“So that’s what this is. A glitch,” said Levana.
“More or less,” said Master Talik. “If you look here, I’ve prepared?—”
“But where’s the balance here?” Cook asked again. “How will we know that we won’t die in the next trial, or that the game won’t claim one of us again like it did Reggie? How can we be sure?”
The whole class held their breath.
Master Talik said, “We don’t.”
“But—”
“No more questions, I’m afraid!” Elida sang from behind us, and she was furiously writing on her pad at the same time. “Please, Master Talik—continue with the lecture.”
“Right, right, if you will each come to pick up a box of tools. I’ve prepared them for you,” the man said, and March was already on his feet to go get his, and I was thankful for a moment alone to gather my thoughts.
Except by the time I stood up, March was already back, two toolboxes in his hands. He slipped onto the bench, put one in front of me, and the other in front of himself, right there on the table. Without ever looking at me.
Curiouser and curiouser.
I wasn’t sure whether he hated me, whether he was so suspicious of me that he’d decided he was going to keep an eye on me from up close and personal, or if he simply…liked that kiss as much as I did. If he liked my freckles, and my hands in his hair. My tongue in his mouth?—
No.
“Together, we will go through every tool in the box, and I will explain to you what they are and how to use them. For the second part of this lesson, we will pull apart this device, and put it back together again in the right order.” As if on cue, a soft whir started inside the machine.
I swallowed hard and kept my eyes on the toolbox, willing the heat on my cheeks away. There was no more time to entertain silly memories. The lesson had officially begun.
14
There was no way out.
I wasn’t the only one who’d tried to escape the morning before, it seemed. Russ had tested the Labyrinth’s protection magics, and Anika had tried a gate far in the back meant for the help to come and go when the preparations for the Turning Trials began.
Neither could make it past the invisible shield that seemed to spread all around that fence that marked the Labyrinth area.
They didn’t tellmethis, of course. They only spoke about what they’d found during lunch, after Master Talik’s class for the day was finished. No, no one looked at me or spoke to me, or even sat close to me—except for March. He waited until everybody was seated, and then he claimed the empty chair I’d left (maybe for this reason only, maybe not) between myself and Mimi on the right of the long table.
There were two other free chairs as well, but March decided to sit there, just like I expected.
Hereallydidn’t trust me, which was funny because I wasn’t the only one who’d tried to run away. And whenAnika was telling them how she found the gate, I gave him a pointed look to say,see?
Of course, he ignored me completely, and instead made my cheeks flush by stopping those eyes a second too long on my lips.
I decided Iwasn’tgoing to leave space for him to sit next to me again, at least when I could. Regardless of his reasons for wanting to keep an eye on me—I was far too easily influenced by him. I was far too easily made to lose my breath and to bring back the memories of being in his arms again, andthatwas dangerous.
The others spoke to him eagerly whenever he addressed them, and they threw me looks that clearly stated how they felt about me, but I didn’t mind. I wasn’t trying to make friends here, anyway.
I was only trying to…
My thoughts paused as we strode behind Elida after lunch, down another hallway we hadn’t been to before, and another three flights of stairs.
I stayed a few feet behind while the others walked ahead. They didn’t want my company, and I wasn’t about to force it on them, of course. But my steps slowed down even more as my thoughts came to a halt all of a sudden, and my purpose, my goal just slipped between my fingers like the finest timesand.
I’d wanted to go home.
The only reason why I’d gotten dressed and had followed these people around was because I thought I wanted to figure out a way to get home.
Except March had already ruined that for me, hadn’t he?
