Francesca, The Great and Terrible: A Reverse Harem Academy Romance Read online

  By the time we got to the front of the class, the Munchkins had already surrounded their desks. I had to learn the name of the Munchkin Saffron, and I had saved from falling to his death because I knew he was going to be trouble. His name was Todus, and he had his hands on his hips. He was glaring at Ozma.

  “That’s my seat,” he sneered.

  Ozma just took a bite out of her peach. “I don’t see your name on it. Why don’t you try taking it from me?”

  Todus stomped his foot. “Get out of my seat now, you bitch. You too, Dorothy. There’s more of us than there are of you.”

  I knew the Munchkins weren’t going to fight. They were going to bluster and make threats, but they wouldn’t actually come to blows. They were all pretty miserable with melee weapons. I didn’t know if I should step in since they were already scared of me, or let Ozma handle it.

  Before I could even decide, Ozma pushed back her chair and leaned over the table so she was practically nose to nose with Todus.

  “As I said, if you want this seat, come take it,” she snapped. Magic was crackling at her fingertips.

  A girl who was always around Todus and must have been his girlfriend just scowled and pulled him away.

  “Leave it, Todus. She’s not worth it. We’ll get her later.”

  Ozma just laughed in her face. “I’d like to see you try.”

  “Laying a finger on this girl is punishable by death,” Professor Equora called, walking in from a side door.

  She looked harried. All our professors looked like hot messes since Daxar and Glinda went missing. Equora’s blonde hair was sticking up everywhere, and she was about to drop her books everywhere. She slammed her armload of books on the table, and her spectacles fell off her nose. She just picked them up and pushed them back on her face.

  “Just take another seat and leave Ozma and Dorothy alone. I mean it. You’re going to get a rude awakening if you touch any of the students here. I’m sure all of you have noticed changes to the school by now. So, I’m teaching you magic in my own way. There’s no one here to tell me I can’t. We’re going back to the basics. I’m going to teach you how the potions we already learned work. You need to learn how the ingredients work, and you may want to brew your own potions.”

  I shot Saffron a knowing look. Glinda’s geas was backfiring, and so was her absence. She set this curriculum for a reason, and Equora went along with it, but now she didn’t know why she had agreed to it. She was questioning things because she didn’t have Glinda here to ask.

  The entire school was crumbling. Some of these students didn’t need to know why these ingredients worked the way they did. Todus and his friends were several of them. I needed to handle this, especially since Todus said he had something planned for Ozma and Dorothy. He’d probably do the same to Saffron.

  I jumped up and pulled Equora to the side of the room. “I don’t think this is a good idea. Some of these students don’t need to know how to brew their own potions. Anyone can see that.”

  “Yes, but there are several who do, and I can’t remember why this school was founded. I need to prepare them. I trusted Glinda, and now she’s disappeared.”

  “I’m trying to find Glinda. Can you hold off until I know more about what’s going on?”

  “Only because it was you that asked, Francesca. Very well.”

  Equora faced the class. “Change of plans. We are learning to disarm basic hexes. None of you would be here unless you had inherent magic, so you should be able to do this.”

  Todus’ hand immediately shot up. “Excuse me, are you saying you’re going to let someone fling hexes at us?”

  Equora rolled her eyes. “No. We are spending more than one day on this lesson. You will learn the basic principles today. You have to learn to tap into your magic to call a shield. The stronger the shield, the better chance you have at not being hexed.”

  “What if we don’t have any magic?” Dorothy asked. “I’m not from a fairyland.”

  “No one plans on putting you in battle, Dorothy. But you can still practice. Maybe there is a little magic where you come from.”

  Ozma squeezed Dorothy’s hand and whispered in her ear. Maybe there was magic where Dorothy came from. We had been so wrapped up in Galen’s daddy drama we never asked him about Dorothy. Was Dorothy related to Galen very distantly? I made it a point to ask him after class.

  Equora went over the basics of calling a magical shield. This was being taught out of order. A magical shield wouldn’t have been taught this soon in lessons, but I understood why it was being taught now. I still thought it was stupid to throw a bunch of young people who were barely trained up against the Fisher King if that was the point of this school.

  I’d always known Oprix and his family had magic. I offered to teach it to them when I moved in, but they were happy being farmers. I wasn’t sure if Flying Monkey magic could call the same magical shield that I did. I was trying to help both of them while Saffron helped Emari and Emarus.

  “It’s the same principle,” Idris said, squeezing my hand. “You call the magic in your blood and send it outward. You tell it to protect you, and it makes a barrier.”

  Oprix’s face was screwed up in concentration. “I know you said my family has magic, but I don’t feel like I have any.”

  “Oprix, you look like you’re calling a big shit, not magic,” Idris said. “Stop straining and relax.”

  “Oh, shut up. I do not.”

  “You kind of do,” I giggled. “Just relax. You can’t force it. You’ll feel it tingle when it happens.”

  “Idris is sitting there talking about how easy it is, but I don’t see him doing it,” Oprix pouted.

  I saw Idris produce a shield, but it was golden instead of silver. That was Flying Monkey magic, not my kind of magic. It could work, but I didn’t know if it would work on hexes. It wasn’t past Oprix’s notice.

  “Ha! That’s a Flying Monkey shield. Frankie, hex his cock and see if it works the same.”

  “How about we just ask him?” I said. I wanted to use that cock eventually. “Does it work against hexes?”

  “It works against all magic. I don’t think I can call the same magic you do while I’m in my monkey form. I might be able to when I’m a man, but not like this.”

  I nodded. That made total sense. “We can figure that out when we’re alone. Oprix, let’s work on your shield. Everyone has a trigger for their magic. We need to find yours.”

  Idris just snorted. “We already know what his is.”

  “What’s yours, Frankie?” Oprix asked.

  “When I was a kid, it was my friendship with the two of you and my love for my mother. After she was murdered, it became rage. Now, it’s my rage and my love for the two of you again.”

  Galen had been mostly quiet this entire time. “Oprix’s trigger is his love for you. Anyone can see that. Oprix, think of your happiest memory with Frankie, and you should feel your magic tingling. Use it to call your shield.”

  I watched Oprix’s shoulders visibly relax as a dreamy look came over his face. A silver light enveloped his skin. He did it! Since I decided I was going to do it more, I gave Galen a hug when I was giving Oprix one too.

  “Thank you, Galen. I needed some help.”

  Galen half managed to hug me back this time. Maybe he was making progress. He gave me a shy smile.

  “I’ll always help you, Frankie.”

  Idris just scowled, but Oprix held out his hand like he accepted Galen.

  “Thanks, man. I couldn’t have done that without your help.”

  Maybe it wouldn’t be a total cluster fuck if I tried to get Galen alone to get to know him.

  Chapter 13

  Idris

  W

  ell, fight training had certainly changed. I’m pretty sure Professor Ixius was drunker than a Winkie farmer during class, and we were still doing his job for him, but Dorothy just waltzed up to me with Ozma and asked me to teach both of them. She actually looked ready to fight, and
Ozma was looking at me like she wanted to kick my ass around Emerald City.

  “I pretended with a staff I’d fashioned when I was still Tip. It’ll be nice to learn how to actually use it,” Ozma said.

  “You don’t have to stay with the staff. Francesca uses a sword, and Saffron shoots a bow. Glinda fights with a scythe. I’m not sure what Locasta’s weapon is. There’s plenty of weapons you could choose.”

  “Did Saffron enchant her arrow to hit the apple in Oprix’s mouth, or is she just that good?” Dorothy asked.

  “She’s just that good. Enchanting the arrow is cheating, and it can end up being stupid. Someone makes a sudden move, and the arrow ends up in a tree. The bow is a long-range weapon, though Frabess has taught her to use it in hand to hand combat. You have to aim and plot with the bow. Saffron prefers it because she can fight without being seen.”

  Ozma twirled her staff. “Does anyone ever just stay with the staff?”

  “Sure,” I said. “Plenty of people do. It can be deadly in the right hands. I can teach both of you if you want to stick with it.”

  A certain green-haired boy that looked at my girlfriend in ways I didn’t like had chosen the staff. I tried not to show my dislike of him since Ozma and Francesca both liked him. They trusted him, but I didn’t. He even managed to worm his way in and get Oprix on his side in magic class. I was going to find out his secrets. I didn’t think he’d told us all of them just yet.

  I turned back to Ozma and Dorothy. “I want you to try sparring with each other before you spar with me. Learn from each other so I can watch you and correct your form.”

  They both braced their feet and held their staffs in the defensive position. Ozma may have just been playing around with the staff when she used to be Tip, but she was pretty good. Dorothy had apparently been paying attention while she had been crying.

  I’d make fighters out of these two yet.

  Chapter 14

  Galen

  I

  t was weird having friends. Were they my friends? I’d never had any before, so I didn’t know. They were sharing their room with me, and they were perfectly nice to me, but were they just being nice to me because I could help them with my parents? I was trying to stay under their radar, but I was also trying to help them when I could. I didn’t want to seem like I was trying too hard, but I desperately wanted to be their friends, and I was desperately in love with Francesca of the West.

  I felt needed for once in fight training. There were Quadlings I didn’t even know coming up to me and asking for my help with the staff. They were introducing themselves and wanting to know my name. No one was questioning my hair, but a few girls hit on me and told me they thought it was sexy. That was definitely weird. I’d never been hit on before. I tried to hit on Frankie, but I really had no idea what I was doing. I tried to mimic what I saw in the Emerald City pubs.

  We were finished with fight training, and I’d worked up an appetite. Fighting always made me hungry, even if I was just teaching people to fight today. Luckily, we went to eat lunch before we went down to the jail to question Mombi. I needed a full stomach before I saw that old witch. I never saw her with my parents, but I heard them talk about her. She was a nasty piece of work.

  When we got to the cafeteria, it was chaos. Todus and his Munchkin friends were sitting there crowded around a table, and all the Quadlings were just standing around with their trays because all of the chairs had disappeared. Where were the professors? The Winkie that taught magic seemed really stressed, and Professor Ixius had been drunk both times I’d encountered him. I didn’t blame the professors or Glinda. I blamed my father. I didn’t think Glinda was up to anything. If she was gone, she was either hiding for her life, or my father had taken her.

  These Munchkins were nothing compared to my father. They told Ozma and Dorothy they would get them back for taking their seats in magic class, so they decided to be childish and hide all the seats in the dining hall. It was childish, really. Passive-aggressive and stupid. I knew how these Munchkins worked. They liked to talk big, but if you actually challenged them to a fight, they’d back down. It was the exact opposite of my father. My father was a different kind of bully—the insane kind.

  Frankie and Ozma weren’t having it. They marched straight over to the Munchkin’s table. Frankie hauled Todus out his seat by his collar. Even Todus was taller than Frankie. I wondered if she was going to call her sword. She wouldn’t need it with this bunch, but it would get her point across.

  “Go get the chairs now, or I’ll break your nose. Next time, I’ll just let you fall to your death instead of saving your life, you miserable little shit.”

  I expected Todus to back down. He had to be extremely stupid. He tried to shove Frankie away from him.

  “Everyone else might be scared of you, but I’m not. If you really are a Sentinel and not a Wicked Witch, then you can’t hurt any of us. You have to kiss our asses and protect us no matter what. Why don’t you take that green ass of yours and see if you can find the chairs?”

  Oh, this was not going to be pretty. Perhaps no one explained to him Sentinels also punished people like him? He was just asking for it. Frankie hauled back and punched him in the face. Todus went flying across the table, sending his friend’s lunches flying everywhere. He landed on the floor and didn’t get up.

  Ozma came to stand at Frankie’s side. “Go get the chairs. Now. A Sentinel’s job is to protect, but it’s also to punish, and all of you have been awful to the other students since you got here. I won’t stand for it. Now go get the chairs you hid so the rest of us can eat. We all have work to do after we finish our meal.”

  Todus’ girlfriend scowled at us while the Munchkins all slunk off to get the hidden chairs.

  “You’ll pay for this,” she sneered. “You don’t know who Todus’ father is. He’ll have all of you in jail for this.”

  Ozma just laughed in her face. “He can certainly try. Now, run along and fetch those chairs. If I catch the Munchkins giving any other students guff in this school again, maybe you’ll be the ones spending time in a jail cell.”

  The Munchkins were all grumping and bitching as they brought the chairs back in. Based on how long it took and how red their faces were when they started trailing back in., they must have hidden them somewhere on the roof where we couldn’t see them during fight training. I could tell you better than anyone there were plenty of places to hide on the rooftop garden where fight training was held.

  I was still a little shocked no professors had come in during this entire exchange. No one had stopped the Munchkins from hiding the chairs, and no one stopped Frankie from punching Todus in the face. No one had come in to check on Todus either. Two Munchkins were still crouched on the floor next to him, trying to wake him up. He was going to have a huge headache when he woke up, and I had no doubt if he thought his father was important, he’d be sending him a raven about this.

  Pretty soon, we were all sitting at a table with our food. I’ll say this for Emerald City Academy. The food was excellent. My father was lazy. After guarding the grail and only being able to fish for centuries, he insisted on fresh meat every night. First, my mother hunted for him, then when I was old enough, she didn’t want to do anymore, and it was my job to hunt. It soon became like that with the cooking too. I was more like a servant than a son to them.

  It was kind of nice to just serve myself at a dining hall or off a spread that was brought up to us in Frankie’s room. I didn’t have to hunt it, and I didn’t have to cook it either. I didn’t have to worry about getting beaten because I hadn’t brought enough meat home, or there was too much salt in the stew I made. I could just enjoy my food without worrying about what was going to happen if someone didn’t like it.

  “Frankie, are you crazy?” Saffron hissed. “Even if they know the truth, the Munchkins are going to flip that you punched one of them. Do you know who Todus’ father is? He’s the most influential Munchkin in the East. He does trade all over Oz. Todus is goin
g to tell him, and he’s the type to come here and make a stink. Professor Ixius is not Headmaster Daxar. Daxar could handle him. Ixius can’t even handle his mead.”

  Ozma just sniffed. “I’ll handle him if he comes. The staff knows who I really am. I’ll tell Ixius if he couldn’t be arsed to stop the Munchkins from hiding the chairs, then he can let me deal with Todus’ father.”

  “I actually think we should all talk to him,” Frankie said. “If we’re fixing Oz, we need to figure out what happened to the Munchkins so Saffron has a home to go back to.”

  I needed to make myself useful. I didn’t have time to discuss everything I knew yet. “I know what happened with the Munchkins. It started way before the spell to forget the Sentinels. Locasta was portalling in and cursing people to make it look like Adora didn’t have a handle on things at first. After the spell, when Adora had to go into hiding, Locasta swept in and started blaming all the curses on Adora. Locasta was spending more time in the East than the North twisting the Munchkins into what they are now.”

  “But why?” Saffron cried. “The Munchkins never hurt anyone before. They used to be so nice. Why did they turn the Munchkins into such horrible people?”

  “Because the Fisher King wants to settle in the East when he finishes taking over Oz. Emerald City is right in the center of Oz, and that’s where he lived the last time he ruled Oz, but almost everything in Emerald City is imported. The East is the richest region of Oz when it comes to natural resources and things he could use to build his own kingdom. My father wouldn’t want to live in a palace another man built. He would want to tear it down and rebuild to his own image. He wants to do that in the East instead of Emerald City.”

  Everyone at the table was frowning at me like I said something wrong. This wasn’t my plan. I was against the entire thing. I was just repeating what I had heard so I could try to help stop it. Were they finally realizing they’d let the son of the Fisher King inside their circle and turning against me?