“It was stupid for coming here, Quadling. Did Glinda send you?” the captain growled.
“Where is the girl?” I demanded.
They all just laughed. “There is no girl here. Just a stupid Quadling. If there were a girl here, we’d all be getting our rocks off before we brought her to jail.”
I roared and fell on him with my sword. Suddenly, the room was packed. Idris was with me in his monkey form and his wings were slamming men into walls and knocking them unconscious. Oprix was smashing his staff into people’s heads. Francesca’s was here too? Where had she come from?
She met my eye as she beheaded a soldier. “Anyone tell you that you need to work on controlling your emotions?” she grinned, driving her sword into the man behind her. “I arrived back just as you were teleporting out to get me.”
I just laughed and slashed the chest of a soldier. She was right. I was schooling her on controlling her emotions, and then I go teleporting myself straight into danger instead of waiting five seconds for her to get back. There was just something about this girl. I couldn’t lose her. We were totally fucked. I was out of teleportation powder, and they would have used theirs to come get me. I hadn’t enchanted anything yet to fly home, and Oprix didn’t know how. Idris could only carry one of us. It was going to have to be Oprix who went home. I’d lived longer and made my peace with death.
The Gillikin army wasn’t that big. It wasn’t long before we were standing knee-deep in dead bodies in Mombi’s shack, and no one else was coming. Francesca just wiped the blood off her sword on the back of one of their capes. She waved her hand, and all the bodies disappeared.
“Unless Locasta is using a scrying mirror, as far as she knows, one of her alarms went off at Mombi’s, Mombi disappeared, and left her cabin wrecked and bloody. We can find out if she’s using a scrying mirror by seeing if Mombi has any mirrors in the house. If I were Mombi and Locasta was my enemy, I wouldn’t keep a mirror in the house unless it was hidden and covered,” Francesca said.
I realized I was madly in love with this girl. She swooped in, killed the enemy soldiers, and she was assessing the situation. She hadn’t even panicked that we couldn’t get home. She sheathed her sword and flew at me. She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me now that Glinda wasn’t here. She was the one that bit me this time. I growled and pulled her closer.
“What the fuck were you thinking? I was just making sure everyone got out okay.”
I sighed. “I was worried about you. If I hadn’t had Mombi, I would have been the one to stay behind to make sure you got out.”
She just shook her head. “You couldn’t wait a minute for me to get back? We need to search this place for a mirror. There’s nothing on the walls in here. We need to check the bedroom, then teleport out.”
“Excuse me, how do you plan to teleport out? I used the last of my powder coming here.”
Saffron was playing with her bow. I hadn’t had much interaction with her. She wouldn’t have been able to use her bow in these cramped quarters. I saw her using her arrows in hand to hand combat by cramming them in people’s eyes.
“We made everyone give us theirs, and Frankie and I made extra. It’s stupid to go into battle and not prepare for the unknown. All of you should have told us about Locasta’s alarms,” Saffron said.
She looked like she hated me. Interesting. Francesca’s boyfriends were okay with me, but Saffron didn’t like my relationship with her cousin. I wondered why and how much she knew about what we did. I’d have to win Saffron over.
“Glinda was supposed to tell you. She swore to me she would. Frabess seemed to think it was only triggered when strong magic was being called. Frabess said she used to teleport in the North all the time with no problem. We thought we had accounted for everything.”
“Let’s not worry about that,” Francesca said. “If you find a covered mirror, don’t uncover it. If you see a mirror, don’t look into it. We do a basic sweep for mirrors, and then we leave.”
There wasn’t much to search in this shack, and most things here, I didn’t want to touch. Oprix found a small, covered hand mirror in the bedroom, but that was the only mirror in the house. There were no other reflective surfaces in the room she could watch us in. Mombi made damned sure of that. Even her pots were ceramic.
What was this girl doing to me? I never did anything without thinking about it first. I didn’t think. I just teleported back to the North, intent on killing everyone to get to her. If someone had laid a finger on her, I would have cut off their head.
Francesca apparently wasn’t the only one who needed to work on controlling her emotions. In battle, she was calm, collected, and got shit done. It was me that lost it this time. If I wanted this to work with her, then I needed to control myself. I was always in control, and there was just something about her being in danger that made me lose it.
It was stupid to even worry about her in battle. She was deadly with the blade, and she was handling the fall out well. Saffron handed out the teleportation powder after we made sure there was no trace of us in this room. We got out of there before more men came.
Francesca didn’t need to be anything for me. I only wanted her to complete her training and be herself. I was the one who messed up tonight. I’d spend my life making it up to her.
Chapter 37
Oprix
I
was furious, and I didn’t get angry often. Magical alarm systems we weren’t told about, and Daxar couldn’t wait two minutes for Frankie to get back? We all had to go back to fight because Frankie went back for him. I’d now killed a man. We all had, even Saffron, who was just sixteen. I didn’t even have time to process it because we were teleporting back to Emerald City before I knew it.
Glinda narrowed her eyes at us. We were all covered in blood, but her gaze was on Daxar. He and Frankie were standing apart, but there was this tension in the air you could cut with a knife. Anyone could tell something was going on between them, even if you hadn’t seen them kiss like we had. Saffron hadn’t known about them, and I could tell she hated it.
Idris said we could trust him, and I trusted Idris. I hadn’t talked to Daxar myself, but this? I couldn’t decide what this meant. Did I want someone in our group who was willing to rush into danger to protect Frankie or did I not want someone too stupid to wait five minutes for her to get back?
“Come with me, Daxar,” Glinda said.
“I don’t think so,” I said. If no one else was going to say it, I was. Daxar wouldn’t have even rushed off if those soldiers hadn’t been there. “Why weren’t we told about the magical alarms? We could have prepared better if we knew!”
Glinda pinched the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “None of you are going to let me have this conversation with Daxar, are you?”
“We should have been told!” Saffron yelled. “If there was the possibility of magical alarms, fewer people should have gone so this scenario didn’t happen.”
“If Locasta has set up alarms against teleporting and a fucking army, then she’s expecting an attack,” Frankie said. “I dropped the bodies in the Deadly Desert, and we erased all traces of us. There was only one mirror in the house, and it was covered. Mombi took all precautions against mirror scrying, and that will work in our favor.”
Glinda glared at Daxar. “I’m glad at least one of you is thinking with a clear head. I ordered you to wait. If you had just waited another minute, she would have been back.”
“The only reason I know about the magical alarms is that I overheard you and Frabess. You didn’t intend to tell me either. We had a deal that you told everyone about them, and you broke that deal, Glinda. Why didn’t you tell them about the alarms? They could have done stronger magic than just teleporting and set them off.”
“It was a calculated risk,” Glinda said. “All of my intel from Frabess was that the magical alarms in the North were keyed to Mombi’s kind of magic, not teleporting and Sentinel magic. There were only two people there not trained
to fight Mombi’s magic. While you were handing out potions, I put protection on Idris and Oprix against hexes. I didn’t want Mombi in Emerald City. My plan was for her to fight back and trigger the alarm. We would all teleport out, and Mombi would be arrested by the North. No one would believe her we were there.
“The plans changed when it was the teleportation that triggered the alarms. We couldn’t leave Mombi behind because Locasta would want to know who teleported to her, and it would be more believable we were there because there was magical proof. This whole plan has gone horribly wrong, and now we have Mombi in Emerald City and no idea when and if the heir will make it here.”
I had been coming around to trusting Glinda after everything, but she had risked all of us with this stupid plan. She had been trying to stop us from going back for Daxar too. Frankie whipped out her sword and threatened to cut her head off if she didn’t shut up and hand over her extra teleportation powder. We probably could have gotten to Daxar faster if it weren’t for Glinda.
I got what was at stake. I did, but I didn’t think my life or Idris’ life was any less important than some prince or princess. Saffron was skilled with magic and deadly with a bow. She had been defending her life against Munchkins since she was a child, but she was still only sixteen and not fully trained. She didn’t need to be put in that kind of situation.
I think we were all pissed at Glinda. Idris and I would never raise our hands to a woman, but we were both glad when Frankie up and punched her in the nose. Glinda stumbled backwards holding her bleeding nose. She nearly tripped over that ridiculous train on the gown she wore to a fight.
“Daxar!” she screeched. “You were supposed to be working with her on this.”
Glinda was always this picture of calm, cool beauty, but now her hair was mussed, and I’m pretty sure her nose was broken. Her soft, articulated speech was gone. She sounded less like Quadling royalty and more like a peasant.
Daxar just crossed his arms and glared at her. “You deserved that. I’ve been telling you from the start to be honest with her. I warned you something could go wrong, and I warned you everyone needed to know about Locasta’s alarms. Don’t think I don’t know you would have left me in the North, either.”
Glinda straightened up to her full height, which was pretty fucking tall. She made a motion with her hands like she was smoothing them from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Her hair was back to perfect, her nose wasn’t broken anymore, and her ripped train was mended like it had never been torn.
“We will not discuss tonight again. If this boy Tip is on his way to Emerald City with stolen magic Mombi had around the house, I will get word of it as soon he arrives at the gates.”
“You don’t want me searching for this Tip boy too?” Idris said.
“I need people who know how to follow orders. I suspect all of you, even you, Daxar, are a little more loyal to Francesca than you are to me. Finding the heir was my mission, and I’ll handle it from here,” she sniffed, stalking off.
Frabess shot Saffron this look like she didn’t know Saffron wasn’t told about the alarms either. Frabess spoke up for both Frankie and Saffron about going back for Daxar. Glinda was the only person who wanted to leave him behind. It may have started something between the North and the South if he was caught, and she didn’t seem to care.
Maybe Daxar could have pulled something off. He struck me as cunning. He could have fed some lie about Mombi being wanted for crimes in the South and smoothed things over, but that was a stupid risk to take. I hardly knew Daxar, but even if Frankie didn’t care for him, I wasn’t about to gamble with a man’s life like that.
Before Frabess disappeared with Glinda, she leaned in to Saffron. “Did you get to try the trick with the arrows? That shack was too small to shoot, and you have blood on you.”
Saffron gave her this devious smile. I had been so worried about her since she killed for the first time, but she was a Sentinel and made from different material than I was. I still didn’t know how I felt about it.
“It worked just like you said it would. You just have to go for the eyes.”
“That’s my girl. I’m proud of you, Saffron. Tomorrow, we will work on disarming hexes again.”
I growled. Glinda had Saffron on this mission, and she hadn’t totally mastered that yet? I couldn’t remember all of Frankie’s lessons and which age they were learned at. Did Glinda put the same protection on Saffron as she did on Idris and me? Everything about this made me so angry. We didn’t even find the damned heir.
Daxar finally pulled Frankie into his arms now that we were alone. “I was stupid, and I put you all in danger. Can you forgive me?”
“What were you thinking, Daxar? You had no way to get back home. What were you going to do if they had me?”
“Reduce the entire North to ash to get you back.”
Frankie sighed like that was the sweetest thing he could have said to her, and it looked like even Saffron was starting to come around. He let her go and kissed her forehead.
“Off to bed with you. Glinda won’t excuse any of you from class in the morning just because you are tired.”
“You’re right,” Frankie said. “She was willing to leave you there to die. Come on. Let’s get back to our room.”
Saffron rushed to Frankie’s side and intertwined her arm with Frankie’s. “You’re dating the Headmaster too? What the fuck, Frankie?”
I just smiled as the two of them gossiped on the way back to our room. I guess you could say we lost today. Glinda’s stupid plan didn’t work. We now had no idea where this missing heir was, and there was now a divide between Glinda and the staff that came with us because she wanted to leave a man behind, and there was also the possibility Locasta knew we were there.
But Frankie and Saffron were laughing and smiling despite all that. If they could laugh about what just happened, I could deal with it too. I just needed to forget bashing a few skulls in with the staff. If a sixteen-year-old girl could deal with jamming arrows in men’s eyes, I could deal with what I did too, right?
Chapter 38
Idris
F
uck Glinda. Just fuck her. And not in the good way either. Her stupid plan could have gotten us all killed. I wasn’t mad at Daxar for going back for Francesca. If it had been any longer, I would have gone back for her myself, and I know Oprix would have too. Fuck, Saffron would have left with us. I was glad Francesca broke Glinda’s nose.
Francesca had disappeared to Saffron’s room. I guess to talk about her new relationship with Daxar. I saw that kiss. It was new, but he loved her. He wouldn’t have gone charging back to the North with no way home if he didn’t. Daxar was okay with me. Even if we hadn’t had our little chat, he would have proven himself to me tonight. Daxar was one of us now. He even stood up to Glinda, who was technically his boss and a Sentinel. Daxar played for Team West now. Maybe he wouldn’t break her heart and go back to the South when this was all over.
Oprix and I were lounging on the couch, eating. I was so glad I had a high metabolism because that seemed to be all I did here. Oprix and I had been man bonding while Francesca was in her tutoring session with Daxar over massive amounts of food. The Winkies all seemed to have blessed metabolisms too. All the males were tall and strong, and the women were built like warriors. It was probably from all the work on their farms. I loved the Winkies.
Even if you didn’t like them, you’d be stupid to challenge a Winkie in a fight. Only the Quadlings were as big as the Winkies. The Munchkins were all short, like Francesca sized short. I don’t think a single one of them ever reached over five foot three inches tall. The Gillikin were in the middle in every way. They weren’t as short as the Munchkins, and they weren’t as tall as the Winkies or Quadlings. They were kind of a plain-looking group of people from what I could tell.
Oprix was dipping bananas in this massive chocolate fountain they set up. “What do you think Saffron is saying about the whole spanking thing?”
“Are you not okay with it, Oprix? Daxar went back for her with no way home. He’d never hurt her or go too far. She explained it to us, remember? All she has to do is say one word, and everything stops.”
“It’s not that, Idris. I’d give her everything she asked for, but I can’t do that to her.”
I dipped a strawberry in the chocolate. “You don’t have to. I don’t think she wants you to. She’d probably break both our noses if we spanked that delicious ass of hers. That’s her thing with Daxar. We both have several things we do with her. Let her have her thing with Daxar too.”
“I would have gone after her if she hadn’t come back.”
I slapped Oprix on the back. “I know that, and so does she. Daxar doesn’t know her as well as we do and didn’t wait long enough. It wasn’t the outcome I wanted, but it worked out.”
Oprix just snorted. “No, everyone else wanted the heir. You wanted to celebrate by getting naked afterwards.”
“And you didn’t?”
Oprix didn’t want happy naked fun time? Francesca didn’t want sex yet, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t explore each other’s bodies. I thought she’d want to celebrate her first victory as a Sentinel that way. I knew I certainly did.
“Didn’t what?” Francesca said, coming out of Saffron’s room.
I was about to say something, but Oprix beat me to it. “It’s nothing. We were just chatting about what happened tonight.”
“I’m not leaving this to Glinda. I plan on leaving the palace and keeping an eye out at the gates. I’m also going to sneak down to the jails to question Mombi.”
Maybe I wasn’t getting my naked celebration tonight, but we’d have our victory soon. When Francesca joined us on the sofa, I popped a chocolate-covered strawberry in her mouth.
“There’s three of us. We can watch the gates too and help you get past the guards. Daxar only had a geas on Glinda’s big plans. I don’t think he’d let her put another one on him after tonight. Daxar can help too.”
Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1) Page 16
