“Sorry,” he said. “I hate to intrude.”

I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to tell him everything. About how hard the last week had been, about how lonely and confused I’d been without him.

“Amy,” he said, practically before he’d even fully materialized. “You’ve put us in a terrible position.”

He looked at me, and then his disguise faded away, and the Nox I knew—dark and angular and strong—stood before me. His eyes blazed with anger.

“Jellia is going to die because of your pointless risk. She’s been a loyal agent for the Order almost since the beginning, and now we’ve lost her. Because of you.”

“I didn’t . . .” I began to defend myself, but I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. I turned my face away from his. “I had to,” I said. “I couldn’t let the Scarecrow do that to that poor monkey. And the Wizard told me . . .”

“The Wizard?” Nox asked incredulously. “Why would you listen to anything the Wizard told you?”

“He was trying to give me a message,” I said. “Trying to tell me that Maude was important. That the Scarecrow was using her to create something. That we had to stop him.”

Nox stared at me as if I was the stupidest person alive. “The Wizard is a manipulator, Amy,” he replied. “It’s what he does. It’s how he survives. You can’t believe a word he says.”

“I can’t believe a word any of you say,” I snapped, my temper flaring. “Maybe if you’d actually told me Jellia was my handler, if I’d known—”

“You didn’t need to know,” he answered. “It wasn’t part of the plan—”

“What freaking plan?” I practically shouted. Days of frustration, of living in the dark, were beginning to boil in my blood. “You didn’t tell me what I was supposed to do. You didn’t give me anything to go on.”

Nox shook his head. “When will you learn? Some things are bigger than you, Amy.”

I didn’t want to hear any of that mission-before-all-else crap. So I shoved him. Nox stumbled back, surprised.

“You just left me here,” I yelled, jabbing his chest with my finger. “I didn’t know if I’d ever hear from any of you again.”

Nox caught at my wrists, stopping me before I could shove him again. “Do you think I liked leaving you here? Not being able to talk to you or see you, not knowing whether you were okay or not? I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to.”

“I’m just a chess piece for you people to move around,” I hissed, tearing away from his grip.

For a moment, I thought I saw a look of genuine hurt cross Nox’s face. But then he drew himself up, his voice going cold.

“And now you’ve ruined everything,” he said quietly. “We had a plan, and Jellia was part of it. Now she’s gone, and every second I’m here puts everything we’ve worked for at risk.”

“You want to make me feel worse?” I asked. “Is that it?”

“I thought I could trust you,” Nox said. “I thought you understood what we were trying to accomplish.”

At that, I had to look away. I was furious at him for putting me in this position, but it’d been my decision to free Maude, and ultimately that meant what happened to Jellia was on me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean for Jellia to get hurt.”

“Being sorry doesn’t change anything,” Nox said with a sigh. “All it does is waste your energy. And you’ll need every bit of strength for what’s coming.”

I looked up at him. “Are you going to tell me what that is this time? Or are you going to surprise me again?”

“The ball,” he said, ignoring my commentary. “That’s when we strike.”

Of course. The gala that Dorothy had been planning for months was tomorrow night. If only everything could have held off for one more day, we wouldn’t be in this situation. Jellia wouldn’t be in this situation.

“I’d tell you the rest of the plan, but at this point there barely is a plan,” he went on. “Without Jellia, we’re going to have to change some things around. Jellia was supposed to assign you as Dorothy’s official cocktail waitress—”

“Cocktail waitress? Seriously?”

“Dorothy has been known to . . .” Nox hesitated. “Imbibe. Quite a bit.”

“She’s a lush,” I said, almost laughing, thinking about my drunken mother sprawled on the couch and how often I’d been her private waitress. “I would have been perfect at that.”

“We can’t control the new head maid—whoever it is—so we don’t know if you’ll be in proximity, if you’ll even be working the ball.”

“I’ll find a way,” I told him. “Am I going to be on my own again?”

“No,” Nox said. “I’ll be there, too, but you might not recognize me. And the rest of the Order and its allies will be close by. While Dorothy and Glinda are distracted by the party, they’re going to be working to set up magical wards around the palace, to temporarily disable the use of magic. Dorothy won’t be able to use her shoes; Glinda won’t be able to use her spells.”

“What about me?” I asked. “That means I won’t be able to use magic either.”