Dorothy Must Die

Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Nox?” I whispered urgently, caught up in the rush of the crowd leaving the throne room. I wasn’t sure where he was, or even who he was. I was certain he’d be wearing someone else’s face, like me. I didn’t want to lose him, not now.

A guy in front of me in a pointed hat with little bells on the brim—part of a juggling troupe, I think—looked over his shoulder at me. He had blond hair and pale skin and a face I didn’t recognize.

“Not now,” he said. His voice was all Nox. Luckily, everyone was chattering so loudly that they couldn’t hear us. “Go to your room,” he ordered. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Then he pushed his way into the sea of people and was gone.

He must’ve known everything. That I’d jeopardized my mission in order to free Maude, and that Jellia was forced to sacrifice herself because of me. That’s what he meant when he whispered to me, I was sure of it. I was responsible for Jellia’s horrible fate, but how could I not have tried freeing Maude? It was the right thing to do. At least, it seemed so at the time. Now, it seemed like I’d merely traded Maude for Jellia. The Scarecrow’s laboratory wouldn’t be empty for long. I felt sick to my stomach.

Back in my room I sat on my bed, too full of nervous energy and confusion to even move. I picked Star up and held her, trying to calm myself down. It didn’t work. I watched the door, waiting for it to open.

Instead, after what felt like an hour but was probably more like fifteen minutes, Nox’s image appeared in the mirror, and he stepped right into my room.

He was still in disguise, still had the yellow hair and round face that looked nothing like his own. But it was him.

“Sorry,” he said. “I hate to intrude.”

I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to tell him everything. About how hard the last week had been, about how lonely and confused I’d been without him.

“Amy,” he said, practically before he’d even fully materialized. “You’ve put us in a terrible position.”

He looked at me, and then his disguise faded away, and the Nox I knew—dark and angular and strong—stood before me. His eyes blazed with anger.

“Jellia is going to die because of your pointless risk. She’s been a loyal agent for the Order almost since the beginning, and now we’ve lost her. Because of you.”

“I didn’t . . .” I began to defend myself, but I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. I turned my face away from his. “I had to,” I said. “I couldn’t let the Scarecrow do that to that poor monkey. And the Wizard told me . . .”

“The Wizard?” Nox asked incredulously. “Why would you listen to anything the Wizard told you?”

“He was trying to give me a message,” I said. “Trying to tell me that Maude was important. That the Scarecrow was using her to create something. That we had to stop him.”

Nox stared at me as if I was the stupidest person alive. “The Wizard is a manipulator, Amy,” he replied. “It’s what he does. It’s how he survives. You can’t believe a word he says.”

“I can’t believe a word any of you say,” I snapped, my temper flaring. “Maybe if you’d actually told me Jellia was my handler, if I’d known—”

“You didn’t need to know,” he answered. “It wasn’t part of the plan—”

“What freaking plan?” I practically shouted. Days of frustration, of living in the dark, were beginning to boil in my blood. “You didn’t tell me what I was supposed to do. You didn’t give me anything to go on.”

Nox shook his head. “When will you learn? Some things are bigger than you, Amy.”

I didn’t want to hear any of that mission-before-all-else crap. So I shoved him. Nox stumbled back, surprised.

“You just left me here,” I yelled, jabbing his chest with my finger. “I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from any of you again.”

Nox caught at my wrists, stopping me before I could shove him again. “Do you think I liked leaving you here? Not being able to talk to you or see you, not knowing whether you were okay or not? I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to.”

“I’m just a chess piece for you people to move around,” I hissed, tearing away from his grip.

For a moment, I thought I saw a look of genuine hurt cross Nox’s face. But then he drew himself up, his voice going cold.

“And now you’ve ruined everything,” he said quietly. “We had a plan, and Jellia was part of it. Now she’s gone, and every second I’m here puts everything we’ve worked for at risk.”

“You want to make me feel worse?” I asked. “Is that it?”

“I thought I could trust you,” Nox said. “I thought you understood what we were trying to accomplish.”

At that, I had to look away. I was furious at him for putting me in this position, but it’d been my decision to free Maude, and ultimately that meant what happened to Jellia was on me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean for Jellia to get hurt.”

“Being sorry doesn’t change anything,” Nox said with a sigh. “All it does is waste your energy. And you’ll need every bit of strength for what’s coming.”

I looked up at him. “Are you going to tell me what that is this time? Or are you going to surprise me again?”

“The ball,” he said, ignoring my commentary. “That’s when we strike.”

Of course. The gala that Dorothy had been planning for months was tomorrow night. If only everything could have held off for one more day, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Jellia wouldn’t be in this situation.

“I’d tell you the rest of the plan, but at this point there barely is a plan,” he went on. “Without Jellia, we’re going to have to change some things around. Jellia was supposed to assign you as Dorothy’s official cocktail waitress—”

“Cocktail waitress? Seriously?”

“Dorothy has been known to . . .” Nox hesitated. “Imbibe. Quite a bit.”

“She’s a lush,” I said, almost laughing, thinking about my drunken mother sprawled on the couch and how often I’d been her private waitress. “I would have been perfect at that.”

“We can’t control the new head maid—whoever it is—so we don’t know if you’ll be in proximity, if you’ll even be working the ball.”

“I’ll find a way,” I told him. “Am I going to be on my own again?”

“No,” Nox said. “I’ll be there, too, but you might not recognize me. And the rest of the Order and its allies will be close by. While Dorothy and Glinda are distracted by the party, they’re going to be working to set up magical wards around the palace, to temporarily disable the use of magic. Dorothy won’t be able to use her shoes; Glinda won’t be able to use her spells.”

“What about me?” I asked. “That means I won’t be able to use magic either.”

“You’ll be able to use your knife,” Nox said. “But it won’t be magic. It will just be a regular knife.”

“So I wait for the magic to go away . . . and then?”

Nox looked at me like he was surprised I was even asking. “Then you kill her,” he said.

I thought about it for a moment. “This is your big plan? Stab her at a party?”

“Yes,” Nox replied.

“And you couldn’t have told me that from the start?”

“We needed to be sure about you,” Nox replied. “Jellia was supposed to confirm your readiness, but . . .”

I thought of Jellia, bleeding, one arm missing at Dorothy’s feet.

“Oh, I’m ready.”

“Disabling all this magic isn’t easy,” he continued. “The palace is well protected. Just getting an agent in here is harder than you’d think. To place the wards, we’ll need witches strategically placed all over the grounds. They’ll only have one chance to act, and they might not be able to hold it for long. Without Jellia, it’s going to be much harder. You’ll have to act fast. But I’ll be here, and wherever you are, I’ll be right behind you.”

I studied Nox, his face stoic, but his words warm. I couldn’t figure him out. Was he using me or did he actually care about me? Hell, I couldn’t even figure myself out. Did I want to kiss him or punch him in the face?

“Great,” I replied, hoping to be as inscrutable as Nox.

He looked at me seriously. The anger in his face was gone now, replaced by concern.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Amy,” he said. “Everything we’ve done is for this moment. For you. Don’t let us down.”

And then he stepped through my mirror, disappearing on me once again. I didn’t have a chance to ask him how I could let them down if everything they’d done was for me. It didn’t matter. The end result was the same. I was getting out of this strange body and out of this horrible palace. One way or another.

And first, I was going to kill Dorothy.