I waved my hand and summoned my enchanted broom from my bedroom. If they decided to knock me off this high roof, I wasn’t falling to my death.
“Come out before I make you,” I called.
“Do you swear not to hurt me? I meant you no harm. I only wanted to watch you with the sword. You make it look so natural.”
Whoever it was didn’t have an accent like anyone I knew in Oz. He didn’t even have the strange, twangy accent Dorothy did.
“Why do you speak that way?” I asked.
I saw a head slowly rise from behind a shrub trimmed like a Cowardly Lion. I hadn’t even seen his face, but I was already on alert. His hair was a shocking green color. No one in Oz had hair that color. The only people I knew with different color hair were the Sentinels. I was on him in seconds and had my sword at his throat.
“Why do you look like that? Why is your hair that color?”
This boy looked like he was around my age, but age was so hard to tell in Oz. Glinda looked my age, and she was hundreds of years old. He didn’t look afraid of me. He just gave me this easy smile with his hands up.
He looked exactly like a boy Sentinel would if there were more than four in Oz. His hair was green, and his skin had this ruddy complexion, unlike anyone in Oz. He was handsome, and he wasn’t looking at me like he wanted to hurt me. But I’d already scanned him with magic. He had training like he could have been a Sentinel. His magic was as strong as mine, and his body was built like Idris’, which meant he knew how to fight.
“Talk or I’ll slit your throat. You look like a Sentinel, and you hum like one. You aren’t the child of one. I know that much. My cousin and I are the only children alive right now. Glinda hasn’t had any, and I don’t think Locasta is capable. Someone trained you, and you came to this school for a reason. Talk.”
Oh, this boy was trying to charm me. “Can we introduce ourselves first? My name is Galen. It’s true, I do have magic, and I know how to fight. You could say I have Sentinel training, but not exactly. I didn’t learn the same things you did growing up. My lessons were different.”
I lowered my sword for only a fraction. Glinda was the one keeping secrets, and there were no Gillikin students here for a reason. Idris was told the school accepted anyone.
“Did you try to apply here, and Glinda told you no?”
Galen let out a low chuckle. “I don’t want to go here. I don’t want to be a Sentinel. This academy is not for me. It would bring back memories of my own lessons, which were not exactly pleasant. No, I don’t want to be a Sentinel. I want to fight with you.”
I lowered my sword to my side. He wasn’t a threat to me. Sentinels could always tell when someone was lying, and he really did want to fight by my side. Maybe he could tell me what was really going on since Glinda didn’t put a geas on him like she had all the professors here.
“Fight against what? The only person here who knows is Glinda. She told all the professors, then put a geas on them so they can’t talk about it. She’s teaching history, but she’s talking about fictional characters from where an outsider game from.”
“The Fisher King?” he asked. “It’s very dangerous to talk about him.”
“How exactly?”
“The Fisher King isn’t a book character. He was a real live person that ended up in books. He became a legend.”
“What exactly does that have to do with Oz?”
“The Fisher King guarded a cup that granted immortal life. He started out a knight and was injured in battle. It was a fatal injury to his groin, and it was only the Holy Grail that kept him alive. There was a phrase that could be spoken that would heal his wound and free him from the cup. A knight name Percival sought the cup and spoke the words. He healed the Fisher King.
“But the Fisher King was no longer an honest knight. He’d spent too long alone guarding that cup. His mind had gone corrupt and mad. Humans weren’t meant to live that long and spend that much time alone. The Fisher King had magic from the grail, and he was hungry for power. The realm where he came from was no longer enough. He hungered for more magic, more power. He wanted a place full of magic.
“Ask yourself this, Francesca. You were taught the Sentinels came to be because of a great evil that came to Oz. Glinda told you to look into the Fisher King. If the Wizard managed to get to Oz and rule it and Dorothy Gale has ended up here twice, does it not make sense a mad, immortal knight managed to get here too and terrorize Oz?”
“The great evil I was supposed to learn about, but my mother was murdered before she could teach me. If he was so bad, why does no one remember him?”
“A spell. The same spell that was used to make Oz forget the Sentinels and make them think you were Good or Wicked Witches. Everyone remembers the Fisher King by a different name, as a boring ruler who didn’t do much to further Oz, nor offend it.”
“Do you know the spell? How to reverse it and get Oz to remember the Sentinels again?”
Galen shook his head sadly. “Changing memories and history is considered unthinkable magic. It’s not generally allowed to use magic to meddle with minds. As far as I know, no one knows how to reverse it. It’s said those that know of the Fisher King try to avoid speaking his name because it will break the spell, and people will remember. If they remember, they will fear him. He will feed off their fear and rise again.”
“He’s not dead? What the fuck? Why didn’t they just kill him the first time around?”
“Because of the grail he guarded. He drank from it every day. For all intents and purposes, he’s immortal. They imprisoned him with a powerful sorceress to guard him.”
I raised my sword again and poked him in the chest. He wasn’t lying to me about any of that, and he filled in some of my missing training Daxar wouldn’t be able to tell me because of the geas. But I had several questions.
“If a spell made everyone in Oz forget the Fisher King and forget the Sentinels, why do you remember? Why do you look like a boy Sentinel?”
“From my mother. Look, Frankie, my parents are terrible people. I got away from them as soon as I could and came here. The Fisher King is rising, and you’re going to need all the help you can get. I just want to help.”
“Why don’t you just join the school?”
“For the same reasons we had the entire conversation with your sword pointed at me. It’s not safe for me. You see what I look like.”
I grinned. “You aren’t unpleasant to look at.”
Was I flirting with Galen too? I had Idris and Oprix. I had something I wasn’t sure about going on with Daxar. There was something about Galen I just trusted. He could help me. I had to think about the fact that the spell couldn’t be reversed to make everyone remember the Sentinels.
“Are you sure there’s no way to reverse the spell to make everyone remember the Sentinels?”
He just gave me an easy shrug. “It’s forbidden magic. No one who casts forbidden magic cares about reversing it. No one wanted to reverse the spell about the Fisher King. We can find a way together.”
“How?”
“Can you slip away and meet with me? I know you tell your friends everything. Can you keep me a secret?”
I raised my chin. “I don’t keep secrets from them.”
“It’ll keep them safe. They are learning magic here, right? Let them learn a little more before you tell them about me. By then, maybe we will have come up with a plan.”
I just nodded. I could do that. Idris and Oprix needed to learn a little more magic before they could take on someone like the Fisher King, if he were as badass as Galen said he was. I held out my hand for him to shake.
I knew I was in trouble when he grabbed it and kissed my knuckles.
Chapter 19
Oprix
F
rankie and Idris were both keeping secrets. They came back the night before all awkward. That was exactly how Frankie got when she didn’t want to say something. She was normally graceful and said the first thing on her mind. Now, she wa
s dropping things and mumbling. Idris was the exact opposite. He just blurted things out. I had more of a chance of finding out what was going on with Idris than I did with Frankie.
Frankie wouldn’t even drop a single hint about what she was hiding, but I knew Idris wouldn’t be able to keep it a secret long. I knew she would be distracted, and she couldn’t be right now. She wouldn’t notice Idris breaking things and being louder than usual the same way he wouldn’t notice her dropping things and mumbling. The two were off in their own little worlds.
We had magic lessons again and another potions lesson. This was a basic invisibility potion. Saffron demonstrated, and Frankie taught like last time. The stakes were the same—mess up and get the boot.
After an hour into the class, I was the only other Winkie student left in the school. The other Winkie set their desks on fire, and a Quadling had to leave because their potion bubbled over and melted a hole in the floor. Emari and Emarus moved their desks behind us so Frankie and Saffron could help them. The rest of the class was either too stubborn or too stupid to ask them for help just yet. The only reason Dorothy and her Munchkin friends hadn’t been booted out yet was that they were keeping our professor right by their desk to walk them through the entire thing like Frankie and Saffron hadn’t already done an excellent demonstration.
Frankie was distracted with more than just her secret. I knew that look on her face. She was far away right now, thinking about someone or something. I wish I knew what it was. I made it a point that I was going to ask her when we were alone. I kind of realized this was a girl thing because she was hanging behind to talk to Saffron and Emari. Was she talking about me? Did I do something wrong?
I grabbed Idris on the way to fight training. They decided to fight train us on the roof of a twenty-story school. I was in good shape, and so was Idris, Frankie, and Saffron. I could deal with twenty flights of stairs. Walking up twenty flights of stairs while Dorothy and a bunch of Munchkins complained about twenty flights of stairs was sheer torture.
“Fess up. You’re hiding something.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, you do, asshole. Do you think I don’t know how you and Frankie get when you are keeping secrets? Both of you are not saying things.”
“Francesca is keeping something from me?”
Idris looked totally hurt, and if he had been paying attention, he would have seen it was totally obvious. He was lying about something too, and I hated it when my friends kept things from the group.
“You’re both lying about something.”
Idris grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stairwell corner. “I’m on a mission for Glinda. She has me looking for some boy. She swears if I do this for her, she’ll give the cap back faster.”
“Idris, I know you aren’t stupid. If you do what she asks without her using those wishes, she can keep asking until you force her to make the wishes, and the cap is useless to her.”
Idris just growled at me. He flexed his huge wings and flapped them so hard, I was slammed against the wall, and he nearly knocked a few Munchkins down the stairs.
“If you know I’m not stupid, then you know I have a plan. Glinda has used her wishes, so that cap is useless to her. She’s got an entire staff and students here she could pass the cap to and ask them to wish for her. Francesca would never get the cap back if we played it that way. I’m playing it her way for now, so I can figure out how to steal that cap back. I can also figure out what she’s up to. She says Francesca is in danger.”
I just scoffed. “We both know Frankie can handle herself.”
“I know this, and you know this,” Idris said. “But she hasn’t finished her training. Let me deal with a little spying for Glinda while Francesca trains, and when I find out what’s going on, I’ll tell her. I don’t want to distract her.”
“I don’t like it,” I said, crossing my arms.
We never kept anything from each other, and now Frankie and Idris were both keeping secrets.
“You think I do? What do you think she’s hiding?”
Neither of us noticed her coming upon us until she was right behind us. She moved as silently as a cat. Idris jumped when she tapped his shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
Idris just gave her a charming smile. “Boy talk. It looked like you were having girl talk. I hope you’ll share with the rest of us.”
“I do need to talk to the two of you later. One more flight, then we’re on the roof. Let’s go,” Frankie said, taking both our arms.
The scene that waited for us on the roof wasn’t a pleasant one. Dorothy was aiming at a Munchkin standing by the roof ledge with a bow like Saffron had done. Where the hell was our professor?
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Stop this at once,” Frankie yelled.
“If the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the East can do it, I can too. She probably used magic anyway.”
Before any of us could stop her, Dorothy let her arrow fly.
Chapter 20
Frankie
I
t was such a mess. We got to the roof just in time to see Dorothy let an arrow loose at a Munchkin holding an apple in his mouth. I nodded to Saffron. We both called our enchanted brooms. Mine materialized in my hand in seconds. Idris was lightning fast. He grabbed a staff and swatted the arrow out of the air. That should have been enough, but my life had never been easy.
The Munchkin with the apple in his mouth flipped out when Dorothy set the arrow loose. He started running backwards, flipped over the wall, and went spiraling to his death. Saffron and I hopped on our brooms and went flying after him. This particular Munchkin had been the most horrid to Saffron since we started school here, but we were Sentinels, and it was our job to save lives.
Saffron and I were both expert fliers, but she had always been faster than me. She reached the Munchkin before I did and caught his hand. Brooms weren’t meant to carry two people, and Saffron couldn’t haul a Munchkin back up to the roof by herself. She caught him about halfway to the ground since the building was so tall.
I aimed my broom at the Munchkin and caught his other hand. “Up or down?” I yelled at Saffron.
This Munchkin was pretty solid, and even with the two of us holding him, I really hoped she was going to say down.
“Up. Dorothy needs to look him in the eye and apologize for what she did. The other Munchkins need to see he’s alive. There’s no point in making him walk up twenty flights of stairs just to prove it, and they won’t believe us if we say we saved him.”
“No, please,” the Munchkin begged. “Take me back down. I’ll walk up the stairs. I don’t like this.”
“Up it is. Quit whining. If you want to be a Sentinel, you’re going to have to enchant something to fly on anyway. Be sure to stay still, so we don’t drop you, okay, sweetie?”
“You’re horribly wicked for not letting me take the stairs,” he moaned.
“Would you rather us have just let you fall to your death?” Saffron asked. “You’ve been pretty mean to me since I got here.”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, just don’t drop me!”
“Relax, asshole. We’re almost there. Remember who saved your life next time you and your Munchkin friends want to pick on someone.”
We hauled the Munchkin over the wall and set him on his feet. The entire class was peering over the wall watching us except Dorothy. Dorothy had her nose buried in my boyfriend’s chest, sobbing. Oprix had his arms around her, and she was sobbing like she was the one that fell off the fucking roof instead of the one that caused this entire ordeal.
Where the fuck was our professor? Dorothy shot an arrow at a fucking Munchkin, and he went tumbling over the roof. She was now snotting all over my boyfriend, and our professor still hadn’t made an appearance. If none of the professors here were going to say anything to her, I was. I didn’t care what the other students thought. I didn’t care what it sounded like coming from the daughter of the alleged W
icked Witch of the West.
I grabbed her arm and wrenched her away from Oprix. “What the fuck were you thinking? If Idris hadn’t knocked that arrow out of the way, it would have been buried in your friend’s chest. If Saffron and I weren’t trained fliers, he would have died from the fall. You walk around this school like you’re a celebrity for murdering two innocent women, and the Munchkins might be eating it up. The staff here might not want to say anything to you, but Oz was doing just fine until you and your people just crashed in here out of nowhere and started electing yourselves rulers, dropping houses on people, and throwing acid at people’s mothers. Is that what you do back home? Murder people for fun? You could have killed that Munchkin who you call friend today!”
Dorothy just bolted down the stairs sobbing like a child. All the Munchkins were looking at the ground, but slowly started making their way to the stairs. Saffron and I didn’t even get a thanks for saving their friend. The one other Winkie student got kicked out, so it was just me and my friends and the Quadling students left.
The Quadlings all started swarming us. It wasn’t just Emari and Emarus this time. They all wanted to know why we saved the Munchkin instead of letting him fall to his death, and they actually wanted to hear me out when I claimed Dorothy killed innocent women when she killed our mothers.
I explained the Sentinels to them just like I did to Emari and Emarus. Some of them didn’t believe me, despite all the proof in front of their eyes, but several Quadlings were looking at us with a new light. There were just too many questions to be asked that I was shocked the Munchkins weren’t asking them either. Saffron and I already knew all the basics of Sentinel training, and we could have let that Munchkin die because of what he had said and done to Saffron.
At least we had several Quadlings who didn’t think we were Wicked anymore. We all started to leave the roof. Despite everything that went down on the roof, our fucking professor never even showed up for class.
Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1) Page 9
