Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1)

by JB Trepagnier

  “Why the fuck are you staring?” she demanded with her hands on her hips.

  Oh, she needed a lesson so badly, and it wasn’t what Glinda wanted me to teach her. I rose to my feet and circled her. I was much taller than she was, but she wasn’t afraid of me. From what was reported to me, she was good with a sword and put a Flying Monkey on his back with the staff today. She could easily best me in a fight and wasn’t scared of me. But she was breathing harder the closer I circled her. Nervousness? Desire? I was having some sort of effect on her.

  “You’ll address me with respect, or you won’t sit comfortably for a week. Understand?”

  I expected an argument. None of the other regions used the same form of punishment as the Quadlings. None of the other regions enjoyed it as certain Quadlings did. I could read her like the back of my hand. She’d like it if we ever went there.

  But she didn’t argue. “I’m here for a lesson, not a fight.”

  Ah, but I wanted a little fight. Pity. Maybe teaching her to master her emotions would come easily her, despite her past.

  “You have a temper on you,” I said, pressing myself against her back. I wanted a reaction from her so badly.

  “So? You’re the headmaster. Do something about Dorothy and those fucking Munchkins, and we won’t have a problem.”

  “So, a temper and that foul mouth of yours are not assets for a Sentinel. If you have to step in and broker peace with two families and one side is acting up, do you intend to punch them in the face and curse them out?”

  She just scoffed. “Are you suggesting I attempt to talk to Dorothy and all those Munchkins who have hunted my poor cousin since she was just a child?”

  I put my hands on her shoulders and stroked her soft green skin with my thumb. Why wasn’t she breaking my hands? She broke into goosebumps.

  “I’m suggesting you just ignore them and complete your training. Figure out how to fix this mess, and the Munchkins will make it right with your cousin. Dorothy is not from Oz. We don’t know why she keeps ending up here, but she doesn’t belong here. She’ll eventually go back home when we figure out how to get her across the deadly desert that surrounds Oz.”

  “Would you ignore the person who murdered your mother?”

  “It’s not all black and white, Francesca. A spell had been cast over Oz, and everyone believed your mother to be evil. Dorothy was just a child who was told by the dictator most likely responsible for that spell that the only way she could get home was by killing your mother. Children don’t see options. They do what they are told. Dorothy was told to see the Wizard, so she did. The Wizard told her there was only one-way home, so she took it.”

  I finally got my reaction. She whirled away from me and glared at me. “Is that supposed to make me feel better about it? Locasta knew what kind of man the Wizard was when she told Dorothy to go there. Glinda could have gotten involved way before that.”

  That damned geas prevented me from saying or remembering a damned thing. There was something important that I needed to remember why Glinda only got involved at the last minute and why Dorothy ended up at the Wizard in the first place. She saw the look on my face and knew right away.

  “She put a geas on all the staff here, didn’t she? You know what’s going on, but you can’t tell me. I’m going to find out what she is hiding. She already lied about giving the cap back to the Flying Monkeys. I’m going to find out what’s going on, Headmaster Daxar.”

  I couldn’t tell her the truth, but I could tell her this. Since she didn’t drop me when I touched her, I grabbed her shoulders again and made her look me in the eyes.

  “Glinda told all the staff the truth about what was going on. The geas is not so you don’t find out. It’s for the protection of everyone here. Dangerous things are happening in Oz. You and Saffron are the closest thing we have to fully trained Sentinels. You need to complete your training. I need you to focus, Francesca. Pay attention to anything and everything in your classes. Pay attention to your fellow students, but ignore Dorothy and her taunts. You’re too keyed up for a lesson tonight, so we will just talk. Come, sit on my sofa. Ask me whatever you like, and if I’m able, I’ll answer. I want to help you.”

  She sat right next to me on the small sofa. Her curvy thigh was touching mine, and she smelled like wildflowers. She was going to be the death of me. Glinda would murder me if she knew where my thoughts went around this girl.

  “Why are there no Gillikin students here and hardly any Winkies? Oprix came with me, but there’s only one other Winkie student here.”

  “We recruited in the West, but Nick Chopper is now Emperor of the West. The Tin Woodsman said he wanted the final say on who did and didn’t come. He’s doing more renovations to his castle, and it turned out he only wanted to spare one Winkie for our school. We asked a lot more Winkies, but Nick Chopper has a lot of servants.”

  She let out this little huff. “And they say my mother enslaved the Winkies. Oprix didn’t ask permission, but his family are outcasts because the Winkies know they took me in. What about the North? Saffron has a tutor from the North, but there are no students here.”

  I knew exactly why we had limited Winkie students and easily told Francesca. Something was going on in the North, but I couldn’t tell her or remember. I couldn’t recall why we had no Gillikin students, so something was going on in the North.

  “Everyone loves Locasta. Are you telling me you have a geas against old Tattypoo? It wouldn’t shock me if she just told Dorothy to take the shoes off my aunt’s corpse and go see the Wizard because she just didn’t know what was going on that day.”

  I tried to think, but I couldn’t talk about Locasta at all, nor could I remember why. All I could remember about Locasta was exactly what Francesca had just said. Everyone called her Tattypoo and thought of her as a loving grandmother. Why couldn’t I remember anything about Locasta except what everyone thought about her? I was regretting that geas now.

  Francesca needed someone in a position of authority here she could trust. She didn’t trust Glinda or Locasta, and none of us could help her with that trust because Glinda put a geas on us. I knew I wouldn’t have followed Glinda unless she was doing something good. If she were up to no good, I would have tried to stop her. I wouldn’t be at this school.

  “Francesca, I know I’m not giving you much to go on, and there’s a lot I can’t tell you, but I’m asking you to trust me. My goal is to get you fully trained and situated as the Sentinel of the West. The same with Saffron. Can you do that?”

  “I get the feeling you really want to use that Quadling discipline on me.”

  I threw back my head and laughed. “What if I told you there are Quadlings that enjoy it and do it in private? What if I told you I thought you’d enjoy it too?”

  Her cheeks flushed this lovely shade of pink. There was the reaction I wanted. She was thinking about it now.

  I pat her knee. “Why don’t you run off to bed? Be back after dinner tomorrow. Be ready to work hard and make sure you are ignoring Dorothy and the Munchkins from now on. If I find you in my office for another fight, I’m going to find out if I’m right, and Quadling discipline is something you really like. Now, off to bed with you.”

  Chapter 14

  Frankie

  I

  dallied on the way back to my room. Headmaster Daxar asked me to trust him, and I shouldn’t. Glinda put a geas on him, so it wasn’t like he could tell me anything I needed to know. But I did trust him. He said all he wanted was to complete my training and restore my position as Sentinel of the West. He wasn’t lying. Sentinels had ways of telling when they were being lied to, and Headmaster Daxar was telling the truth.

  I also had no idea why I reacted when he tried to dominate me. If it had been any other man, I would have knocked them out cold. He circled me like a vulture circling their prey. He laid his hands on me like I was his. I didn’t correct him because I liked it. It was different than when Idris and Oprix touched me. That was also exciting, but
it wasn’t dangerous, like when Headmaster Daxar touched me.

  I knew he wanted to spank me as the Quadlings did. I could tell as soon as I walked in the door. He didn’t like how I entered his office. I have no idea how he actually wanted me to walk in, and I didn’t know there was a wrong way to enter a room, but when he walked around his desk, he was flexing his hands like he was itching to use them on me.

  Why did that excite me? If any other man tried to come at me, I’d just kill them. No man laid a hand on me unless I wanted them to. Why did I want to see what it felt like to have Headmaster Daxar spank me? I was so confused. I took care of myself. I was in control of everything I did, except for when Oprix did things behind my back like enroll me in this school. I still could have not come if I didn’t want to. I just saw the logic in being here, so I came. Why did Headmaster Daxar make me want to surrender control to him?

  I had totally forgotten I had invited Emari and Emarus to our rooms until I got there later than I was supposed to, and Idris and Oprix were entertaining them. Saffron had finally come out of her bedroom and was sitting with everyone with her hair out of her face. It looked like she was trying to contribute to the conversation too.

  They were Quadlings. Maybe they knew Headmaster Daxar and could help me figure that man out. Now that they knew his secret, Idris was lounging on the sofa as a man. I plopped in between Oprix and Idris. I always felt safe between the two of them.

  “Do the two of you know Headmaster Daxar? I have private lessons with him, but I can’t figure him out.”

  “Daxar is good people. His family used to govern the South, and they were always fair to us. Daxar was only governor two months before the Wizard got rid of all the governors and made himself the supreme ruler. He still helped the South behind the scenes. It was him that asked Glinda to save our mother. He was always active with the people and helping out when he could. He brought food to people if they fell ill and brought help if it was out of his league. He’s a good person for headmaster of this school.”

  That sounded like someone I could trust. I felt in my gut I could trust him, but hearing that sounded like someone I could trust my training to. There was just one last thing I needed to ask about.

  “Tell me about Quadling discipline. He mentioned it, and it’s not like that in the West.”

  Emarus frowned. “How do you handle things in the West when people act up?”

  “We work the fields or clean the house,” Oprix said. “What do you do in Quadling country?”

  “Someone brings the rod or their hand down on your bottom. For adult criminals, it’s more severe. They have whips.”

  I had to ask, even though I knew it was going to piss Oprix and Idris off. “He said some people in the South like that.”

  Emari just nodded. “They have establishments there in certain parts of town if you are into that sort of thing. I’ve never been. I’m not really into that. I tried to avoid it growing up.”

  Idris wasn’t mad like I thought. He actually thought it was funny. Idris could make a joke out of everything.

  “Glinda strikes me as being all prim and proper. She probably doesn’t even curse. Does she allow clubs in the South where people can go get off on that? That’s kinky. Glinda strikes me as the type to put a stop to that.”

  Emari just laughed. “We are kind of live and let live in the South. As long as you aren’t breaking the law or hurting someone against their will, no one cares, and no one judges. Those clubs are pretty discreet and have a vetting process, but no one cares if your secret gets out. Quadlings aren’t judgmental like the Munchkins.”

  Oprix slung his arm around my shoulder. “Neither are the Winkies. Did he tell you why there’s no one from Gillikin here?”

  I rested my head on his shoulder and sighed. “All of the professors here have a geas on them. They couldn’t tell me what they knew even if they wanted to. Glinda was the one who set the geas, so only she can break it. Headmaster Daxar said it was for everyone’s protection.”

  “Can we talk about something else?” Saffron said. “I feel like all we do is talk about plots and Glinda. Could we please just talk about something different for tonight?”

  If she was willing to talk, I was willing to listen. I smiled at her. “What did you want to talk about tonight, Saffron?”

  She just shrugged. Emari perked up. “I’ve never seen such beautiful skin and hair before. Where are both of you from?”

  We both just shrugged. Neither of us knew how we ended up looking so different than the rest of Oz, just that our family had always looked this way. It didn’t use to be a bad thing. Men used to vie for the attention of women in our family. I wasn’t even thinking about the fact that I was interested in Oprix, Idris, and now Headmaster Daxar because Saffron was actually talking.

  She just shrugged. “We don’t know. We’ve always looked this way. There are rumors since Oz is a fairy country, the Quadlings, Winkies, Munchkins, and Gillikins all came from one type of fairy, and Frankie, Glinda, Locasta, and I descended from a different type of fairy. There were just fewer of them that came here, so there are more of you than there are of us.”

  Emarus struck me as being very serious, but he smiled at my cousin, and she flushed red. Did little Saffron have a crush on Emarus?

  “I think you are both beautiful as you are. Let’s play a game — enough talk about conspiracies. We’ll get into that tomorrow in history class. I want to play Pink Ladies, and I want Saffron on my team,” Emarus said, bringing a deck of cards out of his back pocket.

  I shot a look at Emari, and she gave me a curt nod. The look said if her twin hurt my cousin, I was going to break his face. It turned out I didn’t need to worry. As the night went on, Emarus kept Saffron laughing until we were all yawning. When Emarus and Emari left, I followed Saffron as she floated off to her bedroom.

  I tucked her into bed and kissed her forehead. “I think Emarus likes you.”

  She just sighed. “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

  “He is. But remember, you are a badass Sentinel, and you are awesome. You can protect yourself from those Munchkins without him.”

  Saffron giggled. “Did you see the looks on their faces when I let my arrow fly?”

  “Yeah, I thought they were going to shit their pants.”

  Saffron fell out laughing. “Yeah, they did. I thought about asking for volunteers and making Dorothy do it.”

  “Saffron!” I said, pretending to be shocked. “If you had, I would have baked you your favorite lemon cakes. Do you still like those?”

  “I love them. I don’t think they will let you in the kitchens here. The food here is good, but I doubt their lemon cakes are as good as your mothers were.”

  I stroked her forehead. “True. I’d still find a way to get you those cakes. How are you sleeping here?”

  “Better than you. I can hear you screaming at night. Why are you screaming, Frankie? Does having Oprix and Idris in there at night help?”

  “Nightmares about my mother. And yes, it helps.”

  “Oprix and Idris are in love with you, you know.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s complicated.”

  Saffron just wrinkled her nose. “Only because you’re making it so. You know some of our ancestors have had multiple husbands.”

  “Yeah, a long time ago, back when things were different. Think about it. We don’t even know who our fathers are. Our mothers didn’t get love. What makes you think we do?”

  Saffron just shrugged. “My mother told me my father was a man from Gillikin who was in the East, working on a business deal with the Munchkins. He wanted her to leave the East to come back to the North to raise me together, but she couldn’t. He couldn’t stay because he was important back in the North. I don’t know his name, but I know his story.”

  My mouth fell open. I didn’t know anything about Saffron’s father. I didn’t know a damned thing about mine either, but the story was probably the same. He wanted my mother to leave her post beca
use he thought his job was more important than hers.

  Saffron pulled the covers up to her neck. “I’m not under any grand notion I’m going to get love, but it’s not the same for you, Frankie. My father didn’t love my mother or me enough to stay in the East for us, and my mother was too important in the East to leave. You’re the Sentinel of the West, and you’ve got a Winkie and Idris who love you. Oprix isn’t going to ask you to leave anything, and neither will the Flying Monkeys. You could be happy if you’d just let yourself.”

  “Saffron, Oz is still broken. I can’t—”

  “Why not, Frankie? Our lives have been shit. Our mothers were murdered, and we’ve been kicked out of our homes. We’re here getting bullied by the girl who murdered our parents and her little Munchkin fan club. Why can’t we grab what little happiness we can?”

  Saffron was only sixteen, but when did she get so wise? I did need to grab life and happiness where I could find it. I needed to stop pushing Oprix and Idris away just because I kept telling myself I couldn’t be distracted. They didn’t distract me. They made me stronger. They always had.

  I brushed her blue hair off her forehead. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll stop pushing Oprix and Idris away if you start standing up to Dorothy and the Munchkins. You’re stronger than they are. You don’t have to beat them or curse them. Just stare them down or say something. Show them you’re the Sentinel of the East.”

  Saffron smiled shyly. “Deal. I’m not as good at it as you are.”

  I kissed her forehead. I blew out the candle and started back for my room. Before I closed the door, I turned to her.

  “You don’t have to be. Remember, they all think your mother was the Wicked Witch of the East.”

  Chapter 15