My stomach groaned like a machine. “Jinx,” I said reluctantly. “My sister.”
Like always, my first instinct when talking about her was to shut down, to keep all the words tucked safely inside my mouth, never let them out.
But there was something about the way I felt just now, something about being pressed against his chest, listening to his heart beating, savoring the heat of his skin. It undid me, unwound me.
So, when March asked, “Where is she now?” I actually answered.
“She passed away about two years ago.” Words I’d rarely said out loud before.
The way he stiffened next to me was evident. I closed my eyes again and pressed my cheek against his chest. His skin warm, smooth as silk.
“I’m sorry, Velvet,” he said, and I appreciated it because I knew he meant it.
“That’s okay,” I said, and it was.
“What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Hastenheart,” I whispered, and he pulled me closer.
“How old?”
“Twenty.” Jinx had only been twenty years old.
“My mother’s sister was twenty-one,” said March as he caressed my shoulder and back and hair. I was sorry for him, too.
There were plenty of diseases in the Clockrealm, but to me, Hastenheart was the worst of them. It was called the Heart-Racing Syndrome, and it was sneaky, impossible to be detected until it was too late. It made the heart age fasterthan the rest of the body, so the body remained young, followed the order of time, while the heart aged much faster, then stopped beating.
The sense of guilt I always carried with me for the past two years suffocated me. I should have seen it, I should have known. Her sudden emotional outbreaks, how she sometimes shut down and stared out the window for hours with both hands over her chest—and I’d hugged her countless times, too. Hastenhearts skipped seconds all the time in their rush to beat, but I never once felt the difference because I wasn’t looking. And Jinx never knew a heartshouldbeat differently because she lived with hers all her life.
Such a curse. Death byold agewhen she was only twenty.
“I like her name,” March said, and that immediately pulled the corners of my lips up slightly.
“All the medics told my mother that she was pregnant with a boy. My parents prepared for ahimfor months, and when my sister was born, my parents were shocked. Mother thought it was a good idea to name her Jinx since she was already a little trickster.”
True to her name, she then went and tricked us again into thinking she was perfectly healthy, until one day she simply refused to wake up.
“I have a sister, too. Younger than me by eight years,” March said, and that made me raise my head a little to see his face. To see his smile.
“You do?” And why did Ilovethe idea so much?
March nodded. “Her name’s Vera.”
Vera.I liked her name, too.
“Do you two look alike?” I wondered as I snuggled closer to him again, and March wasted no seconds in pulling me to him until I could hardly breathe.Perfect.
“Very. She’s mini-me—but with long hair. My mother kept my hair long when I was a kid, too, and if you sawpictures of me then, you could never pick us apart.” Something about his voice when he spoke just now. Happy. Carefree. No inhibitions. “She’ll never admit it, though. She claims she’s far superior to me in every aspect. She’ll swear to you thatwe do notlook alike, that if someone thinks we do, they should have their eyes checked.”
He chuckled. I did the same.
“She sounds amazing, Heartling.”And I’d love to meet her one day,I thought.
“She is.” A kiss on top of my head. “You two would get along great, I think.” I agreed—and the thought made me giddy for some reason.
“Sleep now, Velvet,” March said with a deep, contented sigh. “We have a long day tomorrow.”
I fell asleep with his voice echoing in my head, feeling less alone than I had in a long time.
