Dread under my skin, and unfortunately for me, this time it had nothing to do with the Labyrinth, but with what came after my failed attempts at escaping.
March. His proximity. His mocking. His words—it hurt here.
And then the kiss.
The kiss.
My cheeks were as hot as the sun again, and all I was doing was remembering. I didn’t dare even look at his back as he walked ahead near the front of the group, and I felt like he was standing right next to me, like my body was flush against his, like his tongue was devouring my mouth, like his bottom lip was between my teeth and I was biting, and oh?—
Stop.
Funny enough, this new voice in my head that I kept hearing since I woke up here was starting to sound more and more like that of the Cheshire Cat. But it did stop me, just before Elida did.
We’d come down only a story, and then walked a narrow corridor, darker than most in the palace, toward a big wooden door that wasn’t as polished as the rest.
I stopped a couple feet behind everyone, hoping to eat the apple, but no. Because March then turned to look at me—just threw a look over his shoulder like he had plenty to give away—and I found I no longer had the appetite.
What I had was anger and arousal and very flushed cheeks.
Then Elida said, “Hear, hear. We will begin the end of this day with an advanced lesson on gears, and after here, we will be headed to the arena to get started in advanced combat training.”
“Advanced,” said Helen from the front of the group. “But we’re only just getting started.”
“Incorrect,” Elida said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She looked way more tired than last time, I noticed. “You’ve already finished lessons and trainings.”
“But we don’t remember any of it,” Russ reminded her.
And the Timekeeper pretended she hadn’t even heard him. “Which is why we’re going to be startingbackward,to stay in line with the flow of time.”
Senseless, of course, but it also did make sense, considering.
“Wemustspeak to the White Queen. Where is she? And why haven’t you told us anything about Reggie yet? You’re going to get him out of that forest, right?” Mimi said, and in my mind I saw her face, how lost she’d been in the morning, how she’d been walking around the grandfather clock, barefoot.
I don’t know why I’m here.
Something inside me was…missing. I only knew because I felt the empty space it had left behind. It was somewhere in my chest—that’s all I could tell for sure, and I’d had it before. Beforethe curse.Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known that I was missing it, and I wouldn’t have felt like Iwasn’tfeeling something specific at the memory of Mimi’s face. At the thought that she genuinely sounded hopeful that Reggie was still alive, even though we’d seen. He wasn’t.
Instead, the best I could do was feelirritated.
“The White Queen is away on business outside the Labyrinth,” Elida solemnly declared with a hand to her chest. Maybe it was my imagination, but she even moved differently from us. Her movements were more…mechanical.They did say Timekeepers were always a couple of seconds ahead or behind, but you never really knew what was truth and what was made up in the Clockrealm.
“Then when will she be back?” Seth said. “Because we lost one of our own?—”
“Two,” Elida cut him off, raising two fingers. “You losttwo.” Seth stopped. “So far,” she added.
Shivers erupted down my back. Wehadlost two—the Spade boy who cast the curse was dead, too.
Who-how-why?!The questions popped in my head, one after the other, in repeat.
“He wasnotone of our own—he wasyours,” Levanasnapped, and I could just see the top of her head as she took a menacing step toward Elida.
The Timekeeper wasn’t threatened. “Andyours,” she simply said. “The queens will come when the queens will come. For now, you have your lesson with another Royal Timekeeper, who’s taught you before, and who has worked in the Labyrinth for the past two decades. Pay attention, for he doesn’t repeat himself. And?—”
“We demand answers!” Erith cut her off. “We almostdiedin that forest, too! We got old, and Levi must have becomesixtyin seconds, and we lost all that time from our Life Clocks and?—”
“It is all part of the game.” Elida’s voice was sharp as a knife this time, louder than before. “You’ve read the terms—all of you remember those, don’t you? You sign them when you sign up for the selection. All of this is part of the game.”
“You haveno rightto keep us here,” said Russ, and he did his best not to sound panicked.
