“They’re with the Tinman?” Rook asks and Remy nods.
“I should get back before someone notices me gone. You’ll find the hidden escape in the shed around back.”
“We appreciate the help,” Rook says.
Remy makes their way to the horses, hoisting themself up into the saddle on their horse while holding the reins for Sabil.
“If I were you,” Remy says before taking off, “I’d hurry.” And then they click their tongue and dart off into the night.
“Kansas.”
I jolt at my nick name and look over at Rook. The way he said it, it wasn’t so much a question as a command.
Something about him has changed. He no longer seems meek or unassuming or naive. There is a new tenor of authority in every syllable, every look, every movement in his body.
“Go in and get changed.” He uncorks the vial, sniffing the contents. “Use half of this.” He reaches over, fingers brushing gently against the delicate skin beneath my ear. “Put it here.” He grabs my arm next and rubs his thumb over my wrist. “And here.”
That shiver returns and Rook notices the tremble in my shoulders. Something close to a smile lifts at the corner of his mouth.
“Go on.” He hands me the vial. “Be quick, Kansas.”
I take the emerald flash and head inside with Toto following close on my heels.
The air is stale inside the house, as if no one has walked through the door in a very long time. As if the oven has always been empty, the hearth always cold. Judging by the lack of soot on the stone, maybe it’s never even been used.
The living room is sparse with one rocking chair by the front window and a spindled table beside it. There’s a thin clothbound book on the table, the title embossed in gold.
When the Gods Roamed Oz, the title reads. There is no author name.
I find the nearest room, what looks like a bedroom withone window and an empty closet. Inside, with Toto close behind, I shut the door and hang my checkered dress on a hook beside it.
“I’m sorry I left you at the inn,” I tell him as I fight with the zipper on the ball gown.
He sits back on his hind legs and watches me with unblinking eyes.
“I didn’t think there was any risk in letting you rest, but apparently I need to always be on alert here.”
He chuffs at me.
“Thank you for getting my dress. I can’t imagine running from the Tinman and the witch’s… monkeys? In a ball gown. I’d end up dead and then…”
Tears well up, catching me off guard.
I close my eyes, the dress now hanging around my waist, the giant skirt starting to pool on the hardwood floor.
What if I never make it home? What if I never see Em and Henry again?
And why the hell am I stuck in the middle of all this conflict in Oz? This isn’t my fight. It’s not my problem.
And why did the Tinman know my name? Has the Witch of the West sent him after me too because of what I did to the Witch of the East? I was under the impression no love was lost between them, so I don’t know why she would come after me.
I step out of the dress and my silver slippers glitter in whatever light is able to steal through the dark, ominous cloud outside.
And then it strikes me, what the witch might want.
Take the slippers. Hurry.That’s what Cleo had said to me right before the Witch of the North appeared and tried to snatch the slippers away.
The Enders said they were powerful slippers, charmed by magic.
