31. Chapter 31
thirty-one
I’d never summoned a demon before. Had no idea how to go about it.
If only I’d had the golden cap Nick had mentioned. Morella’s golden cap. In this instance, I’d have used it without a qualm. One of those better-to-beg-forgiveness-for-later moments…
Since I didn’t have that particular artifact at my disposal, I started with the most basic of methods.
“Pae,” I whispered, my breath puffing since I’d yet to cut the vines of the roses that had snaked into my room so that I could shut the window. “Pae?”
I’d lit a fire in the hearth, but its flames had hours of cold to fight off, not to mention the frozen air that continued to creep in.
I paced in front of the roaring orange glow to help stay warm, though the briskness of the air entering my lungs did help me to focus.
“Pae Woot,” I said again, louder this time. Still, to no avail.
Frowning, I shut my eyes and, remembering what Rye had said about witches being able to connect with those they’d formed strong bonds with, I swam through the darkness of my mind and searched for a Pae-shaped light.
I found no such glow. I did, however, locate…a shadow.
It loomed in the nothing, shifting in shape and squirming away. Until I once again called its name. This time, only in my mind.
Pae.
I would not say the bond Pae and I shared was close. But then, he had saved me from Morella. He’d done so acting on Nick’s orders, true, but there existed a small part of me that wanted to believe Pae would have done what he could to liberate me anyway.
Maybe I was placing my hope and, yes, my trust in Pae erroneously.
Maybe this idea of mine truly was horrible, reckless. Selfish…
Maybe, in this one instance, I didn’t care.
Pae Woot.
The shadow dispersed, its shards scampering off like scattering roaches.
I waited. But still, nothing emerged from the nothing. I kept diving, deeper and deeper into the ether of my consciousness, scavenging for even one of those bug-like shards. I swam this way and then that, searching for something other than…emptiness.
Pae Woot, I said, speaking again in my head. It’s me, Tip. I need you. Now.
There came a knock at the door, which had me spinning. I blinked and waited to see if the knock would come again, or if whoever dwelled on the other side would say something or announce themselves.
Yet…I’d been so engrossed in my mental seek-and-find that I couldn’t now say whether the knock had been real.
I jumped when the knock came again, more insistent.
Then…a low and muffled voice.
“Tip,” said Rye, “I know you must be awake. I wish to speak.”
I widened my eyes on the door. Rye was the last person I’d expected to come looking for me. After his brusque departure from the earlier meeting, I’d thought he would have chosen to ignore me for as long as he could—maintain his distance so that I couldn’t corner him about Sebastian.
Then again, I had set a trap for him by switching my ring to my other hand.
Curious, I went to the door and opened it.
“Kidding,” said Pae—with Rye’s voice.
I gasped and, grabbing the demon by the collar, hauled him into my room. Quickly, I shut the door behind us.
“Please tell me I’m here to please you,” he said, speaking now in his own voice.
“What?”I released him, retracting my arm as if he’d burned me.
“I won’t tell anyone,” he offered. “We can douse the fire, too, and I’ll talk to you just like this.” Pae’s last few words came out again in Rye’s voice. “Or,” said the demon through a grin, his voice suddenly changing to Nick’s, “have I pegged you wrong? Do you long, instead, for a king of metal?”
“Pae.” I held up a halting (and slightly trembling) hand. “How…did you know I wanted to talk to you? Did you hear me calling for you? Was that you? The shadow, I mean?”
Instead of answering, Pae stripped off his jacket, which he tossed to the floor.
I blinked, heat enflaming my cheeks.
“The Scarecrow left out the particulars about the dream connection thing,” said Pae. “That ‘bond’ he spoke of? To be established, it requires…a kiss.”
I tilted my head at him, fascinated and confused. Then the demon stripped free his shirt, revealing strong shoulders inked with a blocky pattern of interlocking black triangle tattoos. My eyes bugged at his muscled arms, contoured chest, and taut stomach. His low-slung belt gave a glimpse of hipbones, too. I had to shake myself—and spin to give him my back.
“Pae!” I squeaked. “Put your clothes on.”
“But I am really not in the mood to do that,” he countered, a faint growl underscoring his words.
Maybe I should dismiss him. Maybe this was aterrible idea.
“I am not speaking to you again until you’re fully clothed.”
“We don’t have to talk,” he said. “Though…if I slip up and happen to call you Slippers, you have to promise not to ask questions.”
The heat of mortification overtook me. My face burned—my collar, too. His words, did they mean what I thought they could?
“I will make these roses strangle you!” I warned. “That is not an empty threat. Clothes, Pae. Now.”
A long, drawn-out pause—followed by a long, drawn-out sigh.
“I couldn’t think of any other reason you would call me in the middle of the night,” grumbled Pae.
“Is your shirt back on?”
“Almost,” he said, voice muffled through shifting fabric. I dared a peek over my shoulder just as the demon settled the garment back into place. “You seem frustrated. I’m frustrated. Just had it in my mind we could help each other out.”
My face flamed even hotter, becoming an inferno. “Dorothy?” I asked. “Really?”
“It’s complicated,” growled Pae, threading his arms back through the sleeves of his jacket. “But you already knew that. By the way, tell any of your other suitors I was here, and I will deny this interlude ever happened. Not that they’d take my word over yours, but still.”
“They’re not my suitors,” I snapped.
“Because you’re married?”
“Because I’m not going to talk about this with you!”
“So,” said Pae, folding his arms, “what did you want to speak with me about?”
This new revelation about him and Dorothy—that something of this nature brewed between them had my head spinning. Questions clawed at my brain and clambered in my throat, too. I wanted clarification—on what exactly this bond did to the two of them. But the insinuation—didn’t it now already exist?
Now I understood better than ever why the blood bond had made Rye so angry. Had Dorothy alluded to him that something, well, carnal, simmered between her and the demon—or had he just known? Then there was Nick. God, Nick. I couldn’t comprehend what it would mean if Nick caught wind. And Dorothy. If this was the effect on Pae, what was the effect on her?
I would ask questions. Some of these. Just not now. Not yet. Not when I needed Pae to focus. Not when Sebastian needed him to.
“I think…I think I can get us both into the palace tonight,” I said in a whisper as if there was anyone around to overhear us.
A long pause in which Pae narrowed his eyes at me, squinting in the way he always did whenever we were in any room together. Like he was trying to figure me out—a puzzle he could not solve, no matter how many ways he examined it.
“Let me get this straight,” said Pae at last. “You want to go behind your husband’s back… Correction. You want to go behind the King of Oz’s back and enter not only the captured imperial capital of Oz but the very palace within which currently resides the woman who wants to lop off your head and wear it like a Sunday hat?”
“Sebastian’s my friend. My best friend.”
“Aaaaand…nabbing him can’t wait until Rye’s invasion? Like we planned?”
“Sebastian could be dead by then,” I said.
“You know,” said the demon, holding up both hands. “Technically, we’re not supposed to be talking about this. And if I’m the King of the North, which I am, that means I am only the King of the North because the King of Oz says I am. That makes our conversation a touch too treasonous for my liking.”
“You just tried to sleep with me, Pae,” I snapped at him.
He held up a clawed finger. “Not technically treason.”
“I want to get Sebastian out,” I pressed. “You can retrieve him. And I can get you in.”
“You do realize this is the worst idea anyone has ever had, yes?” Pae folded his arms, the muscles of which bulged against the tight fabric. I hadn’t noticed how built he was—at least not before he’d stripped off his shirt. Pae had a lanky frame but, apparently, also quite sculpted. Not that I wanted to look again or needed to dwell on his physique. But I could see why Morella had found him alluring on several levels.
Daily, Pae was proving himself to be more layered, more complex—more human—than I had originally pegged him. Not that I needed to relate any more to the demon than I already did. Especially not since the kiss he’d bestowed on me had been the thing that had granted me access to his mind. Or…was it his spirit I’d tapped into?
“Just…hear my plan first at least,” I insisted.
“Hello,” he said. “Tippetarius? I’d like to introduce you to fuck no.”
“Please.”
“Ozma or not, you’re a sorceress,” he said. “Powerful. Deadly. I’ve seen—and envied—your work. You’re our side’s greatest asset. If you’re captured or killed, then what?”
“When we’re in,” I said, “I can reach out to Sebastian the way I did to you.”
“Ooohh,” said Pae. “When we’re in. As in me and you. First of all, no again. Second of all, you ought to know that’s why ole Scary Scar Face was so perturbed over the dream confession. In case you needed me to point that out. If he didn’t already know you and Sebastian, your so-called best friend, had locked lips… Well, news of your dream connection confirmed that tidbit.”
I frowned, startled by this new bit of information, but not rocked.
Rye knew Sebastian and I had kissed. He’d witnessed it happen through Grip. But Rye also knew how I felt about that moment. And how I felt about him. Or he should.
“Sebastian is my friend,” I stressed. “And, yes, we kissed. But, well, to borrow your words, it’s complicated. And none of your business, I might add.”
“Sorry,” said Pae through a smirk I didn’t like. “Carry on, then. If nothing else, this is an entertaining conversation. We get in, you contact your…friend through your kissy connection. And then…?”
“If I can connect with his mind,” I continued, “he’ll tell me where he is. Then we can go get him—and bring him back here.”
“Again, with the ‘we.’”
“You can’t portal in because of Glinda’s wards,” I reminded him. “You can’t portal out for the same reason. You can only portal around once inside. I can portal in, though. And you’ll need me there so I can portal us out. Through a reflective surface.”
“Your plan is to create your own portal.” He rubbed his chin like he thought the idea had merit. “Except Rye said Langwidere has undoubtedly smashed all the mirrors. And I would too if I were her. Because of you.”
“We’re not going to use the mirrors,” I said. “We’re going to enter through the bath in my old rooms.”
“The bath?” scoffed Pae.
“It’s huge,” I explained. “Nearly the size of the room itself. Maybe Langwidere won’t expect that I can use water. And she can’t run a castle without water, can she?”
“You can create a portal with water?” he asked.
“That’s how I found Dorothy,” I said. “There’d been no mirror in her world to connect to, but I’d found her through a puddle left, I suppose, by a rainstorm.”
“And you want to exit the palace by way of the same bath? Why not just leave the portal open for me while I go retrieve your knight?”
“I’m not about to leave a portal to the Emerald City just sitting open while I wait for you.”
“Silly me,” said Pae in a deadpan. “That does seem reckless.”
“You don’t know the palace the way I do,” I said. “And we may need a different portal out than the one we enter through. There’s a fountain in the courtyard. That can be our backup exit point.”
“What if we get separated?”
“We won’t.”
“What if Langwidere captures you?”
“She won’t.”
“What if Rye finds out?”
“He will,” I said with a small huff of resignation. “Because by the morning, we’ll have Sebastian with us. But I will deal with the fallout and accept all blame.”
Pae shook his head. “Except that won’t work. Say, for instance, this plan of yours—which is ludicrous, by the way—defies the odds and goes off without a hitch. Say we get young Sebastian back and you close the portal, and we are home free. And then Rye finds out what we did without his permission, approval, or knowledge. What do you suppose he will do? I will tell you what he will do. He will strip me of the kingdom I have just established and, if he doesn’t try to kill me, he will banish me from Oz the way he did Diggs.”
“I’ll get you the cap,” I blurted.
Pae’s eyes flashed to me, their golden irises becoming more luminous even than before as if my words had ignited a furnace inside him. One that had, until now, held the dry kindling of a much sought-after desire.
“You try to sell promises you can’t keep,” he said, his voice going hissing and sibilant. Now, though, finally, I had his full attention.
“I’m the Queen of Oz,” I told him. “If I make a promise to you, I have to abide by it, don’t I?”
“You’re mad, Tip,” he said. “This plan, it’s madness. And the maddest part about it is also the most puzzling.”
“You don’t understand,” I said. “Sebastian came for me.”
“No.” Pae’s tone dropped to a dangerous decibel. “The thing I can’t grasp is why you are trusting me.”
“I’m not trusting you,” I said, “not really. I know, after all, how badly you want that cap. And I understand why. I also understand that even if you do decide to betray us—or me—it won’t be now. Not tonight. Because now I’ve promised you your soul back.”
“Who said I had one?”
“You’ve got one,” I assured him. “I don’t know what shape it holds, or its true color. I don’t understand what makes you tick. Not really. But I do understand there is a light burning within you. One filled with as much desire, as much hope, as much longing as the rest of—”
Pae didn’t let me finish. Instead, he seized me by the upper arms and, steering me backward, pressed me against the cold stone wall. Gritting his teeth, he lifted a finger between us, his claw-like nail far too close to my eye.
“I have been tricked by a witch before,” he said, his tone now threatening, and dangerous. “I have been promised something I desperately wanted. Thought I needed. And I was lied to. Me. Pae Woot. But I was not a king then, and I did not have followers. I have them now, Tippetarius. And even if you are the true Queen of Oz—Ozma herself as everyone is so convinced—the demons will not listen to a damn word you say if I decree it so. And I will burn your world and everyone in it. Including The Scarecrow, the Tin Man, The Lion, and this Sebastian boy. So, I will ask you to make this promise to me here and now, with the understanding that, if you renege, or cannot deliver, you will earn yourself an enemy far worse than Langwidere or the Nome King. Do you understand?”
I swallowed hard, searching those beaming moon-yellow eyes for any trace he might be bluffing, or putting on a show.
His stare betrayed nothing but solemn and terrifying earnestness.
If I made this promise to him, if I swore to give him the golden cap, I could complicate everything even more. After all, Pae’s possession of the cap would free the demon. He would not be beholden to Nick—or any of us—any longer. Not unless he chose to be.
But hadn’t Pae granted me my autonomy?
And Nick, after today’s meeting, had made it clear to me, in his own way, that I had this bargaining chip. He couldn’t go against Rye’s commands, and wouldn’t but, simultaneously, he’d understood my plight. Nick might have intended for me to use the promise of the captosend just Pae tonight, but he didn’t understand that I couldn’t leave this rescue mission up to chance. Not when I’d already thought I’d lost Sebastian once.
“If you do this,” I said, “if you go with me to the Emerald City Palace and if you help me… If we both return Sebastian here, alive and unharmed, I will grant you sole possession of the golden cap.”
Pae pushed back from the wall, though his eyes, unblinking and penetrating, remained locked with mine.
“If you grant me the cap,” said Pae, “I will do more than help you rescue your friend. I will swear my alliance to you. Ozma or not, you will be my queen. Betray me, and I will destroy Oz.”
What was I doing? Gambling with a world that was mine as much as it wasn’t.
What would Glinda say if she were here to see me make this oath? What would Rye say? Would he hate me? Accuse me of treason…?
Except I had no intention of betraying Pae. And Nick had already made it clear he did not intend to hold the cap over Pae’s head indefinitely.
I might have been Ozma, but I was also Tip. And I couldn’t stop fully being the girl from my old world and step into my role as the lost princess from this realm so long as Sebastian’s involvement, his misplacement in Oz, continued to tear me in half.
“Help me save my friend,” I said, “and it looks like there will be no more need for golden caps or, for that matter, midnight deals.”
“Then I am at your service,” answered Pae, that hunger in his eyes flaring even stronger as he bowed low. “Queen Tippetarius.”