For a moment there, nobody said a single thing. Nobody had any idea—and nobody wanted to think about it, either. It couldn’t possibly be anything good.
“And what aboutus?” said Helen. “What about…us? What didwedo between trials?”
My heart beat faster and faster.
“What did we forget exactly?” March.
“Did we just hang out in our own rooms, or…?” Anika.
No, I wanted to say, the word on the tip of my tongue. No, we did not just hang out in our own rooms.
Of course, I kept my mouth shut. There was no way to know what the truth was.
“It’sher,isn’t it,” Cook said. “It’s the Red Queen.”
We all wrapped our arms around ourselves as if we were suddenly cold.
“She did something. Sheknowswe know—did you see how she looked at us?” Helen asked, and I wanted to agree,too. She’d knownsomething,and I’d beenthisclose to demanding she tell us what she did if it weren’t for whatever went on inside my body that stopped me. Or whatever kind of magic had been in the air.
“We should tell the White Queen again,” one of them said.
“No—they’resisters!”
“She’s not going to actually do anything about it.”
“But she got her off our table today, you saw it.”
“That doesn’t mean anything—they are still queens. Both are equals. We can’t risk it.”
“Helen’s right,” March said from my side. “We can’t mention the Red Queen to the White again.”
“So, what are we going to do—just pretend we don’t know anything?” Russ said through gritted teeth.
“Unwin the next trial,” Anika said reluctantly. “The Great Clock is still stuck.We’restill stuck here. We have to play; otherwise, it’s over for everyone. Our families, the entire realm…”
Faces flashed before my eyes—Jinx, Mother and Father, my uncle and aunts, my cousins. My friends.
I’d known peoplebefore.I’d had friends and I’d had memories—memories that were stillthereinside me right now, yet for some reason they felt like they belonged to someone else. It felt like they were separated from me by a thin veil, and I couldn’t access them—or if I could, they weren’t whole.
The only memories that were complete in my head right now were those of Jinx when she woke me up in the morning, and those of March that weren’tmymemories at all.
“And after the trial, we try to find out more,” Helen said with a nod. “We try to figure out why they’re lying to us, who else remembers, who Silas really was, and what kind of a curse he put on us.”
The Hands took in deep breaths.
“We plan. We try—all together,” Seth said. “We’ll findsomething.Ora already found the heartlock—there will be more things in this place that can help us.”
He sounded hopeful.
He sounded terrified.
“And if we do find something?” Mimi asked.
“And if wedon’t?” Erith.
Again, nobody had an answer.
“Let’s call it a day, get some rest. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Right now, there isn’t much we can do,” Russ said, and he started for his room.
