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Finally, he relents, and Ana hunches forward, a breath of relief wheezing out of her.

When she’s had a moment to calm down, her gaze darts to Henrietta, then to me. “Did you see who did this?”

“It was the Wizard of Oz.”

Ana stares at me blankly.

“That can’t be right!” Nervous laughter bubbles out of her throat. “It couldn’t possibly have been the Wizard.”

“I know it’s crazy to try to convince you the Wizard killed Henrietta but I have a note from him. He did this to try to stop me.”

Ana barely glances at the slip of paper. “Well, never mind about that. We have to get you out of here and out of sight.”

Her stubborn denial lights a spark of anger, but I quickly try to squash it, terrified as I am that I might accidentally light someone on fire.

Ana, like most everyone else in Oz, has spent the last handful of years believing the Wizard is their savior and I’m not going to change that now.

“On our way here, we overheard people mentioning you and something you said about me? They seemed like they were out for blood.”

Ana nods, licks her lips. “I held a town meeting to try to de-escalate the situation. I pointed out that you saved us from the Witch of the East, but I will admit, killing two Cardinal Witches in such a short amount of time is not a good look. People are rightly scared now. There are hunting parties gathering all over town.”

“We should get out of sight until people disperse,” Tin says.

“I have a safe place where you could hide for now,” Ana tells us.

“And why should we trust you?” Tin asks. The axe isn’t held up, waiting to swing, but it’s still firmly in his grip.

“Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Ana says. “But I don’t believe Dorothy is the bad guy. I think the Wizard must be mistaken and I’m trying to speak to him to tell him.” She looks at me, taking my hand in hers. “I will vouch for you. Henrietta said I should. He just doesn’t know you. He only knows what people have told him.”

Tin snorts. “See? He is a master at manipulation.”

“What do you mean?” Ana glances between us.

“The Wizard does know me. He was here with me, Ana. My friend, Rook? That was the Wizard.”

Ana’s blank stare lasts all of three seconds before she’s cackling. “The Wizard was here? And I rode in a carriage with him? And he came to my house? No. That’s impossible!”

Tin finally returns the axe to the sheath strapped to his back. “Where is this safe house?”

“It’s on the other side of town, but I have a carriage waiting outside.”

I watch Tin for his reaction to this. He made me promise to follow his orders and while I think we can trust Ana, at this point, I will defer to him.

“Fine. After you then.” He waves Ana forward and she shoves through the gauzy curtains.

As she heads to the front of the shop, Tin grabs my arm and yanks me into his side, his voice low but urgent at my ear. “She may be on your side now, but keep speaking ill of him, and that may change.”

“Yeah, I figured that out. I don’t know how they don’t see it, though.”

“Why? You didn’t.” He drops my arm and follows Ana out, leaving me in the back with the corpse of the fortune teller, the very same woman who warned me not to fall for the Wizard.

Advice that I clearly didn’t bother to heed.

THIRTEENGod of the West

The God of the West went to the north and put down roots.

For as long as anyone could remember, including him, there had always been four gods. One for each cardinal direction. And now there were three.