Page 14 of Ozma

There was no other choice but for her to be okay.

Jack found Ozma’s hands, moved his grip up,and hooked her under her arms. Then he kicked hard for the surface of the lake. A high-pitched screech flowed through the water, echoing down to Jack’s bones. He almost released Ozma as his body tried to curl in on itself.

His gaze met a pair of white eyes, within a strangely human face, glowing through the dirt, illuminating the area.Undine.A particularly nasty water faerie that could also roam the land in search of a new home. He bared his teeth at the fae and aimed his next kick at her face. The heel of his foot connected with her nose. He felt a satisfyingcrunchand blood further clouded the water around her head.

Jack used the undine’s moment of surprise to yank Ozma up, up, up, not stopping until they were both completely on land where the undine wouldn’t hunt. He flipped Ozma to her back and started pressing on her bare chest in even compressions.

“Come on, come on,” he urged. “Don’t die.”

As if hearing his desperate words, Ozma coughed. Water spewed from her mouth and she rolled to her side, sputtering. Jack leaned back on his heels, gasping for air along with her, and ran both hands through his wet hair.

“Shit, Blossom,” he wheezed. “What were you thinking coming here alone? Anything could be living in there now that the barrier’s down.” Even though he wouldn’t have expected an undine to move in. But this washislake. His and Tip’s. He would have to come back later and kill the undine because there was no way he was giving this place up.

She shot him an angry, sideways glance.

“So youweren’tthinking,” he spat.

“Stop. Talking,” she said in a hoarse voice and sat up.

Jack unconsciously flicked a glance at her chest and the peaked nipples that greeted him. He hadn’t meant to look. It was absolutely inappropriate given the circumstances, but he couldn’t stop his eyes from sliding downward.

“Look somewhere else.” Ozma quickly crossed her arms over her chest as though she were ashamed of something.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to.” He squeezed his eyes shut and willed away the image of her breasts, nipples hard from the cold, before opening them again. “Are you … okay?”

She seemed to think for a moment, a line creasing her brows. “Something grabbed me.”

“An undine,” Jack supplied. “She must’ve been searching for a new home and found the lake uninhabited.”

Ozma slowly nodded, her teeth chattering.

Jack stood to gather her satchel, dress, and the lantern. “Come on. Let’s get you inside so you can warm up.”

Ozma eased back to her feet and took the dress from him, pulling it over her sopping wet body. When they returned to his hut, Jack would give her one of his shirts to sleep in so her dress could dry in front of the fireplace.

“You didn’t answer my question,” he said when they started walking back toward the field. “Are you okay?”

“I think so.” She licked her lips. “Thanks for … saving me. How did you know I was there?”

“Of course,” he mumbled. “I heard your scream and came.” He wouldn’t tell her that he’d only been able to do so because he’d followed her. Or that he was more concerned with getting answers about Tip than he was with her personally. Because, though he was a selfish asshole, he couldn’t let her know that.

Yet.

Chapter Seven

Ozma

Sunlight spilled through the window, shining in Ozma’s left eye, causing her to squint. She’d been staring at the ceiling of Jack’s hut for most of the night after he’d patched her up. Then, without her asking, Jack had changed the tumbled sheets of the bed. Ozma still couldn’t bring herself to sleep on it, though.

A dull throb pulsed at her waist from where the undine’s claws had dug into her flesh, but Jack’s healing ointment had done its job.

During the night, she couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if Jack hadn’t come to the lake. Too much of Oz would’ve been let down because she’d failed before she even started. Each passing day, the weight on her shoulders was growing heavier with the Wizard and Mombi out there, still alive.

Magic would have helped her, but she had to settle for her own smarts, her dagger, and Mombi’s spell books.

The door swung open, and she lurched forward to find Jack, head cocked and mouth turned up into a smirk.

“Rise and shine, Blossom,” he purred, motioning her forward with a finger. “Come on.”

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