“Dorothy’s hurt us, too,” I argued. “And as strong as you are, it’s always good to have backup. Besides, it’ll be even more dangerous for us here without you. And it’s a masquerade. We’ll be in disguise.”
Which, now that I thought about it, was a weird choice for a wedding. Especially for Dorothy. I wondered if it was significant or just another one of her insane whims.
“I don’t care if it’s dangerous for you,” Lang said. But I could tell she didn’t entirely mean it. Under that hard shell was a person who was almost . . . caring. She wasn’t going to leave us to be discovered by the Nome King’s forces like rats in a hole.
“I can fight,” Madison piped up. “I mean, I can’t do magic. But I have a pretty mean right hook.”
I knew firsthand about Madison’s right hook.
“This was my fight. If I had killed Dorothy before the palace fell on her, she wouldn’t even be your problem. Let me help you finish her,” I said.
Lang looked at each of us, her expression torn. And then she sighed.
“Fine,” she said. “You can have Dorothy. But the Nome King is all mine.”
She was still putting up a tough act. But I could tell she was grateful for the help. As strong as she was, she needed other people, too.
So did Nox. So did I. So many times in Oz it had felt like I was completely on my own. As if the Wicked had cut me off completely from being able to ask other people for help.
But now I had Nox and Madison and, for the time being, Lang. In a strange way it felt like my own makeshift family. Not Wicked. Not Good. Just . . . together. We wanted Oz to be free because it was home. Because we cared. Not because someone else was telling us what to do.
Home. That word again. Without warning, a memory of my mom flashed through my mind. One of the few times she’d been sober before I came to Oz. There had been a snowstorm and she didn’t want me to have to wait for the bus in the cold, so she’d driven me to school. On the way she’d started crying.
“Mom?” I had asked.
“I just wish you knew how much I love you,” she had said. “I know I’m hard to live with. But underneath it all, there’s just love.”
I’d just looked out the window. She had hurt me too many times by then. Forgotten about me when she was drunk or high. Left me stranded somewhere for hours while she was out partying with her friends.
And while I was gone, she’d gotten sober. For me.
I hadn’t even had time to tell her I loved her before I came back to Oz.
“Amy?” Nox said. “Where’d you go?”
I blinked. They were all looking at me.
“Sorry,” I said quickly. “Just thinking. About strategy.”
“Once the ceremony is complete, her magic will be bound to his,” Lang said. “We’ll have to make our move before then. The Nome King’s ballroom is enormous, but there’s only one entrance.”
Before the guards killed us all, was what she meant. I was grateful she didn’t say it.
“What about me?” Madison asked.
Lang smiled. “You can stick with me,” she said. “As a bodyguard.”
Lang needed Madison as a bodyguard about as badly as I needed a winged monkey for a pet. But she was the strongest of the three of us and the most likely to be able to protect Madison if anything went wrong.
When something went wrong, I amended silently.
“So we’re sailing into the palace in disguise, hoping nobody recognizes us,” Madison said.
“Pretty much,” Nox confirmed.
“Cool, just wanted to check our odds of survival.” She sat back. I knew she was thinking about Dustin and her baby. Whether she’d ever see them again.
I’m going to get her home safe, I thought. Whatever it takes. If I have to die doing it. Madison hadn’t asked for any of this. I owed it to her to protect her.
“We need a better plan than that,” I said. “I’d like at least some chance of coming out of this alive.”
Lang nodded, toying thoughtfully with the silver bracelet on her wrist. “The Nome King always wears a silver knife at his belt,” she said. “It’s made out of the same metal as this thing.” She held up her wrist. “It’s magical, obviously, and it’s incredibly old—older even than he is. It’s probably strong enough to kill Dorothy, even though she has the shoes.”
“Probably?” Madison echoed dubiously.
“Can we use it?” I asked.
“I’ve never tried,” Lang said. “He never lets it out of his sight.”
“But he’ll be distracted at the wedding,” Nox pointed out. “And he’ll be so preoccupied with stealing Dorothy’s magic that the odds are good he won’t notice us until we’re close enough to take him out.”
“I think we should split up when we get to the wedding,” I said. “If the Nome King kills one of us, there will still be two more of us to try for the knife.”
“We’d be stronger as a team,” Nox argued.
“You’re letting your feelings get in the way,” Lang said. Her tone was matter-of-fact, not her usual bitchy snark. “Amy’s right. More of us, more chances to defeat him.”
Nox shot me a complicated look.
“Believe me, I don’t like it either,” I said frankly. “I’d way rather stick with you both. But this might be our final chance to defeat Dorothy and get the hell out of this crappy kingdom. We can’t blow it.”
Nox nodded reluctantly. “Okay,” he said. “We split up.”
“We don’t have much time,” Lang said. “We’ll have to get dressed and leave as soon as we’re ready if we want to make the ceremony.”
Something was still nagging at me. “It’s just so weird,” I said. “Why invite people, if the whole point of the ceremony is for the Nome King to get control of her magic? Why go to all the trouble? And why costumes?”
“It could be a trap,” Lang said slowly. “But for who? Neither one of them knows you’re here.”
“For you?” I asked her. She shook her head.
“If the Nome King wanted me dead, he has plenty of ways to kill me without going to all this trouble.” She sighed. “You said it yourself, Amy. This could be our only chance. Trap or no trap, we have to take it.”
Nox nodded. “She’s right,” he said. “We’ll be cautious, but we have to do this.”
Lang looked at him, obviously surprised that, for once, they agreed.
I smiled at them both. “I never said we shouldn’t do it. I just think we should be smart.”
They grinned back, and after a second, so did Madison. It felt good. Like we were on a team for the first time since I’d joined the Order. Like maybe, just maybe, we all had each other’s backs—even Lang.
The nagging feeling wasn’t going away. But they had a point. Whether or not we were walking into a trap, this was our only chance. Once the Nome King had control of Dorothy, they’d both be unstoppable.
I had tried to finish this one way. I had chosen myself instead of putting the knife into Dorothy. But this time I did not have the luxury of walking away.
And this time, if I had to kill her, so be it.
FIFTEEN
DOROTHY
It was too bad, really, I reflected as I readied myself for my wedding with the Nome King, that I didn’t have any girlfriends. I’d always had Tin and Scare and the Lion before, and of course I missed them and was mostly sorry they were dead, but I longed for the cozy rapport I’d once had with Glinda and Ozma—minus, of course, the backstabbing, betrayal, and secret motives. Even that blissed-out hippie Polychrome had had potential for friendship—after all, she did have an eye for fashion, even if it was outrageous—but of course, she was dead, too.
Ozma and I had once been close, before she’d refused to acknowledge that I’d obviously been brought back to Oz to rule it myself—a refusal that truly hurt me to the core, since I’d thought our friendship would prevent her jealousy. In fact, it was always other girls’ jealousy that had gotten in the way of the kinds of relationships
I craved: first, back in Kansas, when none of my so-called friends believed me about Oz (the humiliation of my sixteenth birthday party was a moment I’d never, ever forget—or forgive) and later when it turned out Glinda and Ozma had meant to betray me all along after I’d given them so much of myself. Jellia hadn’t been my friend, exactly, but she’d been very helpful, until it turned out she was actually a spy working for the Order.
And that was it, really. I gazed thoughtfully at my reflection as Bupu brushed my hair. Was Bupu a friend? Could servants really be friends? I mean, they were barely people. But it was true that around Bupu I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time—human emotion, I guess. Which I’d found previously to be a failing in all my doings in Oz, but Bupu didn’t exactly seem like the type to have some evil plan up her sleeve to undo me. I was obviously the only person she’d ever encountered who treated her well and talked to her as if she was intelligent (which, in her own way, she actually was), and she was so grateful for my attention and affection that she lavished all the love and adoration pent up in her small, squat body on me.
And while she wasn’t my equal, not by a long shot, I found myself growing fonder of her by the day.
“I won’t let the Nome King kill you,” Bupu promised me again. “No matter what.”
“That’s very sweet, Bupu,” I said, but my mind was a million miles away. My charm might be working on the Nome King, but even a girl with my skills would have a hard time pushing a cranky old despot to do a complete 180 in just a handful of days. I didn’t have time to convince him I was more use to him alive than dead. I knew I’d managed to get through to him just the teensiest bit, but not enough for him to set aside his murderous plan. He was old, and let’s face it—old people are lazy. I had given this a great deal of thought and I had realized that he would most likely stick with his boring plan of betrayal and carnage rather than open his mind to what I had to bring to the table. I sighed heavily. What a nuisance.
Now I had to kill him instead. At the very least, I had to escape him, but that wasn’t going to be an acceptable long-term solution. He could travel back and forth between Oz and Ev, he wanted my shoes, and he’d stop at nothing to get them. Even if I managed to evade his clutches tomorrow night, he’d never stop until he hunted me down and got what he wanted.
And if Amy didn’t do my dirty work for me the way I’d planned? I’d made sure the Nome King’s secretary sent invitations to every corner of Ev, but with so little time before the wedding, it was possible word wouldn’t reach her until it was too late. I couldn’t depend on her being there to cause the distraction I needed, which meant I needed a backup plan—and fast.
Someone pounded frantically on my bedroom door, and Bupu dropped her hairbrush, rushing to see who wanted me now. It turned out to be the seamstress, her arms piled high with my outfit.
“It took you long enough,” I said irritably. “I gave the orders hours ago. Now I’ll barely have time for the custom fitting. Do you want me to look terrible?”
The seamstress, a pasty, sad-looking Munchkin like Bupu, shook her head. “N-N-No,” she whispered fearfully. I liked her respectful attitude. The Nome King clearly had a lot of problems, but ensuring proper behavior in his servants wasn’t one of them.
“Bring it here,” I said, beckoning. “Ugh, are your fingers bleeding? Disgusting! Clean yourself at once!” Bupu marched the trembling seamstress to the bathroom to clean up and I sighed again. The buffoon couldn’t complete a rush order without making a mess of herself? What was I supposed to do with that? I had a wedding to prepare for, an assassination attempt to thwart, a tyrant to escape, and a kingdom to return to—I did not have time to babysit the help.
When Bupu returned with the seamstress, trembling visibly, to my chamber, her fingertips were bandaged. “Let’s get this thing fitted,” I said. “If you stick me with a pin, I’ll have the Nome King tear your fingers off one by one and make you eat them.” I didn’t think it was possible for her eyes to get any bigger, but at that, they did.
“Y-Y-Y-Yes, Your Majesty,” she babbled, gathering up my costume and advancing toward me. “As you wish.”
I rolled my eyes and stood still as the seamstress arranged drapes and folds of fabric around me, making minute adjustments here and there. Fine, so my costume was taken care of. On closer inspection, her work wasn’t half bad. I’d look amazing, and that was half the battle fought already. Now what I needed was a plan.
“All right, Bupu,” I said after the seamstress left, making a decision. “Come here.” I beckoned her close, and the Munchkin put her ear next to my lips. “Are you ready? Here’s what we’re going to do. . . .”
SIXTEEN
Despite Lang’s admonition that we needed to leave quickly, she didn’t want Madison going into the Nome King’s banquet hall completely unprepared. While Nox and I looked through her stash of weapons to see what we could hide under our clothes, Lang ran Mad through fight combinations in the main room until Madison’s face was shiny with sweat.
“Your friend’s a quick study,” Lang said. Madison beamed with pride.
“Show me,” Nox said. Unlike the two of them, he was serious. Deadly serious. It was like a cloud had descended on him, transforming him back into the battle-focused, emotionless warrior he pretended to be. I wondered what would have happened if I’d never learned there was a completely different person underneath the stony facade.
“Okay,” Madison said.
She faced Nox confidently, squaring off into a fighter’s stance. She was still in good shape, I noticed; her pre-baby aerobics regimen had given her toned arms and shoulders and muscular legs. Madison and Nox circled each other in the open space beyond the table. Madison already moved like someone who knew what she was doing.
But when Nox launched a lightning-quick jab, she was too slow to deflect it. To be fair, I probably couldn’t have deflected it either. I’d turned into an excellent fighter, but Nox had been training since he was a child. I doubted even Lang could fend him off for long.
Madison threw a punch and Nox dodged it easily, but I could tell from where I stood that there had been serious power behind the blow, and Nox nodded. “Good.”
“Not that good,” Madison said drily, “since I didn’t actually hit you.”
“You’re strong,” Nox said, lashing out again. This time, Madison was almost able to block the punch. “Very good.”
“I told you,” Lang said, the edge back in her voice. “Are you trying to suggest I need your help to teach someone how to fight?”
“Just making sure you did a good job,” Nox said. I almost groaned aloud. It was pretty much the worst thing he could have said, and he realized it a second after I did. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Didn’t mean to imply I wouldn’t?” Lang said icily. Madison swung a right hook at Nox’s jaw, but even distracted he knocked her fist aside. Madison gritted her teeth. I knew exactly how she felt. Fighting Nox could be infuriating. He made the impossible look effortless. Madison was no more a threat to his defenses than a mosquito.
He danced back and dropped his fists. Madison looked like she wanted to charge him and land a punch for good measure, but she put her hands on her hips and cocked her head instead. “Do I pass?” she asked.
“Your reflexes are good and you’re strong,” Nox said. “But you wouldn’t last a minute against a trained fighter. With time, you’ve got a lot of potential. But I want you to stay as far away as you can from any fighting at the wedding. Got that?”
“Is this your plan now?” Lang asked sharply. Nox looked at her in exasperation.
“You know as well as I do that you can’t turn an untrained novice into a fighter in an hour, and implying anything otherwise is setting her up for danger. She’s not safe in a fight. She has no experience.”
“She does, too,” I said, and Madison shot me an apologetic grin.
“Ancient history, Ames,” she said.
“Not that ancient.”
 
; “I apologized!”
“Enough,” Nox said sharply. The rebuke stung. I’d thought we were past the part where he tried to boss me around. But I didn’t want to give Lang the satisfaction of arguing with him in front of her.
“He’s right. This is serious business,” I said. “We’re all risking our lives tonight. It’s nothing to joke about.”
Madison sighed. “I just wanted to feel a little more prepared,” she said quietly.
“Why don’t we try sparring for a few minutes,” I suggested. The last thing we needed was Madison freaking out. “Nox and Lang can pick out weapons instead of me. I’ll show you what I can.”
Madison looked between Nox and Lang with one eyebrow raised, but shrugged. “Sure,” she said. “If I’m going to die, at least I’ll get in a workout first.”
I ran Madison through a few new combinations, careful not to tire her out. Nox was right: her reflexes were great, and she knew how to use her strength and her weight. With a little time, she’d be an excellent fighter.
Too bad we didn’t have any.
There was something satisfying about finally being stronger than she was, more capable and more lethal. She’d terrorized me for so long, and while I’d forgiven her for the past, I didn’t mind showing off my new skills in the present.
“You’re really good at this,” she said when I feinted and jabbed, breaking through her defenses to land a light tap on her jaw that would’ve been a ferocious punch if I’d been in a real fight.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You never were before. This place has really changed you.”
“It does that.”
She sank down to the floor with her back against one wall and her legs stretched out in front of her. “We’re not getting home ever, are we?”
I sat down next to her and stared at my knees, not wanting to meet her eyes. I knew she’d see the truth all over my face. “We might get back.”
“Do you even want to go home, Amy? Now that you have this hot magical boyfriend, or whatever?”
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said automatically, and Madison laughed.