“If the West wants the girl so badly, she likely isn’t the only one.” He pours another glass and downs that one too.
“Who else?” Cleo takes a step closer.
The Tinman sets the cup down with a loudthud. “Who has been at war with the West for years?” He turns to face her now. “Who would love to undermine her?”
Cleo thinks on it for all of two seconds. And when the answer comes to her, the name is a flash of light behind her eyes. Because even when people think of him, the thought is bright with power.
“The wizard.”
The Tinman nods. “The girl killed a Cardinal Witch. The wizard never wanted to share power with them, at least notall of them, and especially not the West. But he can’t kill her. Even he, the Great and Terrible Wizard, cannot kill a witch. But if the girl can?”
“Oh gods.”
“Yes.”
“Is that why the witch wants her too?”
The Tinman drops into one of the chairs, his gaze distant. “That part doesn’t make sense. If she was afraid of risk, she would have had me kill the girl on the spot. She specifically tasked me with retrieving Dorothy alive. I even offered to kill her.”
The way he says the latter, so easy, no emotion, makes Cleo’s stomach ache.
“So she wants her for some other reason.”
“Yes.” He rubs at the back of his neck, pressing into the muscles.
“What’s your theory?”
“I don’t have one and I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
“Why would I?”
“You just said you were worried about the wizard getting to Dorothy first.”
“Yes.”
“Why, then?”
He eyes her and for the first time, Cleo can read him easily.
“The witch has something over you.”
He looks away.
“What is it?”
His tongue runs along the inside of his bottom lip. He starts to answer when a door clicks shut somewhere in the back.
The Tinman is on his feet in an instant, his axe in hand.
Cleo clamps her mouth shut.
If it’s the wizard, she might die on the spot.
But no, it’s the innkeeper, and by the look on their face, they weren’t expecting Cleo and the Tinman to still be here.
“Oh,” Remy says and starts to backpedal.
