40. Chapter 40
forty
I waited until midnight before returning to the dining hall with the cap. Though I found no one inside, that didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone present.
Darkness ruled the space, the shadows broken only by the red-orange flames frolicking in the enormous hearth.
After Rye had left me in his chambers—our chambers—I’d had to recoup on every level.
At least, I’d had to spend a good deal of time putting away all of my pain and fear, my yearning, my despair, and my hopes, too. Only once I’d been able to find the mask that projected “queen” had I been able to emerge.
Rye had not come back, and I wasn’t sure I would see him again before he left to march toward the center of Oz. Into the battle that could not be avoided.
Secretly, selfishly, I hoped my magic had held true, kept him human, so that he would have to approach me to reverse the transformation before going.
Even through the thick stone walls of Nick’s castle, the distant footsteps of amassing soldiers reached me. The troops had to be nearby, just out front. Of course, that’s where everyone who was not currently sleeping had to be.
Whatever the case, it worked well that no one was here.
This meeting with Pae. I needed to handle it on my own.
Which was why I’d come hours early.
I drew in a shaking breath, gaze trailing to the mirror frame that still stood. The shattered glass still littered the stone floor, enormous shards gleaming orange amid smaller ones.
“Pae,” I said, venturing farther in. Slow steps carried me in the direction of the roaring, overlarge fireplace. My shadow paced beside me, rounding me like a clock hand the closer I drew to the mantel.
No answer. So I waited next to the fire.
The flames crackled and snapped within, embers flying—flaring. The fire warmed my face, but just as had been the case in Rye’s chambers, the heat couldn’t seep beyond the barrier of my skin and into my bones. I remained cold inside, chilled by the strange sense that I wasn’t alone.
“I know you’re there,” I said. “You don’t have to wait until twenty-four hours exactly if that’s what you’re doing.”
A dark figure drifted to stand next to me at the fireplace, a tail swishing behind him.
So, he had been here. Waiting for me. I’d felt something. Someone.
“You didn’t think that I—” I gasped, staggering back.
A different demon than Pae had joined me, though this new creature possessed the same yellow-orange eyes and pale violet skin. He had much longer hair, however, that fell past his bare shoulders. Beads looped his neck and bangles encased his wrists. Rings lined his hands and red and blue bands of tattoos wrapped defined biceps.
“Who are—?”
I didn’t get a chance to finish asking my question, for another demon stepped up on the other side of me. I whirled to face her. She had silvery hair and a pale frost blue tint to her skin. Her eyes beamed moon silver.
My heart leaped into a hard run. I looked toward the door but found it shut. And flanked. By two more demons—another male, another female.
Only now did I regret my decision to come to the dining hall alone. No one knew the time limit Pae had given me. Only what I’d promised him. Perhaps everyone assumed Pae would show up at another meeting. Or find me during the daylight hours. Or perhaps everyone had known this wasn’t something they could interfere with since the promise to deliver the cap had been mine.
“Where is Pae?” I asked those gathered.
The demon in question appeared, stepping in front of me, glowing eyes burning several degrees brighter than those of his cohorts. His silver crown, once Rye’s, gleamed on his head, the metal starkly contrasted against the blackness of his short-on-one side and long-on-the-other hair.
“There’s no need to corner me,” I told him, my voice shaking. And it took everything within me not to take a step back. Not that it would have helped. In putting distance between myself and Pae, I’d only be drawing nearer to the two demons at my back.
“Corner you,” said Pae. “After witnessing what you did to the Nomes, I think I should know better than that. I’m not cornering you. I’m threatening you.”
Oh dear.
“We’re allies,” I reminded him.
“We were,” he corrected, and my heart doubled its already breakneck speed. “Can still be,” he amended with an indifferent shrug. “That’s in your power. I merely want you to know…I have power, too.”
“That’s not something I’ve ever doubted,” I assured him.
He smiled a close-lipped smile. The insincere sort that warned even as it patronized. A beat passed as his eyes darted away, toward his followers, and then back to me.
“You have it.” He said this like a command or a decree—no questioning element to his tone.
Clearly, words wouldn’t calm him or do anything to subtract the growing number of glowing eyes that began to crop up in my periphery, their ember and ice-hued gazes beaming through the dark, mini cold and burning fires threatening to spark, flare, catch, and devour.
I withdrew from the pocket of my dress the golden cap, its slick and smooth material soft in my hand, the gems giving the slight garment a hefty weight.
“You had to steal it, did you?” Pae asked, the intensity in his gaze lessening by a degree, the fire glow in them ebbing as he rounded me.
“I didn’t steal the cap,” I said.
“Nick didn’t give it to you.”
“No,” I agreed. “Rye did.”
Pae stopped. He stepped up to me, uncomfortably close, and thrust his face into mine. “You’re lying.”
I spared a glance again at my surroundings, to the darkness that had collected still more of those penetrating, probing gazes. Had Pae brought his entire army?
If so, that meant he hadn’t come prepared to receive the cap. He’d come prepared, instead, for a fight.
There wasn’t anything I could say that he would accept as truth. So I did the only thing I could. I extended the cap to him.
Pae peered down at the garment, then back to me, his expression uncomprehending, as if I’d somehow gone off script in a scene that we’d rehearsed a hundred times before. Or maybe Pae had just had too many promises revoked at the last moment.
“You meant what you said,” he challenged. “Truly.”
“I told you I did—”
“It doesn’t matter what you say,” snapped Pae, his expression wrenched, fury bubbling beneath the surface. “It never matters what anyone says.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. And I extended the cap again, bringing it nearly to touch his chest. “Here. Take what you’re owed. Pae Woot, King of the North, the cap is yours.”
A murmur ran through the demons, hisses of words I couldn’t understand.
Then Pae snatched the cap up, the sudden action making me start. He glowered at me, eyes beaming hatred. Until that expression softened.
He glanced at the cap now clenched in his clawed fist, gaze held by the garment as though it might vanish—be yet another trick. Like it would only take moments for my betrayal to be revealed, and humiliation to again crash down on him.
When nothing changed, his eyes trailed back to me.
“This is the cap,” he said. Speaking to me, to himself—to his followers. “I didn’t think you would give it to me. Especially not when… I told Slippers not to tell you how I found the kid. Alone in a bed too frilly to be his.”
At this, my cheeks warmed. I cast my eyes to the floor.
Pae didn’t let up. He pressed the issue. Because that’s what Pae did. “I thought you would change your mind when you found out the truth about him. I thought he would lose his worth to you. I thought you would regret going to get him. Promising me the cap.”
“The truth about Sebastian is that he’s my friend,” I said.
“Is he?” Pae challenged. “Friends don’t share beds with enemies.”
“That’s…in the past now,” I assured him. Myself, too.
Again, I peeked at those gathered around us. I wanted to speak more candidly than their stares and listening ears would allow. Mainly, I wanted to remind Pae how he had once shared a bed—and perhaps a poppy field—with another of my enemies, too. But it was hard to say how much his followers knew about that part of Pae’s life, and I needed his trust more than I did his understanding.
“You were telling the truth about not loving him,” Pae said.
“I love Rye,” I told him.
“An unfortunate target for such a potent brand of affection,” Pae said. “But I can hardly talk, can I?”
He offered me a wan smile.
I swallowed and cleared my throat, still squirming internally over the pressure of all these gazes. Their numbers had to be in the hundreds now. So many eyes. So many ways this could all still go wrong.
“You…have your cap,” I reminded him.
“So I have,” said Pae, taking a step back from me—and then another. Then, turning away, he thrust the cap into the air. The demons, in response, gave a unanimous cheer—loud enough to make me jump, to have my hands lifting toward my ears.
I subdued the impulse, not wanting to appear as unsettled—as vulnerable—as I felt.
“Friends,” announced Pae to the demons. “I declare us free. Beholden to no one.”
More cries of victory, the demons thrusting their fists into the air.
“Pae, Pae, Pae, Pae!” the demons chanted, their voices sending a galvanizing fear up through the soles of my feet and to the roots of my hair.
I glanced over my shoulder, back toward the door, which someone had begun to pound on. The guards, no doubt. Rye was likely with them, too.
“Order!” shouted Pae as he paced away from me, peering toward his ranks. The demons obeyed, their raucous voices falling silent.
“Freedom is ours,” Pae announced, “but it comes at a price.”
With these next words from Pae, the stillness in the room heightened. All eyes followed him as he paced in front of the fireplace, a living shadow, his tail lashing after him as he turned sharply.
“That price is peace,” said Pae. “But it is also war.”
The crowd of demons remained still, their forms as rigid and unflinching as stone. Yet the pounding on the door remained, punctuated now by shouts of men.
“This creature is Tippetarius,” said Pae, extending a clawed hand to me. “Queen of Oz.”
Murmurs rippled through the demons, and then I jumped and flinched as, behind us, the door boomed—assailed no doubt by a battering ram.
“By now, you’ve all heard of her,” said Pae, unphased by the hammering at the door. “Who in Oz hasn’t?”
The banging came again, louder this time, growing rhythmic, like the slow and labored pounding of a dying heart. The thick wood, too, began to crack.
“Some say she is a bad witch,” said Pae, his voice rising above the booming. “Some say she is a good witch. And some even say…she is the lost Princess of Oz, Ozma.”
I shut my eyes, gritting my teeth.
I’d been fairly certain Rye hadn’t wanted that particular revelation spread outside of our last council session. But so much for keeping the demons in the dark. Perhaps, though, Pae simply wanted to give his cohorts one good chuckle before they all lept upon me and rent me limb from limb.
Except…no one laughed.
“I now know she is at least one of these things,” said Pae. “And I am starting to suspect she may be two. Can you guess…which?”
With this question, Pae wheeled on me. He stepped toward me, eyes radiating that same feral intensity they had when I’d first promised him the cap. And then, instead of doing the thing I expected, descending on me, and tearing out my throat, he lowered his gaze and then—stunningly—himself.
My eyes widened as he sank to one knee before me. Then my breath left me as, all around, the other demons followed suit, lowering to one knee, heads bowed.
Just then, the doors burst open. I whirled in time to spot Rye stalking through, his form returned to that of a scarecrow, his sword drawn. Nick entered at his back, an enormous battle axe in hand. An army of guards flooded in around them, their own swords drawn, though they started and stammered in their steps when they took in the sheer number of demons, who themselves, strangely enough, did not rise or break their genuflections at the intrusion, or even glance up.
Only Pae did, returning to his feet with slow and measurable moves as if he knew better than to tempt Rye’s blade as the king stalked to insert himself between us.
“We are ready to fight,” said Pae, whose eyes only flitted to Rye before finding mine again. “You know how to call me.”
Then Pae stepped backward, vanishing in a zip. The sound repeated a hundred times over, overlapping to a cacophony as Pae’s followers left, too, evacuating the dining hall, leaving me alone with my own ranks. Rye’s and Nick’s.
Rye sheathed his sword. With a gesture, he had the guards sheathing theirs.
The tension broke in a wave, freeing my blood to move again.
Relief surged through me, prompting me to rush Rye, wrap my arms around his middle, press my cheek to his chest. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting the impulse to release a sob of relief.
I had gambled so much. And though I had won, I had also lost.
Had Rye seen, though, that I had switched the ring? His ring. Returned it to the finger he’d first placed it on…
He must have, because wrapping me in his arms, he pulled me against him tight, embracing me like he hadn’t before in the spring. Like I’d desperately wanted him to then. Like he did love me. And had.
Like he forgave me, too.
In the bedroom, Rye had even said he’d love me “first.” I wasn’t sure that was possible. But it didn’t matter now. It only mattered that…he did.
“You can’t help but see the good in everyone, can you?” he asked.
“This time, I think it paid off,” I offered weakly.
Rye laughed. Actually laughed—a soft huff that lasted no longer than a beat. Then he released me, stepping back.
He turned to go but I caught him. And this time, instead of slipping free, he pivoted back to me.
I closed the distance between us again, wrapping his shoulders in my arms and pulling him down to me.
“I know you’re going,” I said. “I can feel it in the way you breathe. I can sense it in your soul. Please, let me come with you.”
“The front lines are no place for a queen,” he said.
“They are if that is where you will be.”
“You have proven you will go and do what you will,” he said. “Your army is not one I should command, either. It is clear Pae’s loyalty—if it is true—finds its root in you. Use the mirror in Nick’s chambers to transport Sebastian home. I cannot wait for you here, but I will send Grip when we are near the capital. Pae’s forces can infiltrate the city ahead of us and allow us entry. That will save lives. And so, I must agree.”
His words came so fast. They broke over me in a wave that woke my soul to hope.
He would not rub me out of this fight after all.
“When this is all done,” I said, “when we are home…”
I trailed off. Rye drew back from me, those frozen eyes peering down into me, his promises all still swirling there.
“I should like to kiss my queen goodbye,” he said.
Shutting my eyes, I pressed my hand to his chest, and I sent into him the barest touch of magic. He solidified and warmed under my palm. And then he leaned down to me, his hair softening as it transformed from its coarser feathery texture to silken waves that teased my cheek.
Keeping my eyes closed, I tilted my chin up to him, waiting for the lips that found mine an instant later. I inhaled deeply as he kissed me, breathing in the scent of him, as acerbic and sharp as ever—burning wood, autumn leaves, smoke, and cloves.
Rye kissed me soft and slow, gentle and calculating. This wasn’t anything like the incinerating caresses I’d received from him before. Somehow, this kiss resonated with more reverence, like he was savoring this moment in a way that would make it last. As though this moment was something he hoped to take with him and preserve in his mind and heart when he departed. As if this kiss could very well be our last.
I shoved that thought aside, taking his face in my hands, and relishing the final moment before he parted our connection.
He lifted a hand to take one of mine, lowering it from his face to press it again to his chest.
A request. Another.
I obliged, pulling back on that sip of magic I’d just given him so that his form once more became that of his more impenetrable self. Once again, he became The Scarecrow.
Then, without another word, Rye swept away from me, back to his men who had, during our tender moment, filed out the busted and cracked doors. Nick stood among them, along with Dorothy, who perhaps had been drawn by the racket. Had she borne witness to my moment with Rye?
As Rye passed between her and Nick, he paused, turning his head Dorothy’s way.
“No,” she said, her words drifting to me as I neared them. “I won’t reconsider. So don’t bother asking.”
To this, Rye only inclined his head. Then he turned to Nick.
To the Emperor of the West, he said nothing. He only set a hand on his friend’s shoulder before at last passing on from him too, moving to the front doors, which the gathered guards opened, allowing in a frenzy of freezing air and dancing snow.
Then the King of Oz walked out into the white—a smear of black against the stark winter setting. I spun away from the sight, tempted to run after him. I couldn’t, though.
In his way, after all, Rye had loosened his grip on me. I had to do the same.
Nick’s goggled gaze found me. I peered at him with a pleading expression, but what was I asking him for? Reassurance, perhaps. Something he couldn’t give. Something I shouldn’t expect from him—or anyone.
Still, he had something to offer me all the same. Didn’t he always?
“Last night,” he said. “Dorothy cracked the math. Rye was quite impressed.”
“Dorothy…?” I glanced from Nick to Dorothy—who had tears shining in her eyes and an unsettled expression on her face.
She forced a smile, shaking her head, like there was no real reason for anyone to be impressed with her. Though Rye would never have been if there wasn’t.
“Come,” Nick said, walking on, away from the front doors as they closed, shutting us off from the winter storm, the first wave of our response to Langwidere’s invasion, and my heart. “Let us show you what she’s found.”