Dorothy Must Die Novella #7 by Danielle Paige Read Free Book Online Page B

You’re here to tap into the magic you already know.”
    â€œI can’t do that in the training caves?”
    â€œOh, sure you can. But this is much nicer, don’t you think? Plus, if you accidentally turn a rock into a dragon or some such, there’s no one for it to eat except you.”
    Lanadel gulped. Surely Mombi was joking? But her face was severe. With the old witch, you never knew. “So what do I do?” she asked.
    Mombi waggled her other eyebrow. “What do you do ?” she echoed. “You stand here until you can feel it. The river’s lemonade, incidentally, if you get thirsty.”
    â€œFeel what ?” Lanadel asked, exasperated.
    â€œFeel magic,” Mombi said. “Obviously.” She rolled her eyes. Lanadel bit back a sarcastic retort. Training with Nox was hard enough, but at least she knew what she was supposed to be doing. Standing here, no matter how beautiful it was, listening to Mombi spout nonsensical riddles, was something else entirely. She’d felt something when Nox had provoked her in the corridor outside her sleeping cave. Something totally different from anything she’d known before. Something huge, and powerful,and alive. Apparently that was magic. But she had no idea where it had come from, or how to get it back. And Nox wasn’t here to get in a fight with—although Mombi was getting close to aggravating her to the same degree. Maybe that’s what she’s trying to do, Lanadel thought. Except that “infuriating” was pretty much Mombi’s standard operating mode. The witch looked at her expectantly.
    â€œI’m not a witch,” Lanadel said.
    Mombi actually laughed out loud, slapping her knees in merriment. “Oh, goodness no, girl. You don’t have to be a witch to use magic . Everyone in Oz knows that .”
    I didn’t, Lanadel thought. And then she thought suddenly of Holly and Larkin and their sneering, superior faces. If they could learn magic, so could she. Mombi had told her to stand there until she felt it, whatever “it” was. And if that was what it took, that was what she was going to do.
    Lanadel closed her eyes. Shut out the swirling clouds and the mountain vista, the musical sounds of the river winding over the ground. Forgot the sun on her face and the gentle, warm breeze in her hair. She thought back to the thing she’d felt for the briefest moment, the tiny seed of flame that had flared to life in her chest. And then, for the first time since she’d come to the training caves, she let herself think about her brothers. If emotion was what it took to bring magic to life inside her, there was no emotion stronger than what she felt about losing her family. Nothing more powerful than the anger and hatred that drove her to the Order, to learn the skills she needed to destroy everyone who’dever hurt her. Everyone who’d taken so much away from her. And suddenly the tiny flame roared up into a fire as huge as the flames that had burned her village and swallowed up her brothers’ bodies—a bonfire that took hold and spread as rapidly as wildfire across the landscape of her heart. She was burning alive with power; she could feel it roaring around her, crackling from her fingers and hissing through her hair. There was nothing she couldn’t do, no one she couldn’t take down—
    And then Mombi grabbed her hands again and the flames went out as though they’d been doused with an ocean’s worth of cold water. She shuddered and sank to her knees. “Wizard’s teeth, girl,” Mombi said, sounding a little shaken. “I should have taken a closer look at you before I told you to tap into that.” Mombi pulled her back to her feet and put an arm around her briefly until Lanadel could stand without help. The witch regarded her thoughtfully. “You’re a very angry young lady,” she said.
    Lanadel took a deep, shuddering