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The dog is sitting half in shadow in the recesses of his cell in my dungeon. It’s nicer than the West’s dungeon.

There’s a cot along one wall and a desk across from it. Not that he has any need for work. There are two rectangular windows at the top of the back wall, steel bars like ribs fastened over them. The floor is dark, honed limestone so it’s warm and smooth to the touch.

Toto could do far worse. Still, he fought us, me and Faos and his soldiers, as we tried to get him from the transport cage into the cell.

Now he is silent and watching.

I can feel him judging me. I can feel him despising me.

“You will be fed and watered,” I tell him.

He says nothing.

“And if there’s anything else you need, all you have to do is ask.”

He chuffs out a breath, the overgrown hair around his mouth flipping up.

“Right,” I say. “Words. How they fail you.”

He growls.

I lean against the back wall and cross my arms.

“I went to see her,” I tell him. “She was already on her feet, plotting my demise.”

He stays silent.

“She asked about you. I’m not sure how long she’ll let me get away with keeping you. Do you think she’ll come straight to you?”

Still, the silence.

Silas will stop her haste if they’ve found common ground. Even heartless, he knows how to survive.

But oh, how I want her to barge in here and demand something of me. Literally anything.

If only she knew what kind of power she possesses. She could pop into the dungeon right now and carry her little dog away.

“Did you know the West was her mother?” I ask Toto.

He gets up and turns a circle, then curls into a ball, giving me his back.

“Of course you did,” I answer for him. “I suspect you are holding many other secrets.”

I can practically hear him sighing at me.

“I have a letter here, from the West.” I pull the slip of paper from my pocket and unfurl it in my hands. “I’m not sure Kansas read it in its entirety. I’ll spare you the breadth of it, but this line is telling.

“‘Dorothy, you must destroy him if you want to reclaim your rightful place on the throne.’”

Toto lifts his head.

“Reclaiming the throne. Restoring the royal line, the birthright stolen from the West. Everyone thought the West was bypassed for the throne because she needed a source for her magic. But that wasn’t the real reason, was it? It was just the most convenient.”

Toto turns slightly, his dark eyes glittering in the shadows.

“I lived here, at the palace, when the royals were in power. I heard the stories.”

Toto doesn’t blink.