Oz Has Spoken: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance (Emerald City Academy Book 3) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. 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 reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or any means—by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission.

  Oz has

  Spoken

  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 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Frankie

  E

  veryone in the room was rendered silent. My thoughts were running a million miles a minute. How was Dorothy Galen’s sister? How had I not noticed how much they looked alike before? They had the same eye shape and chin. Dorothy just had softer features, and she was much smaller than Galen. How was this even possible if one child with Sentinel magic was born to one mother and Dorothy was eighteen and Galen was around my age? It made little sense.

  When I could speak again, I pointed that out. I didn’t know what it could be, but maybe there was some other explanation.

  Glinda cleared her throat. “If I may, I may have an explanation. When I became pregnant with Elore, I tried to find out everything I could about pregnancies since Elore would be the first hybrid baby. My midwife was patient, and she would often dine with Zusim and me because he had questions too. Galen’s mother was a twin which rarely happens with our type of magic, but it happens all the time all over Oz. From what the midwife told us, multiple births usually tend to run in families. Dorothy and Galen are most likely twins.”

  “They aren’t even the same age,” I scoffed.

  “The North having access to dragon parts for potions means they could be, Francesca,” Glinda said. “Think about it. There are potions with dragon parts that could have put Dorothy into hibernation where she slept and didn’t age until they figured out how to get her to Kansas.”

  Galen hadn’t spoken this entire time. He’d just been staring at Dorothy in awe. Dorothy was standing there with her face buried in Ozma’s neck like she couldn’t handle what happened when I broke her curse.

  “We have a problem,” Galen said. “Or maybe a solution to the North if we win.”

  “An even bigger problem than my hair and the fact that my parents are insane?” Dorothy shrieked.

  “I think there’s another child out there—another sibling.”

  What the fuck? How did he know about another sibling if he just fucking found out about the one he didn’t know about all this time? We may have been silent when Galen told us Dorothy was probably his long-lost sister, but we all had something to say at that comment.

  Galen didn’t yell or tell us to shut the fuck up as I would have. That just wasn’t him. He patiently waited for all of us to get our yelling out before he calmly spoke.

  “My father didn’t do potions when he came to Oz. The magic he came here with is called alchemy back where he comes from, but Oz has potions for this too. Oz has potions to increase fertility in women, and so does the Fisher King’s realm. If multiple births ran in my mother’s family and they combined their magic, it would make sense they got the number they wanted.”

  Glinda frowned. “You will have to explain, Galen. If they sent Dorothy to the Fisher King’s realm, and you kept telling us the Fisher King was angry she keeps ending up here, what makes you think they were trying for more than one child?”

  “I think there are three children of the Fisher King out there, and I can tell you exactly why. The number three is sacred back where the Fisher King comes from. He always stressed the importance of that number to his plans when he was ranting. I thought that was the entire point of not draining Locasta like the rest of the Sentinels. I would make his lucky number three until I served my purpose, then he would drain my magic and kill me. I thought Locasta would complete his three until he no longer needed her.

  “The Fisher King does nothing by accident. If the number three is so sacred to him and he would have multiple children, he would use his magic to manipulate it so that there were three. My mother was probably the one that cast a spell on Dorothy because it wasn’t as sloppy as the one put on Ozma. Dorothy would have been sent to the Fisher King’s realm until they needed her. He was probably pissed Oz kept calling her back home. I would be willing to bet my life there is another sibling out there with the same spell on them that Ozma and Dorothy had on them. I’ll bet that child is close to Locasta for safekeeping.”

  I believed everything Galen told me about the Fisher King, but this, this was too much. Galen didn’t know this for sure. I’d helped my mother deliver children, and I knew how to brew fertility potions, but women’s bodies didn’t work like that. Even with a fertility potion, sometimes things didn’t work and a woman wouldn’t fall pregnant. You couldn’t make a woman have three babies just because it was your lucky number.

  “Galen, it doesn’t work like that,” I pointed out. “If the Fisher King doesn’t understand women, then he definitely doesn’t understand fertility. Even if you did, you can’t just do that because it’s your lucky number.”

  Galen gave me a grave look. “No, but you underestimate how evil my parents are. They could have combined their magic and used my mother’s history with multiple births to get their perfect three children and just drowned the other babies.”

  I felt like vomiting. Two people evil enough to do that sickened me. It was still a huge reach. I knew from everything Galen had told me about his father that the Fisher King could do that, but I couldn’t imagine a mother looking at her children after going through childbirth and being okay with drowning them just to get a certain number. Was Galen’s mother really like that? This whole time, I thought she could be saved and be a real mother to them.

  Dorothy finally spoke. She wasn’t crying like she used to. She gave us this grim look.

  “I think Galen is right, and I think I know where the third sibling is. Frankie, did you get a good look at Locasta’s maid that served me tea and biscuits?”

  I frowned. I scanned her f
or magic, but all my concentration had been on Locasta that day and worrying about what was going on at the jail. The maid looked like a typical Gillikin. She had brown hair. I remembered her being beautiful for a Gillikin and wondered why she didn’t have a better position than serving Locasta. She kept her shoulders slumped and eyes down like she knew the real side of Locasta.

  “She met my eyes when she set the tray down. The look she shot me was sheer terror, like she was trying to warn me to get out of there. I remember thinking our eyes and chin were similar, but think about it and think about what we saw in the North. Everyone loves Locasta, and she even has those soldiers twisted into doing her bidding. If the maid was really that scared of her, why hadn’t she run away and why is the maid seeing the ugly side of her? The answer is that Locasta resents being asked to take care of her the same way Mombi didn’t want to take care of Ozma, so she abuses her and makes her think she has nowhere else to go.”

  Glinda shuddered. “Locasta spoke to me before she sedated me. I saw what she’s like when she’s not pretending to be a kindly old woman. If she’s treating that girl anything like that, we have to get her out of there.”

  We were missing something. If the number three was so important to the Fisher King and he was an abusive fuck, why would he want three children with Sentinel level magic that could rise up against him if brought together? I was sure that was the point of separating them, but Galen’s purpose was to take care of Saffron and me while the Fisher King slowly killed us.

  Galen said the Fisher King did nothing without reason, and there was something more to this than just a sacred number. Galen’s sisters had a purpose for being born and with the Fisher King, that could mean anything.

  “Galen? You know more about the Fisher King than any of us. Having three children would have him and your mother outnumbered by three people with strong magic. What purpose would he have Dorothy and the other sibling have?”

  “My father doesn’t respect women. They are good for waiting on him and making babies. He possesses dark magic, but he can’t control nature. He was hoping for three boys, or he intends to take them as wives until he drains them and kills them.”

  “I’m his daughter! I can’t be his wife. That’s just gross,” Dorothy shrieked.

  Ozma pulled her into another hug and stroked her hair. “He’s not laying a finger on you. And we’ll get this girl in the North if she is your sister. The Fisher King fucked up. He had three powerful children because he thought he could use them and that number is sacred to him, but think about it. Two more people with Sentinel level magic added to our ranks will help beat him.”

  “Except up until fifteen minutes ago, I thought I was an orphan from Kansas. Like I know the first thing about using magic. I can do the potions I learned in class, but real magic? I can’t even fight.”

  I was so proud of Idris. He didn’t give any snark about all the times he tried to teach Dorothy to fight, and she just stood there crying. He got up and joined the hug with Dorothy and Ozma.

  “You’re getting better at fight training, Dorothy. The staff chose you to fly on it. I can give you extra lessons with the staff.”

  Glinda cleared her throat. “This is where I come in. I have tutors for Francesca and Saffron because they’ve already started their training. I intended to teach Ozma myself. Dorothy and Ozma, you will have to start private training with me. You aren’t students at the Academy anymore. You are now my students.”

  “Do you want my help?” I asked.

  Glinda shook her head. “The rest of the students at this school need your help learning to defend themselves. The Fisher King will eventually start grabbing people Locasta didn’t vet for him.”

  Galen looked directly at Glinda. “Whatever plans he had will be stepped up now that he’s lost you. He still needs more magic to takeover Oz, and those people he’s getting from the North are just light snacks for him. He will step up his plans to grab a Sentinel.”

  “Which means we need to get to this girl in the North before the Fisher King kills her,” Ozma pointed out.

  I guess we were going back to the North. I wondered if Gugu would help us again.

  Chapter 2

  Galen

  M

  y sister. Dorothy was my fucking sister. If I had learned anything about Sentinels being around Frankie and Glinda, she was my twin. They had probably put her under some sleeping curse when we were babies, and that’s why she was a few years younger than I was. I just couldn’t believe it. Why hadn’t I paid more consideration to her before?

  There was something that always bothered me about her before Frankie reversed the spell. It was something a little too familiar. Now that the spell was broken, I realized how much she looked like my mother. The spell didn’t just change her hair. It widened her nose a little and narrowed the width between her eyes. Her lips were a little fuller.

  Now that the spell was broken, she looked exactly like my mother, and I didn’t know how I felt about that. Dorothy was our friend, but my mother wasn’t. My mother would just as soon see us all dead. I knew Frankie wanted to try to save her, but she had no idea how evil my mother had truly become in that cave.

  I knew they thought I was crazy about there being another sibling out there, but they didn’t know my parents. The number three was sacred to my father. He would only have three children, or he would have one so that I made three with him and my mother. If he had twins, Dorothy wouldn’t have been sent away. They would have just drowned her in the river by our cave.

  That left only one logical explanation. There was a third sibling out there. Dorothy must have felt it at Locasta’s castle. We needed to save my other sister. Dorothy was safe, but for how long? The Fisher King must have thought she wasn’t a threat because of the spell that was done to her. He would have thought he was so clever, no one would have guessed who she was.

  Our time table would have to be moved up. Locasta would have immediately reported Dorothy was in the North. He’d let her run free this entire time, but there was a reason. He never did anything unless there was a reason. The only reason he was letting Dorothy roam free was that he didn’t want to play his hand just yet.

  Having Glinda and Dorothy in his grips, then losing them would make him careless. He would want them back. I had no idea why he had my sisters other than for a magical battery, but it was my duty to keep them safe.

  I had no idea if I was born first or what order we were born in. I didn’t know if I was older or younger than them. I was technically older than Dorothy right now. I didn’t know about my other sister, but I would protect both of them.

  Ozma took Dorothy off to their rooms, and I hardly got to talk to her at all. I got it. I did. Dorothy just had her entire world shattered. She couldn’t go back to the home she knew. Even if Frankie was willing to put the spell back on her, she knew Oz was her real home now. She would have to leave behind everything she knew. She had a family back in Kans-ass too.

  I would have to make it a point to talk to my sister when I could. I didn’t just need to protect her from our father. I needed to help her with what he had done to her in the past too.

  Chapter 3

  Frankie

  G

  ugu wasn’t napping when I tried to contact him. That cat certainly liked his naps. Almost as soon as I told him we wanted to come back to the North, he told us not to. I tried to explain what was going on and he just laughed at me and told me it wasn’t necessary. I was getting a little pissed off at him.

  “Little Sentinel, let me do this. We can get a talking animal close to her and convince her to come to the Forest of Gugu. I can get her to you. But if Glinda and this girl go missing, the Fisher King will know his son is alive and step up his plans.”

  “We know, but he may step up his plans and drain her. I think Locasta is abusing her. She might be hard to approach.”

  “No, but Locasta will not let Dorothy get away a second time, and the rest of you are already on her radar.”
/>   “True.”

  I could see the logic behind Gugu’s plan, but how was a talking animal going to get into Locasta’s palace, anyway? If I were a talking animal, I’d be as far away from there as possible.

  Gugu gave me this purring laugh. “Mice make good spies, little Sentinel. They can get in and talk to this girl. Our mice and rats are brave and fierce.”

  “Can you thank the rats again for helping Galen?”

  “I think you did that enough when you were here, but I’ll pass the message again. I’ll send the mice and contact you when I have word. Get back to your training, little Sentinel.”

  “Thank you, Gugu,” I said as he disappeared from my mirror.

  I looked around my room. “How are you, Galen? Come sit with us.”

  I’d have to give it to Idris for being nice. He got up so Galen could sit by me. “How do you feel about Dorothy being your sister?” I asked, playing with his hair.

  Galen sighed. “We have to do something. The Fisher King will step up his plans now that he’s lost Dorothy and Glinda.”

  I knew that. I also knew he would lose his shit when we got Galen’s other sister. In fact, I was banking on it.

  “That’s my plan. You said he’s not ready to move yet. He will get careless when he loses your other sister too. You’re sure there’s a third?”

  Galen’s shoulders slumped. “Yeah. If there were just twins, he would have drowned Dorothy instead of just sending her away. I told you they are awful. Do you think Gugu can do this? I want to go to the North myself.”

  I couldn’t help it. I tightened my fingers in his hair and pulled a little. I didn’t want Galen in the North at all, but I couldn’t exactly tell him what to do.

  “Could you stay here unless Gugu fails? If something goes wrong, we’ll all go.”

  I was holding my breath. Galen wasn’t hot-headed like Idris or me. I didn’t take him for the type to go charging into the North without a plan, but I also didn’t know what he was like when his family was involved.