Page 146 of Witch Queens: Tales from Oz

“Come out and fight,” El growled.

“Oh, no!” her voice gave me the shivers. “I don’t want to fight. I just want to go home! There’s no place like home.”

“What a load of bullshit,” Scarecrow, if possible, seemed even tenser and scarier since changing back into a human. It was hot as hell.

There was a loud bark and then Dorothy, “Don’t be silly, Toto. Scarecrow’s don’t talk.”

“I think she is deranged,” Gregory pipped in.

A sudden chill filled the air.

Mombi was the one person that I knew who could control the weather.

“Where is my sister?” I called out. “Where is Mombi?”

The cackle of childish laughter erupted toward us, “You will never find me, cannot catch me, nor will you ever be able to defeat me!”

“Stop being such a bitch!” I screamed.

The stupid dog started yapping again.

“You cursed brat! I will get you, Dorothy!” El said quietly, “And your little dog, too.”

It felt like a promise.

In the next instant, it was like Dorothy’s presence had disappeared. The heaviness had lifted from around us. I looked at Glinda and noticed that Gregory was once again a human.

We were a ragtag group. Glinda and Gregory looked terrified, El and Steele determined, and I had no clue what they would have labeled Scarecrow and me. Then there was Cass, the cutest, purplest Pixie I had ever seen.

Were we crazy to think that we had a chance?

“Did you feel that?” Glinda rubbed her arms as if warding off a chill.

I nodded, “Let’s keep going, it can’t be that much further.”

But it was, the longer we traveled, the more I worried.

Some beasts tried eating us. Plants spat acid and decided to eat Cass. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another.

Our spirits were sinking with the sun.

“How much further?”

El rolled her eyes, “We are ten minutes closer than we were the last time you asked, Glinda.”

“I am not sure why you are whining when Gregory has carried you on his back the last three hours,” I grumbled.

Gregory looked like he agreed but was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

“You are just mad that your boyfriend didn’t offer to carry you,” Glinda pouted.

Scarecrow raised a brow, “If I felt Indy wasn’t strong enough, I would carry her.”

El and I snorted with laughter as an ugly purplish hue covered Glinda’s face.

She was just about to retort when Steele stopped in his tracks. In the next second, he was yelling at us to get down and arrows were flying all around our heads.

I whisper of wind sliced next to my temple and I knew I had narrowly escaped a terrible fate.

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