Page 70 of There's No Place Like Oz

The whole throne room went dark, and the building started to shake. “How dare you. After I’ve extended my magic to help you.” The Wizard bellowed.His magic? Bullshit. “I am the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. You can’t—”

“Can’t what?” The lights returned once more to reveal Crowe dragging the Wizard down the stairs by his ankle. “Go on. Tell me more about what I can’t do.” He threw the man onto the floor at my feet, and he immediately scrambled to make distance. But Crowe was having none of it. He placed a foot on his chest, and the Wizard stilled. “How old are you, Wizard? A few decades? All that talk of working with the witches, yet you never bartered for real immortality?”

He gasped in terror. “How did you know—”

“That you were a weak fucking mortal with a barely-enchanted wizard’s robe?” Crowe rolled his eyes. “What kind of monsters do you think you’re dealing with? You think I can’t sense body heat in a room full of fake lights and holograms? Maybe you’ve been locked in your little room too long if you don’t even know how the denizens of Oz work. HereI’mjust impressed that you figured out how to use the witch’s magical artifacts at all, so we could have whatever we wanted without any effort from you, while still appearing like you had a hand in it.” Crowe narrowed his gaze. “And when those artifacts were caught in your magic traps and absorbed into your stupid cloak, you would have the power of all four witches and finally be worth a damn. What a fucking hero.”

The Wizard backpedalled ten miles, as he threw up his hands in desperate bargaining. “Wait, wait, please—hear me out. You’re right, okay? I was placed here by the witches, because I wasn’t powerful enough to stand against them. I may not have real magic, but it was my command that inspired you to defeat them. I’m a good ruler to the people, so please—”

His story changed, but I couldn’t help but think that was much more honest than whatever treaty he was pretending he’d formed. Being little more than a powerless, unchallenging figurehead sounded more accurate than him taking real charge.

“Well, then please grant me my wish, great ruler.” Crowe ground his heel into the Wizard’s chest. “Leave the coat, and give us the castle.”

“I… I can’t. I won’t.” The Wizard’s robe started to glow green. Then his previously sympathetic expression warped into a snarl. “I have the magic of the witch’s items you’ve used thus far. I may not have them all, but you aren’t strong enough to take this from me anymore.”

He threw a small blast of plasma, trying to throw Crowe into a wall, but the impact did nothing. It was like someone had thrown a sock at the scarecrow.

“That’s it? That’s your power combined with three of Oz’s witches?” Crowe continued to mock him, while the display gave me a new understanding of my own magic object. The shoes that absorbed the blood and magic of every witch I killed.

“Why didn’t that work?” He whined in panic. Weak as he was, that attack killed any sympathy I may have had. He was as bad as the rest of them, and just as much a burden to Oz as the witches themselves.

Crowe was right. I did want this castle, and I did want power for once. Why should I have to choose to go home for good at the expense of my friends, when I could have everything I wanted right now? This unhelpful, sleazy wizard was the only one standing in my way.

So I walked over, to my trusted friend, who kept the wizard pinned on the floor, and to the song of begging and horror, I stomped down on the Wizard’s neck and dug in my sharp red heel until I felt the tile on the other side of flesh.

“Enough.” I said. The mortal wizard had no further words for me.

I yanked my red shoe from his worthless body, where his blood drew into the heel until I was comfortably mounted atop four inch stilettos of the darkest crimson.

I didn’t flinch as he bled at my feet. Death had taken on a new meaning for me now. My whole body surged as his magic drew into me. I placed my foot on the ground, and the new height put me in a satisfying position, towering over the Wizard of fucking Oz.

“I’m your Wizard now.” I said with a nod to each of my men. And for the first time, I knew that was the real wish that I’d wanted to have. Finally, I was in control. I was the person in power who everyone would have to listen to.

I was the Queen of Oz, and my men, who had been abused and battered and beaten down, would never have to suffer again.

Because that was what power was supposed to be. Tobias, Leon, Talos, and even Crowe had all showed me what real strength was. It was protecting those you love from anyone who might hurt them, and it was creating a safe and loving place for them to live in.

So long as I sat on this throne, that was exactly what Oz was going to be.

Chapter 55

Oz was a bustling and beautiful place, and that was never more true than when the Wizard breathed his last breath, and everyone who had been under his false rule at last got to relax.

In the East, the munchkin’s crops had at last begun to grow—no sorceress blood required. The death of the witches and the wizard had broken the curse that made the land infertile for edible plants, and with my agricultural know-how, it was easy to get them steered in the right direction on successful harvesting.

In the west, the beast men had slowly been replenishing their clans. Species who had once been in hiding had begun to emerge, while Gwen’s chimeras were beginning to form new societies of their own. The Flying Monkeys and the remaining Kalidah were going to be permanent fixtures in Oz, but without a witch to command them for evil, they were a normal and peaceful people. The damage couldn’t be undone, but what remained didn’t have to be a nightmare.

I dared not venture to the south, but Talos assured me that order had been restored. While I didn’t agree with the ways of his original tribe, it wasn’t my place to dictate whether their beliefs were right or wrong, unless I was asked to intervene. He came from a land that coveted strength and brutality above all, and that was simply what the South would be.

In the North, we’d found that the thousands of rooms throughout Eloise’ castle had all contained cells and cages for the various creatures she would buy and sell into various forms of slavery. Some were sold as pets, some for sex, some as servants or workers. The entire staff of the Emerald Castle were all little more than products the Wizard had purchased, and it felt good to set them free. The people returned to their homes, and the only staff I retained were those who chose to stay.

But best of all, at the end of the restructuring, the people of each sector started to mingle. Open trade meant new produce, new inventions, mixed colors, and cultural sharing, and it filled my heart to watch a people once so limited to their little green world opening their hearts and homes to blue shirts, yellow apples, or purple flowers. I was happy, and I hoped that the peace would prosper for years and years to come.

Though how many years I would be able to stand at the head of Oz, I couldn’t say. I was in my late twenties now—not far off thirty—and as a human, I was likely only looking at 50 or 60 more years of life. It sounded impossibly long when I was in Los Angeles or Kansas, but now in Oz, it felt like the blink of an eye. I envied my companions who could live forever. Crowe and Talos would never die, and even Leon and Tobias had no actual time clock to their years. As it was explained to me, much like Oz’s witches, beast men could live as long as they could survive, and the only way to end their lives was through murder or starvation.

When I aged and they were still young and beautiful, would they still love and want me? When my short life reached its end, and their eternal lives continued on without me, would they miss me? Replace me?

No, I couldn’t think about things like that. Anxiety was such an unfair plague to happiness, it was important to focus on thenowinstead of thesomedaythat was still so distant in the future. I didn’t even know how the passage of time worked in Oz, after all. Many things about this place mirrored the real world, but did time?Who knows?I was still new here. I had time to learn it all.

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