“Then we are agreed,” the fairy king said, and the Wizard smiled, matching the king’s oily grin with one of his own.
“But of course.” A flicker of uncertainty crossed the fairy’s face before vanishing again, and the Wizard smiled to himself in triumph. Not so sure of yourself now, are you? he thought.
“Then let us celebrate,” the fairy king said, “and afterward, we shall return you to the world above to begin your most noble quest.” He clapped his hands, and a parade of extraordinary creatures—lithe, beautiful girls with the bodies of human women and the heads of deer, a fat little troll in an ermine coat far too big for him, a frog the size of a man dressed in a tuxedo with tails—capered into the throne room, bearing platters of steaming dishes and a host of folding tables. Wine poured itself from floating bottles into heavy goblets of silver and gold that settled themselves onto trays, to be whisked about by mournful-looking specters as insubstantial as mist—as the Wizard saw when a fairy walked right through one of them, snatching up a wineglass as the ghostly waiter dissolved and then re-formed. The king himself served the Wizard a heaping portion of roast venison on a white china plate and drew up a folding table and a comfortable little chair before returning to his throne with a plate of his own. And though the room was full of merriment—fairies chatting, gossiping, exclaiming over this delicacy and that—they all ignored the Wizard as completely as if he were invisible, so that a miserable sense of loneliness punctuated the feast and turned the taste of the meat to ashes in his mouth.
“I had better be going,” he said aloud. No one paid him any attention as he pushed away the table and got up. Without his even reaching for it, the cane found its way to his hand. A dull, shabby corridor that bore a resemblance to the one that had led him to this awful room opened up in the wall before him. And as he stumbled down it, the Sunfruit Schnapps churned in his belly, and he wondered if he was going to be sick. As he left, the fairies’ laughter echoed behind him, high-pitched and cruel, and it rang down the hallway after him for a long time.
THIRTEEN
The climb up the stairs from the fairies’ kingdom was not as long as he remembered it, and he soon emerged, blinking, into the sunlit meadow where Pete and Iris had left him. Pete was sitting with his back against a tree, eating an apple.
“So you made your choice,” Pete said. “And you remember now what you are.”
“So I did. And yes, I do.”
They were both quiet, looking at each other.
“The fairies can be—”
“Awful?”
“I was going to say complicated,” Pete said, smiling a little, “but yes, that, too. But you have to understand, the good of Oz is what they care about most. No matter how they seem to the . . . unprepared visitor.”
“Is it,” the Wizard said. Pete looked at him, surprised, and for the first time since the Wizard had met him he looked uncertain.
“Of course,” Pete said. “That’s all any of us want. What’s best for Oz.”
“Of course,” the Wizard echoed.
“That’s why you chose this,” Pete said. “That’s why you chose to stay. To fight for what Oz once was—and will be again. We won’t fail. We’ll defeat Dorothy, and restore the balance.”
“That’s all I want,” the Wizard said smoothly, and Pete’s face collapsed into relief.
“Good,” he said. “I’m sorry I—underestimated you.” Pete took a deep breath. “Listen—I owe you an apology. All along, I expected the worst from you.”
“I can’t really blame you,” the Wizard said gently. “I did things that were unforgivable. I can hardly expect you to simply forget the past.”
“I can’t forget the past,” Pete said nobly. “But I did forget something just as important. I forgot that people can change. Even people who have done terrible things.”
“I’ve learned so much from you,” the Wizard said easily. Pete smiled, and the Wizard almost laughed. So easy to fool them; so easy to play the part of penitent revolutionary, vowing to do right by his adopted home. What would they say, Pete and the fairies, if they could see what he really wanted?
Oz had been his once, and it could be again. Not just his in name, as it had been before, but his wholly—now that he knew he had real power, now that he could access the Old Magic of Oz. He had liked the throne, liked it very much. He didn’t know why the fairies wanted the three gifts so badly, but the answer had to be their power. If he had the Old Magic, the gifts, the throne—nothing would be able to stop him. Not Dorothy, not Glinda, not a bunch of goths in black bathrobes, chain-smoking cloves underground and longing for the good old days. And Dorothy—oh yes, he remembered her. Dorothy owed him. And he was going to make her pay.
Pete took a step forward, and the long grass parted to reveal the most familiar highway in Oz: the Road of Yellow Brick. Waiting, as it always was, to take travelers to the Emerald City, no matter where their journey began. The Wizard smiled to himself. Like Dorothy had once said, there was no place like home. He found he was very much looking forward to his return.
“Are you ready?” Pete asked, taking the first step onto the golden road.
“Oh yes,” the Wizard said, tapping his cane lightly against the yellow bricks. “I am very ready indeed.”
COPYRIGHT
THE WIZARD RETURNS. Copyright © 2015 by Full Fathom Five, LLC. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © January 2015 ISBN 9780062280787
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
BACK AD
DISCOVER
your next favorite read
MEET
new authors to love
WIN
free books
WATCH
the latest videos
SHARE
infographics, lists, quizzes
SIGN UP
for bookish fun & news
* * *
epicreads.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DANIELLE PAIGE is a graduate of Columbia University and the author of Dorothy Must Die and its digital prequel novellas, No Place Like Oz, The Witch Must Burn, and The Wizard Returns. Before turning to young adult literature, she worked in the television industry, where she received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She currently lives in New York City.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
BOOKS BY DANIELLE PAIGE
Novels
Dorothy Must Die
The Wicked Will Rise
Digital Novellas
No Place Like Oz
The Witch Must Burn
The Wizard Returns
Collections
Dorothy Must Die: The Other Side of the Rainbow Collection
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East - 20th Floor
Toronto, ON M4W 1A8, Canada
www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand
Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive
Rosedale 0632
Auckland, New Zealand
www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge St
reet
London SE1 9GF, UK
www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
195 Broadway
New York, NY 10007
www.harpercollins.com
Dorothy Must Die: The Other Side of the Rainbow Collection: No Place Like Oz, Dorothy Must Die, The Witch Must Burn, The Wizard Returns, The Wicked Will Rise Page 84