Sentinels of Oz: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 1)
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses,
places, events, and incidents are either the products
of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious
Manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 JB Trepagnier
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
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Sentinels
Of
Oz
JB Trepagnier
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 1
Frankie
I
awoke in a sweat. It was the same nightmare as always—a memory from when I was sixteen. It was five years ago that Dorothy Gale murdered my mother. I had no idea she was even in the West to kill my mother. My mother had sent me off with Idris, the Prince of the Flying Monkeys, to train. I wanted to come back early, and he kept insisting we stay out in the field training.
I disobeyed. I hopped on my enchanted broom and flew home just in time to see a flash of gingham dress walk out the back door. I found my mother with her skin melted to the bone on the floor of our kitchen. I know the story is that my mother was so evil, pure water melted her, but it was really acid and a lot messier.
No one talks about the daughter of the Wicked Witch of the West. No one talks about how it was before the Wizard got here. No one talks about what Glinda the fucking Good is hiding. No one cares I was kicked out of my ancestral home so a Tin Woodsman named Nick Chopper could rule the Winkies and how it’s my birthright as heir to the Sentinel of the West to protect the Winkies and the West. No, the Wizard and Glinda made sure everyone had forgotten about the Sentinels.
Oprix, the son of the Winkie family I now live with, came bursting into my bedroom. He was a few years older than me. He hopped in bed and pulled me to his chest.
“Was it the same nightmare again, Frankie?”
“Always. I don’t know how to make it right. Dorothy dropped a house on my Aunt Adora in the East, and my cousin Saffron is so far away with the Munchkins. Locasta in the North aligned herself with the Wizard as Glinda did in the South. I still don’t know why they chose to do that. They are lying to me.”
I never really liked Glinda or Locasta, but I liked them even less when I heard Locasta told Dorothy to take Adora’s silver shoes from her dead body and use them to go see the Wizard. Those shoes belonged to Saffron, and now they were on the feet of some farm girl back in Kans-ass.
Oprix played with my hair. “The Wizard did a number on everyone. After he got elected supreme ruler of Oz, he turned everyone against the Sentinels. A few Winkies turned back to your mother’s side after the Wizard tried to invade the West. You can’t make excuses for Munchkins. They are all stupid.”
I buried my face in his hard chest. “I just don’t know how to fix the Sentinels. There’s supposed to be one in the North, South, East, and West. I’m of age now, but the Wizard cast our family as bad Witches, and Locasta and Glinda didn’t speak up for us while they were getting crowned Good Witches. They don’t have children either to take over for them.”
“Glinda is plotting something. She’s inserted herself into the Emerald Palace and ruling behind the Scarecrow.”
Anger flashed through me. “Did you know she never gave the golden cap back to Idris’ father as she promised? She told Dorothy she’d use the cap three times to have the Flying Monkeys get her friends where they wanted to be, and then she’d give it to his father so the Flying Monkeys would be free. They were going to bring it back to me so I could continue my mother’s work trying to break the curse on the cap.”
Everyone blamed my mother for the curse on the Flying Monkeys. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that ages ago, the Flying Monkeys were cursed by Princess Gayelette for dropping her fiancé into the river. Her fiancé thought it was funny, but she didn’t. She cursed them to a golden cap. Whoever had the cap could force them to do their bidding for three wishes, then the cap was useless to them.
My mother had her hands on the cap for a while, and she was intent on not using it. She had to use it twice because the Wizard was trying to invade the West for our resources and take her out. Everyone says she used it to enslave the Winkies, but she used it to save their lives. Idris said my mother used it the last time to try to save her own life when Dorothy came to kill her, but bringing that cursed girl to our castle was my mother’s downfall.
My mother had been trying to break the curse on the cap for ages, and now it was my turn. If Glinda would ever keep her word and give it back to Ibus, the King of the Flying Monkeys, I could try to figure out how to break the curse of the cap.
Oprix traced his hand down my shoulder. “Do you like Idris, Frankie?”
“What do you mean, like? I can’t like anyone right now. Oz is in chaos. The four points aren’t balanced because there’s no Sentinel in the East or West and the North and South are off playing Good Witch. Oz has no ruler, and neither do the four countries except us, since they decided to insert Nick Chopper as Emperor of the Winkies. I’ve got to fix Oz, Oprix!”
“It’s been five years, and Glinda keeps asking for you. Don’t you think you should talk to her?”
“No! She should have taken Saffron’s shoes off that farm girl’s feet and given them back to their rightful owner. She should have punished Dorothy for killing my mother and set things right instead of sending her home. For all I know, she was working with Locasta when she told Dorothy to go see the Wizard when she arrived in Oz.”
Oprix kissed my forehead. He was only two years older than me, but I loved him. He was always there for me when I needed him. His family took me in when I was kicked out of my castle, and he was there for every nightmare. If I asked him to, he would help me take on Oz to right what had been done to my family.
“Why don’t you get some sleep, Frankie? Aren’t you training in the morning?”
I settled into his chest. “W
ill you stay again?”
He tightened his arms around me. “Always.”
I was sleeping in seconds.
Chapter 2
Idris
N
ow what was going on? Francesca would want to know about this. Glinda was creating a large building on the side of the Emerald Palace, and there were workers everywhere. She was flinging magic in the air carelessly. She nearly caught my wing as I tried to get a closer look. I needed to find out what was going on for my Francesca.
Most people didn’t know this about the Flying Monkeys. We’d kept it a secret, but Azami, the so-called Wicked Witch of the West, had blessed us when she was trying to break our curse with the cap. We were still slaves to the cap, but we could transform into men if we wanted to, which made us excellent spies.
We kept clothes stashed all around various places in Oz. I flew down and transformed in an alley. I pulled on some clothes and strolled out onto the street, whistling a tune. I got some food off the street from one of the gossipiest street carts around.
“Oi, what’s Glinda building?” I asked.
The Quadling just shrugged. “A school, so she says. Said something about the four points needing balancing, and she’s going to make a school to teach people magic to balance them. Anyone can attend too. It’s going to be open to everyone in Oz.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” I asked.
It was, in fact, a shitty idea. There were plenty of bad sorcerers in Oz, and not everyone could handle magic. Not everyone had the inherent ability to do magic like the Sentinels did. Most people in Oz didn’t need to go near magic with a ten-foot pole. Princess Gayelette, who cursed my people, was one of them.
The Quadling just shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. I don’t want the four points to be unbalanced. I heard she’s bringing that Dorothy back for training for one of the points. She’s a good candidate and a hero.”
I stalked off. Francesca was going to lose her shit. She loathed Dorothy, and it was her birthright to be Sentinel of the West. I stashed my clothes back in the alley and felt my bones popping as I transformed back into a Flying Monkey. I took to the air immediately and flew to Oprix’s house. She was in the field training with her sword.
I always loved watching her train. She was petite and curvy, and when the sun hit her green skin and purple hair, it was like looking at a beautiful stained-glass window. It always caught the light just right. She set her sword in the sheath when she saw me. She always smiled and boldly watched me when I was totally nude in front of her. I may have strutted a bit. I loved that she stared.
I walked over and pulled her into a huge hug because I knew she was going to lose it. The Flying Monkeys were a mischievous bunch, and that was why we got cursed in the first place, but we knew how to be serious when it called for it.
“Bad news, Francesca,” I said.
Everyone else called her Frankie, but I called her by her given name. I was the one who started the whole Frankie thing when we were five, but when everyone else started doing it, I didn’t want to be like everyone else and started calling her Francesca. Now, I was the only one who called her by her given name, and everyone else called her by the nickname I started when we were kids.
She just sighed and rubbed her face into my chest. “Do I want to know?”
“Yeah, you do, but can you put your sword away while I tell you?”
“That bad, eh?” she asked, waving her hand and sending her sword up to her bedroom.
“The worst.”
I pulled her down to the soft grass so that we were snuggling on our backs. Oprix was probably going to flip his shit. He was in love with her too, but he was just going to have to deal with it.
“Glinda is making a school….for Sentinels. I saw it, and I asked around. It’s in the Emerald City. She’s telling everyone it’s about balancing the four points, but she’s taking everyone who wants to come to learn magic to balance the four points.”
“But that’s—”
“Ridiculous. I know. There’s more to being a Sentinel than just magic, and it takes more than just a few years at school to learn. You and Saffron have been training since you were children. There’s more.”
She bolted to a sitting position and glared down at me with those hazel eyes. “It gets worse?”
I closed my eyes and braced myself. “Dorothy Gale is invited for training.”
I don’t know what I was expecting. An explosion of magic, her to flat out punch me, or maybe calling her sword back and hacking a tree apart. Instead, she threw back her head and just let out this huge scream. It would have even scared a monkey; it was that loud and long.
Oprix came running from their farm because he could hear her all the way out there. He fell to his knees in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. He glared at me.
“What the fuck did you do?”
Francesca tried to catch her breath. “Glinda is trying to bring the Sentinels back, but she’s taking my birthright away. For me to be the Sentinel of the West, I have to go to school for it. Knowing how everyone feels about Azami and Adora, Saffron and I will be out for Sentinels of the East and West.”
“Maybe you should talk to Glinda,” Oprix suggested.
That was always his suggestion, but I actually agreed with the Winkie this time. Normally, I just wanted to punch him in the face when he suggested Francesca talk to Glinda, but she really did. I questioned everything Glinda did since she refused to give the cap back to my father, but it was really Locasta who told Dorothy to go see the Wizard. Maybe Glinda was trying to right things, and maybe this was a slap in the face. We wouldn’t know unless Francesca spoke to Glinda.
I already knew what was going to come out of her mouth. “Never. I need to talk to Saffron. I’ll go in the morning.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said.
Oprix was going to hate it. He hated being left behind. He was just going to have to deal with it since he couldn’t fly and didn’t have magic. Oprix was handy with a lot of things, and he was very intelligent for a Winkie. I had a feeling while we were gone, he would be gathering intel. He could help in his own way. He didn’t need to be glued at Francesca’s hip all the time.
She touched his cheek. “I’m sorry. I have to talk to my cousin. I’ll be back soon.”
“Don’t expect me to be idle while you are gone.”
“I’d expect nothing less.”
Chapter 3
Frankie
S
affron had it way worse than I did. The Munchkins were a susceptible lot, and whatever spell the Wizard had done to make everyone forget the Sentinels had been their guardians and instead, made them think they were oppressors, they bought it hook, line, and sinker. There were Winkies who didn’t take kindly to the Wizard trying to invade the West and were still loyal to my mother for stopping him.
It wasn’t like that in the East. The Wizard never tried to invade the East like he did the West. Instead, there were a lot of curses and spells that got blamed on Adora. Nick Chopper’s axe was a big one, and a big reason Saffron was in hiding. The Tin Woodsman was telling everyone the whole reason he was made of tin was that the mother of the woman he loved asked my aunt to enchant his axe and it kept hacking off his body parts and he had to keep replacing them with tin until that was all he was made of.
Anyone who bothered talking to my Aunt Adora would know she would never fling a curse at anyone. She was the most responsible out of all of the Sentinels, and she had a soft heart. If you asked me, she was a little too soft on the Munchkins. She gave them everything they wanted, and when they turned on her, she refused to work with my mother on bringing the Wizard down because she didn’t want to see Oz go to war. Oz didn’t even have an army.
Look where being nice got my aunt. She got a house dropped on her, and now Saffron was living in hiding from the Munchkins. I kept begging her to come to the West and stay with me, but she insisted a Sentinel never left their post. Now that the Wizard was gone, maybe the
Sentinels would eventually go back to what they were meant to be.
I needed to knock some sense into my cousin. Don’t ask me why Locasta and Glinda got dubbed the Good Witches, and my mother and Adora were given the moniker the Wicked Witches. My only thought process, especially now that Glinda was running the show and Locasta had been instrumental in sending Dorothy to the Wizard, was that they had been working for him all along.
Saffron and I both wanted the same thing—Oz to go back to the way it was. There was always a ruler in Emerald City, a governor in each region, and a Sentinel at each point. The Sentinels policed the various sorcerers that did magic, and even though Oz didn’t have a single trained soldier for an army, the Sentinels were all trained in several forms of combat.
Saffron and I couldn’t right the wrongs in Oz without the other two Sentinels. There was a reason there were four, and I didn’t trust the other two anymore. Glinda was another aunt, but Locasta came from a different line that was deemed worthy. Glinda still had the appearance of a young woman, but Mombi had cursed Locasta to look like a little old lady. Glinda never had any children and I didn’t think Locasta was capable. Saffron and I were all that existed for a new generation of Sentinels.
I had to use invisibility potion on Idris and me when we flew into Munchkin territory. Munchkins believed all the stories about Wicked Witches and evil Flying Monkeys that did their bidding. They’d pelt us with rocks, and I’d lead them straight to Saffron. The Munchkins knew Saffron was still alive and they sent hunting parties after her daily. They weren’t going to rest until all the Wicked Witches were out of Munchkin territory.
There was a desert that surrounded all of Oz. Stepping foot on the sands was an instant death sentence. Saffron was living in a cave right at the edge of the desert. The Munchkins were too scared of the sands to hunt out there. I made Idris and I visible again as soon as we landed outside her cave.
My weapon of choice was a sword. Saffron fought with a bow. She popped up from behind a bush with an arrow pointed at my chest as soon as I made us visible again.