“Tell me,” she demands as if I answer to her.
But Gabriel speaks over me. “The axe is made by magic. It belongs to him. No one can take it without his permission.”
“I did.” She levels her shoulders, voice full of pride.
Gabriel’s eyes dart to me. “Really?”
“Yes,” I grumble.
“That’s…interesting.”
“No, it’s not.” Yes, it is. “Forget about the axe. The slippers, she handed themtome.”
“Yes, but you took themfromher,” he says.
“He’s right,” the girl echoes.
“This is the dumbest game I’ve ever played.”
“Why don’t you try asking nicely,” Gabe suggests.
“Fine. Dorothy, will you give them to me,pretty please?”
“No.”
“No.No?I’m going to murder you.” I lunge at her.
“Silas!”
Gabriel never calls me by my birth name. In all the years since we left home, I’ve nearly forgotten it.
Silas is dead.
It’s the Tinman who lives.
I come to a stop.
“I don’t think she’s an ordinary girl.”
I look at Gabriel. “What?”
“If the slippers weren’t already an obvious clue… the water… she made it.”
I glance back at the stone hallway and find that the one pool of water has grown into a river.
FORTY-ONE
Dorothy
“I did notmakewater.”
Both men are staring at me. I close my arms around my midsection, suddenly feeling exposed and raw. The panic has subsided, but now I’m exhausted and still shaky. After I had a panic attack, Em would make me a cup of tea and heat up some stew if we had it. There is nothing more comforting than a bowl of hot soup.
Thinking about Em makes me want to descend into tears again. I’m so tired and I just want to go home. But getting home will require me to first get out of this dungeon and past the Witch of the West. I’m not sure where the Tinman stands, but if I have to fight him too, I will.
I’m still stuck inside my cell with the Tinman between me and the hall. My cell door is open and there’s at least one winged monkey at the stairwell. What are my chances of escape? Not good. But my chances are even less if I stay down here.
“Really,” I try again, because both men haven’t said a word. “I didn’t make water. That’s ridiculous. How do you even make water?”
