Page 63 of There's No Place Like Oz

“This road is just as long as the others, but it feels so much shorter and easier when it’s this flat.” Leon said casually over his shoulder.

I nodded, appreciating the reprieve from my own dark thoughts. “The nice weather helps, too.” I lifted my chin and closed my eyes to savor another comfortable flutter of wind caressing my face. Small talk on a big day. The one time I didn’t mind just chatting about the weather. After the heat of the desert, it was a welcome change.

We walked on for ages, while the castle in the distance got ever closer. Our nights were calm, and our days were like a pleasant stroll. There were no chimera’s coming to kidnap us and no spiders threatening to eat us. It was almost eerie in the emptiness of it all, if I was being honest. The occasional village we’d pass had been little more than ghost towns, with abandoned houses and empty yet pristine store fronts. No one and nothing appeared to live in the North, and our passage was easy and safe. It wassopleasant that I began to wonder if this nice witch of the north really might be exactly that.

On the other side of an uneventful journey through the northern prairies, the landscape started to sparkle. It was subtle at first, with glimpses of a crystalline shine off in the tall grasses, but then the crystals started to multiply. The grass, the flowers, the weeds—eventually the entire field was made of unbending glass that chimed and clinked when the gusts hit their stems together. A distorted image of our passing was reflected in every blade and petal. While beautiful in its own way, something about that ambiance of chimes and whistling wind made me uneasy. There were no bird songs or chirps of insects. Only the music of complete and utter solitude in a strange place.

I tried to shake it off as we at last reached the kingdom on the other side.

It was a castle that could have been taken from any fairytale, with its tall lavender towers built from smooth stone. White accents added a softness to the fortified walls, while glass and crystals sparkled in the sunlight, and the soft song of wind chimes tinkled in the breeze. It was the kind of place that Cinderella fell in love with before a prince swept her off her feet.

“This is it.” Crowe said upon stepping up beside me. He placed a hand on the small of my back, and his eyes drifted down to my red heels. “The last castle with the last witch. Are you ready for this, Dorothy?”

I chewed my lip at the question. My head said no—I could never bereadyto take a life, but my body almost craved it. If it was side effect of the magic shoes on my feet, or genuine corruption reaching my soul, I truly couldn’t say. “If I’m not, can we go home?” I smirked back at him with my tongue in my cheek.

“Sure.” Crowe shrugged. “Rip her heart out and steal her enchanted object, and we can go wherever you want.” My expression flattened, and Crowe responded with a pat on the back and a chuckle. “Try keeping your eyes open as you kill the witch this time. You might find you enjoy it more when you have the full visual.”

Crowe walked ahead, and I tried not to think about the fact that the last time I killed someone, it literally triggered a full body orgasm. Or the fact that it made me so horny, I wasbegginghim for his dick. There were a lot of things happening here that I probably shouldn’t think on too hard.

So, so many things…

When we arrived at the gate, a wide moat and a towering drawbridge stood between us at the entrance. I pursed my lips at the realization that this was the first time we had to actually figure out how to get into the castle. All of the other times started out nice and easy with kidnappings and dungeons. I suddenly lamented not having another unoriginal, blatantly evil witch to count on.

“So how do we get in?” I frowned. “Can we just knock or something?”

Tobias took his place by my side, and we stared up at the massive door. Just then, the draw bridge started to creak. It slowly lowered, making a plume of dirt and glass shards when it hit the ground. A sweet scent of bergamot and lavender wafted from the entrance, and immediately it relaxed my nerves and drew me in. I looked to my companions, then I looked to the wide open door. With a shrug, I took my first steady step onto the violet wood.

“I guess that’s an invite.” I said.

Crowe followed, then Talos and Leon. Tobias stayed behind, staring at the castle for several moments. He heaved a heavy inhale, release a long exhale, then he took his first step.

Chapter 49

Nothing about this castle was familiar, yet I could feel its significance in my life in my very bones. Obscure and foreign furniture with deep purple upholstery sparked memories that were purely physical, radiating unexplainable tingles through my skin, while portraits of men and women on the walls had my stomach tight and queasy. Had I slept with these women? These men? Had I napped on these chairs or couches?

I knew nothing about who I was, and the deeper we trekked into this eerily empty, yet luxurious and plush, kingdom, the more I was certain I didn’t want to know.

No one greeted us at any point. I couldn’t even guess who had dropped the draw bridge. We were given free rein to explore, and yet, like we were being drawn in by magic, all of our steps followed a very specific path towards a very specific room.

We climbed the stairs of a foyer into a long corridor colored in a soft lilac. The rooms that lined the passage were all enclosed with locked doors of glass, trapping in a variety of prisoners. Each room had bowls of food and water in the corner, not far off the shelter Dorothy had rescued me from. Some held women in priceless gowns or men in fine suits—they appeared to be human, and the way they pounded on the doors as we passed only confirmed that fact for me. But still we walked, unable to break the pull of magic.

In the next set of rooms, I saw an eagle shift into a beast man as soon as he saw us. On the opposite side of the corridor was a snake who did the same. The next set had some munchkins who appeared to be shouting, but the glass had sound proofed their words away.

Every room held people of different races, species, shapes, and sizes—some young, some old. Some magical, some ordinary. My chest was tight and my stomach was sick just imagining what this witch might use her subjects for. If Grunhilda reanimated corpses, Gwen stitched people together, and Sasha feasted on flesh, what horror would the northern witch bring?

Dorothy’s face was green, likely on the verge of vomiting, and I couldn’t blame her. This explained the ghost towns along the way. Eloise must have been kidnapping people from every region for whatever sick kink she had. I placed a hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down.

The end of the hall housed a door of silver and white. Dorothy tried to open the door first, then Crowe, then Talos, then Leon. No amount of force made that knob budge. It had to have a key.

I stepped forward and placed my hand on the knob. With the slightest turn of my wrist, the door fell away, melting into the ground like it had been liquefied. I didn’t want to speak my suspicions that my body had free passage to traverse this place. I think they’d all come to that conclusion without it needing to be said.

Our band of misfits entered the room that followed—a massive chamber made of pure glass and mirrors. Crystals dangled on the walls like wind chimes, and dark purple carpets reflected in every surface, visually shrinking an otherwise large space.

Sparkles of lavender fairy dust twirled through the air around us, then they collected in the center of the room. The particles formed together until they crafted a breathtaking beauty of the fairest complexion. Soft violet waves of hair framed an innocent and rounded face, and a lightweight dress of lace and tulle cascaded loosely down her body. A full figure of large breasts, pert nipples, and soft curves was clearly visible through the sheer fabric of her dress. If someone had told me she was an angel, I would have believed them. My heart was pounding just looking at her. Dorothy was the only woman I wanted, but my body was having a visceral reaction to this new figure, like I had been branded by her memory regardless of how badly I wanted to forget.

Eloise, the Good Witch of the North, shared an enchanting and twinkling smile with the room, then she spoke in her soft, endearing, and nurturing voice. “Welcome travelers, to my Kingdom of the North. I’m always pleased to make new acquaintances.”

Dorothy stepped forward on her red heels, and she spoke as confidently as she could. “My name’s Dorothy.” She responded, that hint of confusion and awkwardness echoing in her tone. After the shock of the other witches, I was as uneasy as she was. None of us had so much as a guess as to what her game might be.

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