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“That can’t be true.”

“Okay.” He makes a face at me like I’m being obscenely obtuse.

“How do we kill him if he has no weaknesses?”

“Now you see the dilemma.”

“Ye of little faith.”

“Ye just being realistic.”

“Are you always an asshole?”

“Are you always a pain in the ass?”

Annoyance bristles down my spine. I surge past him. “Maybe I’ll just go after the Wizard alone.”

He catches me around the arm, fast as a snake. For a man his size, I thought he’d be slower. His grip is firm, but not punishing. Still, there’s no way in hell I can wiggle out. He hauls me closer to him. A stormy glint flashes in his gray irises.

“If you go after him alone, you will be dead in a week.”

It strikes me, all at once, that I’m alone in a castle with a mercenary who has no heart.

But he seems determined to save me and I’m not sure why. The one benefit I have for him is that I might possess magic that needs no source, and I might have the ability to kill Cardinal Witches. And yet he’s convinced I’m no match for the Wizard.

He is telling me he has no faith in me, but his actions say otherwise, because he’s still by my side. He could have left me for dead.

“So what do you suggest then?” I ask him.

“I—”

A crackling noise fills the halls of the castle.

The Tinman turns toward the sound.

“What is that?”

His jaw flexes. “The Wizard.”

I follow the Tinman from the armory back up to the gallery and to one of the many standing mirrors that are dotted around the castle. Except this mirror is now glowing emerald green around the edges and the mirror itself ripples like water.

“Good people of Oz.”

A breath stutters down my throat. That’s Rook’s voice coming out of the mirror.

The ripple in the reflection slowly fades, revealing the silhouette of Rook. I would know his body anywhere. I fucked him after all.

The broad shoulders, the lean torso, the sharp cut of his jawline.

But that’s all that is revealed. The rest of him is obscured by shadow and light.

“I come bearing unfortunate news. Two of the Cardinal Witches have been murdered.”

I don’t like where this is going.

“The East and the West are dead, killed by a very powerful witch named Dorothy Gale with the help of the Soldier of Fortune, the Heartless One. You may know him as the Tin Woodman. I have proof in my hands, a letter written by the West that tells of a plot to bring Dorothy here to overthrow me, your Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz.”

So he did take it.