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“If you’ll excuse me, I should get this hole in my guts addressed. Why don’t you return to your heartless man?”

“Tell me how.”

He turns away, drops my blade, and limps into the shadows of the adjacent room. A door creaks open.

“If you desire him so damn much, then it should be easy.”

TWENTY-FIVEDorothy

There is a moment of panic. I don’t know how to get out of here and back to Tin.

Rook said the slippers transported me here, but I have no idea how to use them.

I look down at the shoes, and the silver glimmers beneath the flickering light of the wall sconces.

“Take me back to Tin,” I command them, but they do not take me back to Tin.

I jump, but the landing changes nothing.

I run and jump. Still nothing.

I stomp my feet, half expecting Rook to reappear to chide me for making a bunch of noise. But no one comes.

Should I just walk out of this house? I don’t know how far the slippers have carried me, but maybe I could walk out the front door and head in a direction, any direction.

But I don’t have that much time to waste.

I tap the slippers. Shake my feet. Spin around. Gods, I must look delirious.

“Please take me back!”

It’s clear, despite my level of exasperation, that they do not respond to commands.

So it must be something else.

Resting against the back of the sofa, I close my eyes and try to think through the steps that brought me here.

We were fighting the kalidahs. Two charged toward me and one hit me with the flat of his head, launching me backward. I remember flailing to try to get my bearings and as I pinwheeled through the air …

“My feet knocked together. No, wait, my heels.”

I look down again at the slippers. There’s nothing special marking the heels as the activating point of the magic, but it’s worth a try. I just need to make sure I think of Tin so I don’t reappear in the middle of a lake.

I close my eyes again and bring up a vision of him behind my closed lids. I don’t know how long I’ve been gone, but I’m hoping he’s still in the woods so I can picture a general location too.

“Please work,” I whisper. “And please take me to Tin.”

I click my heels together.

There’s a rush of air. A loud pop in my ears. My hair flutters around my face, tickling my cheek.

And when I open my eyes again, I’m in the woods surrounded by dead archers and slaughtered beasts.

“Where the fuck did you go?” Tin stalks toward me.

The sky above us is still, no winged monkeys in sight. Were they truly here to help us? Not kill us? Why would Rook command them to help us?

“I’m sorry. I accidentally activated the slippers. Did you know they transport the wearer?” I don’t mean to sound accusatory, but I am. I looked like an idiot in front of Rook.