Page 54

My heart claps against my ribs. Is it Rook? Come to gloat?

Or worse, is it one of the Hollow citizens who might recognize the two of us? And now we’re standing over a dead body.

Tin puts a finger over his mouth and I nod.

He slowly reaches behind him and pulls the axe from its sheath. I don’t want more people to die, but if someone is here to hunt me down, we don’t have a choice.

“Dorothy,” a voice calls out.

That’s Ana.

Tin and I share another look. I mouth to him, “I know her.” He scowls and shakes his head, clearly thinking this is a trap.

But the Enders who were discussing hunting me down mentioned the provost and that they opposed whatever her plan was, which means she might have been taking my side.

Tin and I silently argue back and forth and his frustration with me mounts. I’m shocked he hasn’t killed me yet, truly.

“I’m back here,” I call.

Tin grits his teeth, but the axe stays cocked over his shoulder.

Ana shoves aside the gauzy curtain and hurries into the circle of light spilling from the overhead lantern.

“I’m so glad … oh—”

Tin swings the axe so quickly and with such precision that it stops a half inch away from piercing Ana’s throat.

She freezes.

“How did you know Dorothy would be here?” he asks, his voice even, calm, despite the aggression practically vibrating through his outstretched arm.

“I … well … I—”

“Time is ticking,” he adds.

Ana gulps down a shallow inhale. “Henrietta,” she blurts and her eyes linger on the corpse sitting at the table. “She came to me early this morning, said she had a vision that she would be dead by nightfall and that Dorothy would return and that it needed to be me that helped her. That all of Oz depended on Dorothy’s safety.” Ana squeezes her eyes shut and takes another settling breath. “I tried to get Henrietta to stay with the Hollow guards, but she refused. You can’t change the future is what she said. She told me I had to get you a message.”

“What message?” Tin asks.

“She said to tell Dorothy to read the book.”

Tin frowns at me.

“The book…” I repeat. “Oh.” I reach into the armor, into one of the inside pockets, and pull out the book I found before Rook and I crossed beneath the wall in the tunnel. It had been abandoned in the house. I had assumed someone had forgotten it, but what if Henrietta put it there for me to find?

I show Tin the book. “It’s about the gods.” Glancing at Ana, I ask, “Did Henrietta say how she was going to die?”

I already know, but I’m curious what Henrietta thought. When Rook and I visited her, either she didn’t know he was the Wizard, or she chose not to tell me.

“She wouldn’t say,” Ana answers.

“It wasn’t us. Just to clarify.”

“I know.” Her eyes flicker down at the axe, then back up again. “Could you put down the weapon, Mr. Woodman?”

Tin’s jaw flexes as he considers.

“Tin, please,” I say.