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

by JB Trepagnier

  Chapter 44

  Oprix

  I

  hadn’t gone to Daxar’s office and spoken to him personally yet like Idris had. I was going to have to make time between classes and scouting the gates to Emerald City. I knew exactly what he was doing when he sent a message to Professor Ixius to make Frankie go after Dorothy, and it worked beautifully. Frankie had this sense of peace about her now. She finally had some of the answers about her mother’s death. Once we figured out who cast the Sentinel spell and why, Frankie would really come into her own.

  Saffron was an entirely different story. Frankie took her back to Saffron’s room when she got back, and they were behind closed doors for three hours. There was a lot of screaming, and a few crashes before both of them finally came out. Saffron looked like she had been crying, and boy, she was still pissed, but she joined us on the sofa.

  “The only reason I’m agreeing to sit with her and help her is that she can give us clues on what really happened to the Munchkins when the spell was cast.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Frankie said. “Dorothy said Locasta was waiting for her when she stepped out of her house, and the Munchkins were grateful to see her. What if it was more than just them thinking she was the Good Witch of the North? What if she had been making covert trips to the East to turn the Munchkins? What if it was never a spell and simply that they are on Locasta’s side now?”

  “Then I’m going to be hunted by them even if we do manage to reverse the spell. They will never follow me if their allegiance is to the North now,” Saffron pouted.

  Saffron needed something to hold onto, and I thought Dorothy was the key. It wasn’t forgiveness. She wasn’t ready for that yet. She needed more time.

  “I don’t think so, Saffron. You saw how fast the Munchkins turned on Dorothy when they thought she was related to the Fisher King. Locasta has probably fed them some lie, and when they find out, they’ll turn again. You know how the Munchkins are. They are always about the latest fashion and what’s in style. They drop things as soon as they pick them up. When the spell is reversed, and we figure out what Locasta is up to, they’ll just drop her.”

  I finally got a small smile from Saffron. “Do you remember before the spell and those two-foot-tall hats with bells all over them were all the rage in Emerald City? It caught on in the East, but they wanted to outdo Emerald City. The Munchkins dipped their hats in gold and put jewels in the bells. The gold made the hats super heavy, and all the healers were working overtime, telling Munchkins with neck and back pain to ditch the hats. They refused until the Quadlings started wearing the hats too. As soon as it caught on in the South, it was considered passé, and they finally started thinking about their aching backs.”

  Frankie started laughing. “I remember those hats. I’m so glad they never caught on in the West. You could hear anyone wearing those hats coming from a mile away. We put bells on the sheep in the West to keep track of them.”

  “And the cows,” I pointed out.

  “You really forgive her, Frankie?” Saffron asked.

  “She wasn’t lying to me, Saffron. She has similar nightmares that I do about my mother. She wasn’t okay with her house falling on your mother, but before she could even process it, Locasta swooped in and sent her to the Wizard. Locasta had some fake tablet she told Dorothy gave her all the answers. You know that kind of thing doesn’t exist. Locasta even kissed her forehead and told her a kiss from a Good Witch meant no one could harm her. You know that’s also a hot load of bullshit.”

  “And Dorothy believed all that? Is she dense?” Saffron asked.

  “This Kans-ass place she comes from bullied her for everything she told them about Oz because it’s not like that there. Did you know that yelling noise her dog makes is how dogs talk there?”

  Saffron wrinkled her nose. “That dog is wholly unpleasant.”

  “The dog is actually pretty sweet, even if the noises he makes are not. Will you just talk to her, Saffron? She’s sitting with us at breakfast in the morning.”

  “Only because it means so much to you. We don’t need to be making friends with Dorothy Gale. Have you forgotten we need to find Tip before Glinda does?”

  I didn’t just want Saffron to hear Dorothy out because it would help her. Dorothy could be an asset to us. Just because her last time in Oz, everything that happened was just an accident, didn’t mean it had to be that way this time. It had been five years since those accidents, and everyone outside of Emerald City Academy still thought she killed two Wicked Witches. Dorothy was a legend and a hero in Oz, and she might be our answer to getting Tip alone before the guard brought him to Glinda.

  “Think about it,” I said. “If we bring Dorothy in on what we are trying to do, she can help us. The guard isn’t going to listen to any of us if we say we’ll bring Tip to Glinda. They are probably under orders to hand deliver him personally. Like it or not, Dorothy is a celebrity here. If she tells the guard Glinda sent her for Tip, they will believe her, and we can question Tip before Glinda does.”

  “That’s genius,” Idris said, clapping me on the back. “Do you think she can manage it without crying? Every time I talk to her, she’s crying.”

  Frankie gave Idris a playful punch in the arm. “She had a lot to cry about. I think that’s a great idea, Oprix. I’ll talk to Dorothy, but we are only bringing her in if she can be brave. Dorothy is an outsider to Oz. From what she’s told me about Kans-ass, it sounds like a horrible place, but she just wants to go back there. She might just want to keep her nose down and not get her hands dirty until we figure out how to get her home.”

  “Did she use my mother’s shoes to get home? Where are the shoes?” Saffron said.

  “The shoes flew her from a fairyland to a non-fairyland. Once it crossed to a non-fairy land, the shoes fell off, and she doesn’t know where they are. I’m sorry, Saffron. She said if she had a way to give them back, she would.”

  I pulled Saffron into a bear hug. I knew she was going to blame Dorothy for losing the shoes, but that wasn’t her fault.

  “Saffron, it was Locasta that told her to take the shoes and Glinda that told her to use them to go home. It’s not Dorothy’s fault the shoes are missing. Put the blame where it belongs, Saffron. Something called Dorothy here twice, and it was Locasta that lied to her and sent her on that grand mission to get home. I don’t know why Glinda told her to use the shoes to get home instead of getting them back to you, but Dorothy didn’t choose to come here, and she didn’t decide to use the shoes go home. Those choices were made for her.”

  Saffron pouted in my arms. She knew I was right, but I could only do so much. Dorothy still had a lot to answer for to Saffron. Dorothy made some choices on her own once she got here that didn’t have to happen.

  I just hoped Dorothy could deal with what Saffron had to say without crying. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

  Chapter 45

  Frankie

  W

  e had a rapt audience of Munchkins when Dorothy joined us for breakfast. I had a bad temper. I would admit to that. Saffron was always the kinder one between the two of us. I guess all those years running from Munchkins, she needed someone to yell at, and that person just happened to be Dorothy Gale. Dorothy was shy when I called her over to our table. She’d hardly set her table down when Saffron just started yelling.

  Saffron didn’t just stop there. She pushed her chair back and yelled at the Munchkins at the next table too. They had been sitting there smirking while she yelled at Dorothy, but when she included them in her tirade, they at least had the decency to look ashamed for what they had done to her.

  None of the professors came down and stopped her. Not a single soul came in and told her to stop yelling. Honestly, I didn’t think she was ever going to stop yelling. Saffron was unloading five years of frustration now that she had an audience of the people who actually hurt her. I was glad no one stopped her and Dorothy sat there and took it without breaking into tears.
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br />   Just like that, Saffron stopped yelling and sat down. She looked Dorothy directly in the eyes.

  “We’re square. Frankie told me about your side of things. I still don’t like you, and I think all you do is cry and whine, but I’ve said what I need to say.”

  “I’m done crying,” Dorothy said. “I need to make amends now. What I did, I did because of Locasta and because there was a spell cast against your mothers that made it easier to believe her. What can I do to help reverse the spell?”

  There was this determined glint in her eyes. I recognized that look. Dorothy was ready for battle. Now that she had her confession, she didn’t need to cry anymore. I heard her out, and she was unburdened. She got her apology, and we found out we had things in common. She wasn’t my enemy anymore. She wasn’t going to be of much use in battle. She had no magic, and she was miserable with melee weapons.

  I’d never put her in the middle of a fight, but she did have a certain amount of celebrity we could use.

  I leaned forward on my elbows. “How would you like to help figure out what Locasta and Glinda are really up to?”

  “How can I do that? I only know the basic potions we’ve learned in class, and I’m not a fighter. I hate fight training.”

  “Yeah, I can tell,” Idris snorted.

  “I don’t want you doing magic, and I don’t want you fighting. You aren’t trained for that, and you’ll just get yourself killed. If we go to the North to face Locasta, you’ll stay behind where you are safe. I’m not all that convinced you are distantly related to the Fisher King, and that’s why you keep ending up here. There’s no way to trace your lineage, and if the Fisher King is trapped in a cave, there’s no way to know that for certain. Sentinels can tell when someone was lying, and that was the only thing Glinda was unsure of when she was telling us about the Fisher King. It’s a theory she has, but she doesn’t know for sure.”

  Dorothy frowned. “Why would she tell everyone that if she doesn’t really know? She had to know how the Munchkins would react.”

  We all knew exactly how the Munchkins would react, including Glinda. She dropped that bomb when she did for a reason. The problem was, none of us knew what her full plan was.

  “I have two ideas on how you can help, Dorothy, and none of them will put you in danger. We are watching the front gate for a boy named Tip to show up. When he does, he’s going to be escorted directly to Glinda. We want to talk to him first. You can use your celebrity to say Glinda sent you to get him and bring him to us.

  “Also, Glinda trusts you. We are all on her shit list after a little trip to the North. Ask to talk to her and find out more about why she thinks you are related to the Fisher King. If you can cry on command, do it. Tell her how mean everyone has been since she told everyone that. You won’t be lying. The Munchkins have been total shits to you, and you really do want more information on that. Can you do that, Dorothy?”

  “Yes, but if she doesn’t trust you, then we shouldn’t be seen together until I have information and you’ve questioned this Tip. I can cry on command after crying so much in Kansas. Quick, yell at me again, and I’ll run off crying like I’m upset. We’ll have to pretend like things were like they used to be.”

  Saffron didn’t need to be told twice. She jumped up and slapped Dorothy directly on the cheek. Toto started his barking thing again, and Dorothy fled the room in tears. She might not have magic, and she might not be a fighter, but Dorothy was going to help us because she was apparently an amazing little actress.

  Chapter 46

  Idris

  G

  irls were so weird. First, we all hated Dorothy, and then we were friends with Dorothy, then we were pretending to hate her. Now, I was passing messages in fight training instead of actually fighting. She was taking this charade a little too far. She was still crying when I was trying to teach her to fight. That girl could fake it better than anyone I knew. If I didn’t know better, we were all being totally awful to her, and we still hated her.

  Even if she stayed behind if this went to war, she still needed to learn to defend herself. She wasn’t always going to be in a house caught in a storm, and a simple pail wasn’t always going to be filled with acid. Someone was going to eventually come at her that meant her harm, and she would need to defend herself. Right now, the Munchkins were all terrified of Frankie, but if Locasta didn’t eventually come for her, I didn’t trust those Munchkins from doing something awful.

  I was getting so frustrated with her tears because I knew they were fake. I finally dropped my staff. I grabbed her arm and yanked her close so I could whisper in her ear where no one could hear. If Francesca saw her that close to me, she would have my testicles, but things needed to be said.

  “I get why you are continuing with the waterworks, but cut it out in fight training. I know you hate fighting, but for fuck's sake, learn to defend yourself. You’re going to need it here, and you’ll probably need it back home too. You got lucky the first time you were here. What are you going to do if Glinda has a bad agenda like Locasta does?”

  “She keeps saying she’s busy when I want to talk to her.”

  “Then grow a backbone and be aggressive. Learn to fight for what you want, Dorothy. I’m getting really fucking tired of telling you to pick up your staff and try to hit me.”

  “You’re so mean,” she snapped, wrenching her arm away from me.

  “Good. Get mad at me. Take it out on me with the staff. Instead of crying and feeling sorry for yourself, get angry and fight back, Dorothy.”

  Dorothy shocked the shit out of me. I thought she had been crying and not paying attention during any of our fight lessons. She exploded at my face with the staff. I was expecting some weak, feeble attack, and she nearly cracked my skull open before I got my staff up in time. She was wild and ill-trained, but oh, was she angry and wanting to bash my head in.

  “Good! Use that all that pent-up rage and fight!” I yelled, ducking as her staff came whizzing at my head.

  Dorothy raised her staff over her head like she intended to bash my skull in. Professor Ixius caught it from behind her and wrenched it out of her hands.

  “I’m glad to see you are finally taking your fight studies seriously, Miss Gale, but if you kill this Flying Monkey, we will have a problem with the Flying Monkey court. Why don’t you take a breather?”

  I walked Dorothy back to her rucksack. “I’m proud of you,” I whispered.

  “Are you really a prince?” she asked.

  “A sixth son. They wouldn’t have taken it too hard if you landed a blow. I’m slipping something in your rucksack. It’s an enchanted parchment. You can send messages to Francesca and Saffron on it and get their responses without leaving your room, or you can pass notes in class. Do what you did just now to get an audience with Glinda.”

  “Attack her with a staff?”

  “Francesca already broke her nose. Just be aggressive and don’t take no for an answer. You did well today, Dorothy. I’ll make a fighter out of you yet.”

  Chapter 47

  Frankie

  I

  dris had been trying to get a rise out of Dorothy in fight training since he started training her. Now that he had, there was no putting the cat back in the back. He told her to channel all her anger and be aggressive to get what she wanted, and boy, was she. Emari and Emarus reported she was practically camping out in the Quadling dorms trying to see Glinda, and Glinda never came out of her room anymore. If I knew better, Glinda had long teleported out of her room and was hiding somewhere Dorothy didn’t know about. It was pretty funny. Ancient Glinda the Good hiding from an eighteen-year-old farm girl with no magic.

  I made enchanted parchment for everyone. There were just too many fingers in too many pies right now. Saffron was watching the front gate over lunch with Emarus. Idris liked to get up early no matter what time he went to bed, so he watched in the mornings. Our afternoons were free of classes, so Oprix hung out at the gate and pretended like he wanted to get a job
guarding the gate eventually. Oprix was stroking egos so they would just let him hang out there all day and watch without raising suspicion.

  I was starting to wonder if Tip was a little lost or maybe died on the road when the parchment heated up in my bag. The magic in the parchment was linked to all of us so we could all read messages. There was a message for me and a message for Dorothy from Oprix.

  “There’s a boy at the gate with a pumpkin-headed man and a talking sawhorse. If that’s not Tip, the pumpkin-headed man knows what happened to him. Dorothy needs to get here right away.”

  I’d prepared for this too. Saffron and I didn’t give the supplies back when we made all the invisibility potion and teleportation powder. Idris slipped Dorothy teleportation powder in fight training, and I explained how to use it over parchment. It was pretty easy. Just throw it at your feet and think about where you wanted to end up. I threw mine at my feet hoping Dorothy had good concentration and didn’t end up somewhere else.

  Dorothy arrived at the gate the same time I did. Sure enough, there was a tall, wooden man with strange clothes and a carved pumpkin head. There was a sawhorse that was blinking at me and dancing around like it was alive. Ozma was supposed to be a girl, but Tip was all boy. He was built like a Winkie farm boy, but his features were all Northern.

  He was frowning at the Emerald City guard. His accent was all Northern. “Is there a problem?”

  “We’ve been expecting you, but you’ve got some strange traveling companions. I’m not sure we should let them in.”

  Dorothy swooped in. Tip had that look about him if we didn’t let his friends in, he was just going to up and leave.

  “Glinda has been expecting all of them. She sent me. Please have the man with the pumpkin head set up in rooms in the palace, and the sawhorse can be brought to the stables. You are Tip, aren’t you?”