Everything fucking hurts and yet I can’t seem to connect my brain with my limbs, like my legs and my arms belong to someone else.
I know he’s here.
Maybe I always knew this was exactly where we were headed.
Being heartless makes it more difficult to strategize. You have to care to make a plan.
But I should have known. And the West should have known. And we should have been able to foresee the Wizard of Fucking Oz.
He’s probably laughing at us.
Such fucking fools.
His footsteps cross the gallery.
I think I’m shaking but I can’t be sure.
The cold is creeping into my bones and my eyes are heavy.
I see his shoes first. Black leather. Black soles. Then tailored black trousers. Party clothes. Of fucking course. He was with Dorothy the entire time, the mysterious stranger I axed in the woods. If I’d stopped to think, I would have realized it was him. Why the fuck didn’t I take two seconds to identify the body before I left him with Cleo?
He crouches in front of me. The golden monkey mask is in his grip.
“Brother,” he says. “It’s been a while.”
“Fuck.You.”
It takes everything in me to get the two words out. But they seem important. He should know I still fucking hate him.
He laughs, low, beneath his breath. “Still as charming as ever.”
You made me that way,I want to say, but I don’t have the air or the energy to get the words out.
“I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t connect the dots,” he says and spins the mask between his hands. “I can’t tell the future like the West could, but I knew Dorothy was the only way I’d get the mask and Gabriel.”
“No.”
“Yes. It’s time he knows what he’s capable of.”
“No.” The word comes out hoarse. It’s the only one I can manage to get out.
“I need to find the gods,” he says.
Gritting my teeth, I focus every ounce of strength and energy I have left and reach out for the mask.
But he’s too quick. He isn’t locked up like me and losing more blood by the second.
He stands up. “I know you’ll come for me when you wake.” He pauses. “Both of you.”
Dorothy is still alive?
She hasn’t made a sound, not since he stabbed her.
“And when you come, I’ll be waiting.”
His footsteps fade away, descending into the dungeon.
My eyes slip closed.
