I stepped back as March looked at the clock, frozen still, his breath held. He heard—andsawthe clock working just fine, yet the beast kept its eyes closed, its body limp.
“It’s alive,” I whispered. “Just not yet.” That way we could both run out of here, and never-ever-revenreturn to whatever forest this was.
Finally March moved away from the beast, and it fell to the ground, breathing very slowly, the hands of its clock moving with the minute.
The next beat, he came at me fast, towered over me, one hand around the spear, the other around my chin.
Every bell in my head rang at the same time. My own hands wrapped around his forearm, his suit still a bit wet with blood. He had a scratch on his left cheek as well, and his hair was a mess, and his eyes spilled colors all over me as he analyzed me. They didn’t blink, and he didn’t breathe, and so neither did I. I stayed there when I should have pushed back. I stayed, and my hands around his arm were more to make sure he didn’t make any sudden movements, than to actually force him to let go of me.
Close.Four inches, if I had to guess.
Three now.
“Whoare you?” The words left his lips in a whisper that caressed my ear.
Could I speak if I tried, even though his hand, warm and rough, was firmly around my chin and jaw?
No idea, but it didn’t look like I was planning to find out.
“Why do I know exactly how many freckles are on your face?”
My knees buckled under the weight of his words, and I didn’t even know why.
His hand squeezed my face, his thumb and index fingers coming together, pulling my lips out into a pout.
The way he looked at them…
“Why do I know the shape of your lips?”
If I could, I’d raise him a question of my own:why do I know yours?
“You’re in my head.” He leaned closer—an inch, barely.“Why are you in my head, Spade?”
My legs would have given up all the way if a scream hadn’t distracted me.
As it was, we both jumped back at the same time, letting go of one another. We looked at the clearing just in time tosee that the sun had indeed unset already, and the sky was a deep blue, and Mimi had just broken the clock of the beast she’d been fixing a moment ago again.
Her scream was of frustration.
“We have to go,” I said, and I was going to turn back where we’d come from, back to the arena, the crowd, the queens.
But apparently, March had other ideas because he bent down to grab his tools and put them in his pouch, and he looked at me only once, in his eyes a promise that we would be talking more about those questions later.
Then he turned and went straight for the clearing. For the others.
“Gather up, everyone. This is how we unwin,” he said, and the others all stood up at once. “Someone go get Helen. Let’s get this over with quickly…”
And he kneeled on the ground near the first clockbeast carcass.
My eyes closed. My jaws clenched. The feel of his hand on me must have been imprinted on my skin because it burned everywhere he’d touched me. I hadn’t realized it just now, but his breath had smelled like roses, too. Just one of those facts that come back only after the moment was already over.
Time’s Teeth, the point wasnotto help the other Hands! Let them figure out on their own how to unwin this game. I didn’t care about them, and I didn’t care about March—Ididn’t.
Even so, I dragged my feet to them with my pouch in hand, and I got to work without a word.
It only tookus a few minutes of time, and a few minutes from our Life Clocks to fix all the clocks on the beasts, and unkill them. They all breathed. Their hearts beat, though slowly. Their eyes remained closed.
“Alive, but not yet,” March said, his eyes on me while the rest of them admired the work—all those clockbeasts on the ground. Eighteen of them—plus two that March and I had fixed away from the clearing.
