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“The fighting trees,” Tin says, and to me, he adds, “In the Ancient Forest, there are trees that have become sentient and anyone that happens to get too close ends up dead.”

Blue winces. “They have a terribly destructive left hook. Truly not my intention, but wild power does have a mind of its own sometimes.”

“That’s why you can get drunk,” Tin guesses. “You’re basically mortal.”

“Mmm, close. I still have the trick with the coins.” He flicks his thumb and a coin spins up in the air. He catches it on its descent, then opens his palm to show it’s disappeared again.

“Enough of your magic tricks,” I tell him. “Reclaim your power.”

He glances at me. “Why?”

“Because, Oz is crumbling. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a dark cloud blocking out the sun? People were starving years ago. And there’s an impassable desert on all sides of Oz. Because returning the gods to Oz could save them.”

Blue drains the rest of his glass and sets it on the counter behind him. “Yes, while that might be true, I just don’t want to.”

I shove back my chair and rise to my feet. “Are you kidding me?”

“Dorothy—” Tin says.

“You don’t want to? People are suffering because of you!”

“Well, not me entirely—”

“They need hope and sunlight and something to hold on to!”

“I’m tired—”

“So what! We’re all tired!”

“Yes, but I’m several-millennia tired.”

“Oh my god.” I throw up my hands and look at Tin, hoping for some support, but he’s as baffled as I am. “You know, you were right about my mother, she was a coward. But I did not expect to find out my father was one too.”

I shove past Blue and push through the door, letting it slam shut behind me.

TWENTY-NINETinman

I follow Dorothy outside. “Wait,” I call.

She stalks over the dirt path, the cold wind from the north cutting across the clearing, tossing her hair in her face.

“I cannot believe my entire life I was so desperate to know who my real mother and father were and this is what I get? All that time wasted. If I’d known they were cowards, I wouldn’t have wasted the energy.”

“He is a god,” I point out. “Several millennia old.”

“Yes, and somehow more heartless than you.”

She slows and we come to a stop in the middle of the path. “This feels like a nightmare that just keeps getting worse. And this was always what I wanted, and now that I have it…” She crosses her arms over her chest, her teeth starting to chatter. I didn’t make her dress for the north and I’m regretting that now.

I reach across the path and rub her arms up and down, trying to send warmth through her body.

Her expression changes immediately from deep frustration to surprise.

“You don’t have to do that, Tin.”

“I know I don’t.”

Her teeth stop clacking together.