arrow in her while she was down. It was a total bloodbath. We could have done this from the bushes with arrows and darts, and Shira didn’t have to get hurt. One of the bears scooped her up and carried her away from the fight. She must have really pissed those soldiers off because they kept trying to shoot the bear in the back like cowards.

  I was trying to fight men, but I was also keeping an eye on Oprix and Galen. I’d trained with Oprix, and I knew he could handle himself. Galen grew up in a cave, and I knew the Fisher King wouldn’t have taught him to fight because he wanted him docile and not able to fight back when the Fisher King was abusing him. Galen was good with the staff. Not traditionally trained, but he had his own moves and could handle himself.

  I focused on the soldiers that kept spilling out of the jail and kept my eye out for darts. The Flying Monkeys and I were smashing faces and snapping necks. Galen and Oprix were bashing skulls with their staff. Daxar used a sword like Francesca and was running people through. Frabess had already sent word to her family and was still in the hedge trying to protect us with magic and hexing soldiers if they tried to come up behind us. The lions and tigers were ripping out throats with teeth and claws. The bears were sending men flying with a swipe of their paw.

  That’s not to say we were totally kicking their asses. Luc
kily, the soldiers had given up with the darts because they needed to defend themselves, but they had swords in addition to their bows. I’d been nicked a few times dodging blows, and some of these cuts were going to need stitching. Oprix had a black eye, and Galen’s lip was bleeding everywhere. I think we were all bleeding, but at least we weren’t dead. I thought the bear might have gotten Shira away to safety. At least, I hoped he did. She was a complete idiot and risked a pregnant woman’s life and the lives of all the people in that jail for her revenge, but I didn’t want her to die.

  I snapped a neck after taking another nick to my bare arm. I realized how quiet it had gotten. We were alone amid a sea of dead bodies. No one else had come out the jail.

  Kazax raised his fist. “There still could be soldiers lying in wait inside. They could have trained for this. Don’t let your guard down. They could have notified another general or Locasta by enchanted parchment. It would be foolish to have a jail like this and not have breach protocol.”

  Galen stepped forward. I only knew it was Galen because he was the only other person dressed in yellow. He’d been borrowing Oprix’s clothes since he didn’t have many. He’d glamoured himself for this fight, so no one reported to Locasta he was here, and his father found out he was still alive. Galen looked like a Winkie farmer, and it was just weird because I was used to his green hair by now.

  Frabess finally stepped from behind the hedge. “There’s magical wards and alarms on the jail. I think I know what cell Glinda is in. I can feel strong wards coming from a cell in the back, and there’s a magic dampening ward. It has to be hers.”

  “Lead me to it,” Zusim demanded.

  Zusim looked like he was on the verge of panic. He was so close to getting his mate and child back, but none of us knew what was on the other side of that door. We were all banking on the Fisher King wanting Glinda’s child, so he hadn’t drained her magic yet and killed her. Locasta wouldn’t have killed her either because it would have pissed off the Fisher King.

  We could be totally wrong. Things had gone wrong the last time we came to the North, and this rescue had already started off badly because Shira didn’t run like she was supposed to. Zusim wanted inside that jail. I think we all did. We wanted to get everyone inside out because I suspected they had been tortured before they were killed.

  Kazax insisted on going first, and he was right. There were more soldiers waiting to ambush us, but not many. Kazax left one man alive. He had the most decoration on his uniform. Kazax threw him into one of the cells and strapped him into a chair that screamed it was only ever used for torture.

  “What’s your breach protocol? Does Locasta know we are here?”

  The man smiled through bloodied teeth. “Stick around and find out.”

  Zusim had already disappeared with Frabess to locate Glinda. I stayed with Kazax because we needed information from this man. Galen appeared with a piece of parchment.

  “He warned Locasta Shira was back and he warned her we were outside the jail. The last message from her was asking if he could handle the threat or she needed to send more men. Let me just answer her it’s taken care of.”

  “Wait,” Kazax said. “If you value your life, you’ll answer if you speak in code to Locasta.”

  “We are all trained to die in the service of our queen. I refuse to help you break all of these traitors out.”

  Kazax just rolled his eyes. “Locasta sure did a number on you. Galen, just send a message the traitors are still contained, and it’s been handled.”

  Kazax snapped the man’s neck, and we turned our attention to the rest of the jail. There weren’t a lot of prisoners here. The bears had a few talking animals in their arms and two Gillikins that were sedated. Zusim came back holding Glinda. It looked like they had tried to demoralize Glinda while they had her.

  Glinda always had beautiful gowns on, and she was always put together. Someone had changed her into what looked like a potato sack with neck and armholes cut, and it looked like she hadn’t been allowed to bathe since they took her. She was sedated too. She was passed out in Zusim’s arms, and he looked furious.

  Kazax eyed the group. “Is that everyone in these cells? If so, we need to get back to the Forest of Gugu before we are noticed. I don’t trust that parchment is not coded, and Locasta won’t know from Galen’s message her soldiers are dead. Everyone get outside the jail and use Gugu’s teleportation power to get back to the forest.”

  As soon as we were all outside, I saw a cloud of purple smoke appearing, which meant we were about to have company.

  “Teleport now!” I yelled.

  I threw Gugu’s potion at my feet. I saw Locasta and the rest of her army appear before I teleported out. They let loose a volley of arrows, and I just got out of there in time. Our group all appeared back in Gugu’s courts, but Galen collapsed as soon as he arrived.

  There was an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Francesca was going to lose her shit if he died, and he was our only lead to information on the Fisher King. I ran over to Galen, and he was white as a sheet.

  “Galen’s been hit!” I yelled.

  Gugu seemed to know a lot about everything. He had magic we didn’t. Could Gugu’s magic heal Galen? Where the fuck was Francesca and Dorothy? They should have been back by now. If I had to go back into Uptown and kill Locasta because it was my mate she had this time, I didn’t care what that meant for this war with the Fisher King.

  I would rescue Francesca before she looked like what they had done to Glinda.

  Chapter 27

  Frankie

  I

  couldn’t tell if I thought Locasta was really crafty or really stupid. She’d managed to sidestep Dorothy at every turn so we couldn’t exit gracefully. Locasta was intent on keeping Dorothy in the North. The soldier she sent to escort us had so much decoration on his jacket, I had to wonder if he was her most highly decorated soldier. If she was sending her highest-ranking soldier to escort an eighteen-year-old girl through the streets, then I could only hope everything at the jail was going well.

  The soldier insisted on holding Dorothy’s arm like he was a gentleman, but I knew it was to keep track of her in the busy street. I knew what his orders were without having to overhear them. It was going to be harder to lose him than I thought. He was holding Dorothy so close to his side, if Ozma saw it, she’d break his arm.

  Ozma was pretty pissed she was being left in the Forest of Gugu for all of this. She wasn’t skilled enough in fighting to go to the jail, and she didn’t know enough about magic just yet to come with me to protect Dorothy. It took our entire group to convince her that as the last living ruler to Oz with that little training, she’d have to sit this battle out and train harder when we got back.

  I needed to do something. Our plan to lose him in the streets wasn’t working. I thought the Gillikins would fear the soldiers, but they were all friendly with them and respected them. As we walked through the street, they parted for him with respect, tipped their hats, and gave him a friendly hello. Locasta had really hoodwinked the entire North. Did the Gillikins even know what those soldiers were doing behind their backs?

  That was when I remembered. Galen gave me two of those hex bags, and the first one seemed to give Locasta all kinds of bad luck. I was hoping some of that bad luck rubbed off on her jail too. I slipped the hex bag into the rucksack he had strapped across his back.

  The hex bag worked instantly. He tripped over his own big feet and face planted right in the middle of the street. Thankfully, he didn’t take Dorothy down with him. She managed to get her arm free as he was flailing to stay upright. The Gillikins all surrounded the soldier to see if he was okay and help him to his feet.

  I pulled Dorothy into a small, deserted alley and handed her Gugu’s teleportation powder. Unlike the one I was used to, it didn’t cause a big cloud of purple smoke that would give you away. Gugu’s powder was discreet enough that we could use it in this alley, and the soldier would have no idea we teleported away. He wou
ld just think Dorothy was lost in the crowd.

  I grabbed Dorothy’s hand, and we teleported back to the Forest of Gugu. We had been gone so long getting a tour of Uptown, and everyone was already back from the jail. Everyone was waiting for us, and my boyfriends were beside themselves. They practically tackled us when we arrived.

  “Did we do it? Is everyone safe?”

  “Francesca, I don’t know how to tell you this,” Idris said.

  I looked around. I knew that look on his face. We lost someone. I didn’t see Galen. Should I have made Galen stay behind too? Was this my fault?

  “Where is Galen, Idris?”

  “He’s alive, Francesca. He took an arrow to the shoulder as we were teleporting out. Gugu is trying to heal him now. We got everyone out.”

  I breathed a sigh. I’d been trained on healing too. Magic wouldn’t heal wounds, but I knew how to make poultices and tonics. I looked at Idris’ bare chest, and he was bleeding. I’d have to stitch him up in several places and make a healing poultice for him too. I checked Oprix. He didn’t have any deep cuts, but his eye was almost swollen shut. Why was no one tending to the wounded? I was sure they weren’t the only ones.

  “What is everyone doing? Galen took an arrow, Idris needs stitching, and Oprix needs something for that eye.”

  Idris grabbed me and squeezed me. “We aren’t the worst off, Francesca. They were torturing people in that jail. It looked like they were keeping Glinda fed, but messing with her mind. The two Gillikin we fetched are near death. We think the Fisher King has been slowly draining their magic. Frabess said she knows them, and they practice bad magic. It’s how Locasta is keeping up the pretense of the jail while letting the Fisher King drain magic. The talking animals have been cut up and tortured.”