“My mom would have loved to see something like this. I wish I could’ve said good-bye to her, at least,” I said quietly.
“You’re not going to die,” he said fiercely. “Not tomorrow anyway.”
“I hope not. But I meant when we came back to Oz. I want to go home somehow. But let’s face it, I’ll probably never see her again. I just wish there was some way I could have told her I love her.”
“You can see her,” Nox said. He pointed to a puddle of water at the base of the tirium plant, closing his eyes. I remembered the scrying spell Gert had used to show me an image of my mom back in the caverns of the Wicked. I bent down for a closer look as power flowed from Nox’s hands into the clear water. At first, all I could see was grass and leaves. But then the surface of the water shimmered and grew opaque, and I was looking into the living room of my mom’s new apartment. She was sitting on the couch, her eyes red as though she’d been crying. Jake was sitting on one side with his arms around her. And on the other—
“Dustin and Madison?” I breathed in surprise. Dustin was saying something while Madison nodded, bouncing Dustin Jr. on her knee. And over them all loomed Assistant Principal Strachan.
There was something in my mom’s lap, I realized. Something they were all looking at. A leatherbound book with charred edges. “Dorothy’s journal!” I exclaimed. “My mom must have gone through my room after the tornado and found it. But if they realize what it is—”
“They might figure out Oz is real,” Nox breathed.
“They couldn’t,” I argued. “You don’t understand how hard it is for people from my world to believe in this stuff without seeing it with their own eyes. If they realize what the journal is, they’ll probably just think it proves that Dorothy was a real person—who was totally bonkers.” A strange feeling crept down my spine—warm, heavy, and itchy, like a drop of molten metal rolling along my vertebrae.
“But I thought . . . ,” I said, trailing off as I leaned forward. Assistant Principal Strachan looked up, as though he could sense me. And then, impossibly, his eyes met mine.
And they weren’t Assistant Principal Strachan’s angry eyes. They were the silvery-pale eyes of the Nome King. I gasped. He smiled at me and put one hand on my mom’s shoulder and the other on Madison’s as they turned the pages of Dorothy’s journal.
Do not forget, Miss Gumm, how much you have to lose.
His voice slid into my thoughts and I flinched.
Remove our little friend Dorothy or do not; it is no matter to me either way. But I will come for you very soon. And then, Miss Gumm, what you do will matter very much to me indeed.
I gasped aloud as his thoughts pushed into my mind as if he was just trying to show off how easy it would be to control me. No! I thought fiercely. The boots sent a warm pulse of magic through my body and the Nome King’s grip loosened.
Do not think your shoes are enough to keep me at bay for long, Miss Gumm, he hissed. As suddenly as it had come, his hold on my mind was gone. The vision of my mom’s living room burst like a bubble popping and the puddle evaporated with a steaming hiss, knocking me back to the ground.
“Amy?” Nox was shaking me. “What happened? What did you see?” I was groggy and my thoughts were sluggish as if I’d just woken up from a long, bad dream.
“The Nome King,” I said thickly. “He’s with my mom. He said he’s coming for me.”
Nox breathed in sharply. “Coming for you to do what?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t care if we kill Dorothy. He’s got something else in mind.”
Nox was silent, thinking. “I don’t like this,” he said finally.
I laughed. “You think I do? But we have to kill Dorothy, even if it’s part of the Nome King’s plan.”
“I think you should give me the shoes.”
I shook my head fiercely. “So far they’ve protected me. They helped me fight off the Nome King just now. I don’t want to give them up.”
“Don’t want to? Or can’t?”
We both knew what he meant. Dorothy’s red stilettos, fused to her feet, had transformed her into a monster. I had nothing but my intuition to tell me that my boots wouldn’t do the same thing. It was entirely possible they were transforming me already. That giving me a feeling of protection was just a trick. But I couldn’t use magic and stay myself any other way. And there was no way I was going up against Dorothy without the ability to use my power.
“Promise me something,” I said, not taking my eyes off his. “Just in case.”
“Depends on the promise,” he said. He was standing so close to me I could feel the heat from his skin. I had to bite my lip to keep from kissing him.
“These shoes,” I said, gesturing to my feet. “After tomorrow, if they turn me into . . . you know. Her. If I try to take them off and I can’t. I want you to promise me you’ll do whatever you have to to get them off.”