Dorothy Must Die Novella #7 by Danielle Paige

of that did you hear?”
    â€œHardly anything,” she lied. Nox snorted softly.
    â€œRight. Well, then you know hardly anything about my personal business, and so you have nothing to tell anyone else. Right?”
    â€œI—I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone anything,” she stammered. That much was the truth. Whatever had just happened between Nox and Melindra, it was deep and ugly and painful. Melindra’s anger came from a depth of love Lanadel had only ever imagined but never experienced herself. She wondered suddenly if someday someone would be able to hurt her as badly as Nox had just hurt Melindra. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know.
    â€œYou’d better not,” he said. His voice was dangerous.
    â€œShe loves you, you know,” Lanadel blurted. Nox jerked back, and for a second she thought he was going to hit her.
    â€œThat’s none of your business ,” he snarled. “None of this is any of your business. And if you tell anyone—and I mean anyone —about what you just heard, I’ll throw you off this mountain so fast you won’t have time to pray before you hit the bottom.”
    The way he was looking at her—there was somethingfrightening about it. As if he wanted to hurt her. As if he wanted to make her disappear. As if he hated her.
    And then she realized why. He wasn’t angry at her for accidentally spying on him. He was angry because she’d seen that he could be hurt—and that Melindra was the one who could hurt him. He was angry because for once she’d seen through the shell to whatever he was underneath—and the person he was underneath wasn’t brave enough to choose love over everything he knew.
    She didn’t like Nox, but she understood him. She felt, sometimes, like they were the same. Working with the Order, for the Order, was the only way of working through the pain. Without the Order, without some goal, pain would be all that was left in her.
    But Lanadel wasn’t ready to hurt the only friend she had in this world to get the revenge she so desperately wanted—and she’d just watched Nox basically stab Melindra in the heart. So maybe they weren’t the same, deep down. Nox had really meant what he said. The Order was the only thing he had. But in the last few weeks, she’d learned something important: a friend could make her forget about her pain, too. Not for long. Not for good. But it was something. And, she realized, it was something Nox had never had. And if Melindra really was going to Dorothy’s palace on a mission that would almost certainly kill her, it was something she might never have again. She could forgive Nox his pain. She could forgive him for hurting the girl she cared about more than anyone else living that she knew. But if he didn’tstop Melindra—if he let her go to her death—then he was no different to her than Dorothy. And if Melindra died, she’d make him pay, too. Because, she realized, there was a part of her—yet another Lanadel—who felt something more for Melindra. Something messier and more complicated than just friendship. Just another piece of herself to add to the list of all her different selves. All the different directions her heart wanted to go.
    â€œWell?” He raised an eyebrow. “Shall we go back?”
    â€œI—I can’t,” she admitted. “I think I used up all my magic getting here.”
    He smiled without any warmth behind it. “Too bad. I guess you’ll have to take the long way home,” he said, and vanished with a pop as faint as a bursting bubble. Lanadel took one last look at the stars and sighed. She had no idea how far up she was. But she was pretty sure it was a long walk back to her bed.

EIGHT
    The next morning, she got up at dawn as usual. She hadn’t slept after making her way down the endless twisting and turning tunnels that led back to the Order’s caverns from