He had his ultimatum, and I had mine. If we were playing this game, I had my rules too. “I’ll answer if you answer my question.”
“Sit up, Francesca. If we are discussing rules and boundaries, we need to be looking each other in the eye.”
He helped me up, and I gingerly sat on my burning ass. “Do you plan on doing this with all the female students here?”
Daxar grabbed a few of my braids and started stroking them. He was sitting much closer to me than he had before. He smelled intoxicating. My mother used to have Quadling port brought in and drank it with dinner. Daxar smelled like port and cigars. I liked his fingers on my hair too.
“I thought I made that clear, Francesca.”
“You said you thought I was the only one who needed it.”
Daxar chuckled. “I didn’t mean straight up punishment, Francesca, though you may eventually need that if you don’t start behaving. I’ve been watching you. The only thing you can’t and don’t control is your emotions, and that’s why we have private lessons to complete your training. You intrigue me. You’ve lost so much, and you just keep fighting. You’re here at this school despite what everyone thinks of you, and you’re still trying to help your cousin. I admire you, Francesca. I want to be someone you can let go of a little of your control with. I meant it when I said I wanted you to trust me. I don’t intend to do this with anyone else at this school. I only want to do this with you, but only if you enjoyed it and only if you are willing.”
That was exactly what I wanted to hear. Well, not the bits about how he seemed to read me like an open book when I’d only been at his school a few days, but if I was going to let myself do this with someone and open myself up like that, I needed to know it meant something to him too. Me doing something like this was huge for me. I was letting someone in and letting them do things to me that I would have killed anyone else for. I needed to know I wasn’t just a plaything for him, and he was going around doing this with every female student that ended up in his office. If he was doing this with Dorothy too, I could never look him in the eye again.
“I’m not stupid, Francesca. I know you are in love with the Winkie boy, and something tells me something is going on with the Flying Monkey. We both need to have rules. I want you to find love where you may. You need to set rules for me, not just that you don’t want me doing this with other students. You need to be totally honest with me. You need to let me know if you dislike something or there is something you don’t want to try. You need to decide on words. You need a word that means slow down. You aren’t sure about something. I’ll back off, and we’ll talk about it. You need a word that means stop. I’ll untie you and stop immediately.”
“Excuse me, what? Untie me?”
What in the world went on in Quadling country anyway? We only ever visited Glinda when I was a child, and she was always prim and all about manners. I always thought the South was boring before. Clearly, there was more to the South than I knew about.
“Oh, yeah. I’ll experiment with tying you down and blindfolding you if you permit me. You’re surrendering control to me in the sense that I’m the one tying you up and spanking you, but you are actually in total control the entire time. I only do what you allow, and when you say stop, I stop.”
“What do you get out of it if you’re only doing what I say?”
Daxar tilted my chin up and looked deep into my eyes. He was going to kiss me. My heart was pounding in my ears. There was something dangerous about Daxar. I was doing things with him I wouldn’t have allowed with anyone else. I’d have to tell Idris and Oprix. I always said I’d be honest with them about everything, and I wouldn’t lie to them that I was doing something like this with Daxar.
When Daxar kissed me, it wasn’t like Oprix and Idris. Idris kissed me like he had been waiting his entire life to do so. He didn’t hold back. When I enjoyed it, I just sort of attacked Oprix, and he kissed me back with equal passion.
Daxar was in total control of his kiss. His hands were tangled in my braids, and he was pulling a little. It was like he was branding me with his kiss. I felt like I was melting and my body was on fire at the same time. I snapped out of it when he bit my bottom lip pretty hard. He pulled away and grinned at me.
“I normally hex people for biting me,” I pointed out.
Daxar just winked at me. “But you liked it when I did it.”
I was so dead. He was right. I did. What was this man doing to me, and what had I just agreed to?
Chapter 17
Idris
F
rancesca had been gone too long. I’d never met the mysterious headmaster of Emerald City Academy, which was pretty shocking. If someone was bound to get in trouble and end up there, by rights, it should have been me. I only saw him when he tackled Francesca and dragged her away the first day. I’d been going nuts trying to control myself, so I didn’t get kicked out and wouldn’t be here to protect Francesca and Saffron. There were some Munchkins, and one girl from a strange town called Kans-ass that were deserving of some pretty epic Flying Monkey style justice, and that wouldn’t fly here.
I was pacing our rooms with Oprix. Emari and Emarus were with us trying to calm us down. Well, Emarus was all up Saffron’s ass, and I was happy for her. Saffron managed to give Dorothy and those Munchkins some Francesca level stink eye instead of hiding behind her hair when Dorothy was kissing ass because she knew something about the Fisher King.
I had no idea what Glinda was doing either. Francesca had every right to question her. Why was she bringing up fiction stories from Kans-ass instead of teaching everyone Sentinel history? She canceled class until we found something out too. It wasn’t like anyone was going to be able to find out anything about a book character from a non-fairy land anyway.
“I’m going to get her,” I said.
I’d been pacing too long, and I remembered what Francesca said about Quadlings whipping people for misbehaving. The Flying Monkeys did too. There was a gilded rod they used to beat you when you were bad. It was generally accepted that Flying Monkeys caused mayhem. Mayhem was fine. You just didn’t want to do anything that hurt someone, or you’d get the rod. I worried about Headmaster Daxar had been beating her this entire time.
Emari stood up and put her hand on my shoulder. Emari was tall, like Glinda. A lot of the Quadlings were very tall. Emari was tall and slim with flaming red hair. Emarus was practically my size. Saffron wasn’t small and curvy like Francesca. Saffron wasn’t as tall as a Quadling or as short as a Munchkin. She was her own person like Francesca was. Saffron was willowy and fast, like her bow. She paired well with Emarus, who was solid and looked like he could handle himself in a fight.
“Daxar isn’t hurting her. Quadling discipline is only done on children unless you are an adult who asks for it. Frankie is too old for him to discipline her that way. They are probably just arguing about that horrible history lesson. How are we supposed to find out about a book character where Dorothy is from?”
Saffron just scowled. “It’s not like any of us can ask Dorothy for more information. Those Munchkins around her would think I was trying to kill her and make me hurt them.”
Emarus got a little bold and slung his arm around her shoulder. “I wish you would. They are pretty awful to you and your cousin.”
Saffron sighed. I had no idea if it was because Emarus had his arm around her shoulder or if it was just because the Munchkins were horrible little people who had been trying to murder her since she was a kid.
“I can’t lay a finger on a single Munchkin until someone figures out the spell that made everyone forget the Sentinels. The East is one of the most heavily populated areas in Oz, aside from Emerald City. I can’t have that many Munchkins after my head because I hurt one of them.”
“Why do you think Frankie has been gone so long?” Oprix asked. “She likes to argue, but she wouldn’t with Daxar if he has a geas on him. It’s not like she could get him to slip up and say anything.”
“Daxar c
ould be the one arguing with her. Glinda clearly has some sort of plan. Daxar is a good man, and he wouldn’t have agreed to come here if it was a bad one. Maybe he’s trying to convince Frankie just to be patient,” Emari said.
Just then, there was a knock at our door. It wasn’t Francesca. She would have just walked in. There was a servant at the door saying Headmaster Daxar wanted to see me. Oprix jumped up to join me. We both thought Francesca was hurt, and we needed to bring her back to her room. How a Quadling could hurt her was beyond me, but anything was possible here.
“Just the Flying Monkey,” the servant said. “No one else.”
Oprix just growled. “If Frankie is harmed in any way, I’ll kill him.”
“Francesca left his office twenty minutes ago. He said to tell you he gave her an assignment to train with her sword in the gardens for an hour to center herself. Alone. This is part of her training. Now, come along. Headmaster Daxar doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
I stomped off behind the servant. Why hadn’t Francesca sent word she’d be training? We’d been worried sick. What the fuck did Daxar want with me? It was endless stair climbing to get to his office. The school was this towering building, and his office was on the twentieth floor. If I had actually known where I was going, I would have just flown up to the window instead of using the stairs.
The servant gave this meek little knock, and I heard a commanding voice telling her to enter. I thought I knew exactly what was going on when both Glinda and Daxar were waiting for me, and that cursed cap was sitting on the table. I knew damned well they didn’t intend to give it back to me. They intended to use me.
Daxar was sitting behind a huge desk, and Glinda was towering behind him with her hand on his chair. Glinda didn’t have a geas on her, so maybe I’d actually find out what was going on.
I glared at the cap. I couldn’t help it. “Isn’t that the cap you promised to give back after your wishes were done?”
“I still intend to honor my promise, but my wishes aren’t done yet. I’ve merely passed them to Daxar. I hate that the Flying Monkeys are chained to this cap, but Oz needs you, and I don’t know how to break the curse on it.”
“Then why am I here, and why haven’t you used it?”
“The cap only has three wishes, and I have you here. I’m going to ask you for a favor without using the cap to make you do it.”
I just laughed in her face. “What makes you think I’ll do anything you ask? You didn’t give the cap back, you’re keeping my family in slavery, you made this school for some sort of farce no one knows about, and you aren’t being honest with Francesca and Saffron about why their mothers are both dead. You aren’t doing a damned thing about Dorothy harassing them either.”
“Because what I ask you to do protects Francesca and Saffron. I have to reveal what is going on very carefully because I don’t know who is watching and listening. I’m on your side, Idris. All I want is for things to go back to how they were before the Wizard got here, and that spell was cast. The Wizard wasn’t the one who cast that spell. He had no magic. He was a fraud. Someone very powerful cast that spell. If it was who I think it was, then we are all in danger.”
“What exactly do you think I can do? I’m only one Flying Monkey.”
“I want you to find a boy.”
“Will any boy do? There’s some Munchkins here I’d like to see some harm come to.”
“This boy is not a Munchkin, a Quadling, a Gillikin, or a Winkie. He’s not anyone from Emerald City.”
“Holy shit, are more people from Kans-ass getting in? Does Dorothy know him?”
Glinda sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “You’re a mouthy little thing, aren’t you? I was getting to that. He’s from a fairyland. He’s been spotted around Emerald City. He has green hair. I don’t think I have to tell you what that means.”
The Quadlings all had red hair, the Winkies were blonde, the Munchkins had black hair, and everyone in Gillikin was a brunette. The only people I knew with colorful hair were Sentinels. Even Glinda’s red hair was a brighter shade of red than the rest of the Quadlings. It was a shade of red not found in nature like the Quadling’s hair. No one knew what color Locasta’s hair was. She’d been cursed to look like an old lady for the longest time, everyone only knew her as having white hair.
Oz was a fairyland. There were all these theories that the different groups in Oz were either created by fairies or descended from fairies and that’s why all the different regions shared traits. No one knew why the Sentinels looked different from the rest of Oz. Not even Francesca could tell you why her skin was green, and Saffron’s skin was bronze. Glinda’s skin was milk-white and Locasta always had this red look about her like her face was flushed.
If this boy had green hair, then where the fuck did he come from? None of the Sentinels had green hair unless Locasta’s hair was once green. Locasta didn’t have any children. She was cursed when she was seventeen and never married. I’m not even sure she could have children in the body she had now. Francesca and Saffron both took after their mothers, so it made sense if Glinda had a child, he would have bright red hair as she did.
“You’re going to have to give me a little more information than that. Oz is surrounded by a deadly desert, and there’s no one else here with green hair. If I’m looking for a boy with green hair, I want to know where he came from if he’s a danger to Francesca.”
“There was a woman once, a long time ago. She made a great sacrifice to save Oz. She might have had green hair, but there’s no way she could have had a son, and if she did, he couldn’t be skulking around Emerald City.”
“Is that all you are going to give me?”
“It’s not safe to talk about. Find the boy and help Francesca find out about the Fisher King.”
I shrugged. I was done playing her game with the book character. The boy was more of a threat right now. At least he was real.
“When I find him, do you want him dead or alive?”
“Alive if you can. I have questions for him. Be careful. It’s possible he’s learned strong magic by now.”
“Where was he last seen?”
“Someone reported seeing flashes of green in the bushes during your fight training lesson. I think he’s watching Francesca and Saffron.”
I growled. “Do I have to take him alive?”
“Yes, because if he is who I think he is, he’s not the evil we need to be worried about. I know your secret, Idris. I know what the Flying Monkeys can do now. Francesca may have warded you from me, but did you know they slip when you shift from man to monkey? I knew every time you came to Oz to spy. I told the man at your favorite food stall to tell you about the school. Francesca has her spies, and I have mine. I’ll keep your secret if you keep this boy from her.”
“I tell Francesca everything. Why would I lie to her about the green-haired boy if he’s watching her?” I growled.
“Because Francesca and Saffron are where they need to be right now. They have tutors helping them complete their Sentinel training. They are both safe at this school. Let them learn as much of their training as they can before we send them into this fight. It’s not safe, Idris. You came here to protect Francesca. I’m sure you thought you were protecting her from me. I’m not your enemy here. I want the same thing all of you do, for Oz to go back to how it was before the Wizard got here. He had help with the spell that turned us all into Good and Wicked Witches. It should be impossible, but I have an idea of who helped him. The green-haired boy shouldn’t exist. Find him and bring him to me. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to involve Francesca.”
I hated it. I hated keeping secrets from her. We’d always told each other everything. I knew Francesca could handle herself. She had strong magic, and she was a deadly fighter. I had to make a decision. She’d be mad at me. She’d yell and rage. She’d probably punch me in the face.
I’d take it. I decided to keep the green-haired boy from her until I’d caught up with h
im and questioned him myself. Glinda didn’t say I had to bring him directly to her. I intended to knock him around a bit and find out why he was watching my girlfriend and her cousin. It was creepy, skulking around in the bushes watching her like that.
I had my own questions for him. I’d deliver him to Glinda as she wanted after I’d gotten my answers. Glinda and I were going to have a problem if she didn’t let Francesca and Saffron be the ones to deal with him.
No one creeped on those two girls and got away with it. But I knew Francesca, and I knew Saffron. They could deal with him on their own once Glinda found out what he was up to.
Chapter 18
Frankie
W
hatever had happened in Daxar’s office with the spanking, it seemed to be helping me now. I was unusually relaxed as I went through the motions with my sword. I’d always felt like one with the blade over another weapon, and that was why I chose it, but today, it felt more like I was dancing with Idris or Oprix than working on my fight training. I felt light and airy. Who knew getting my ass spanked was going to do that to me?
We did all our fight training on a garden rooftop. Honestly, I didn’t think it was a safe place to fight train, but this wasn’t my school. It was pretty out here with all the flowers and shrubs, but the wall around the roof wasn’t very tall. There were dummies all around the rooftop so students could train with melee weapons. I remembered those fondly. I had one growing up. I named mine Odall and gave him a solid beating every day until I mastered the staff.
A breeze picked up and lifted my braids. I smelled flowers and greenery, but I also sensed I wasn’t alone. Oprix and Idris would have announced themselves if they came looking for me because I didn’t tell them I was out here. I didn’t take Emari and Emarus for skulking behind bushes. If someone was here with me and hiding, then they meant me harm.
Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1) Page 8