1
Tick-tock-tea-talk.
Wake up, you hairy hare.
The memory of Jinx’s voice in my head always calmed me down. I had it stored in the back of my mind ever since I could remember. Something about the softness of it, the promise of what came after those words—tea and smiles and wide blue eyes.
I’d always pretended to be irritated when I wasn’t, and it had become part of the ritual, too. I was expected to act annoyed while Jinx dragged me out of bed and forced me to hold onto my teacup, but those remained my favorite mornings still.
“Here it comes!” Mother sang as she jumped to her feet now, but I’d already seen the carriage rushing down the hill across from our house. She’d been sitting with me on the wooden bench just to the side of the front door while Father continued to pace back and forth in front of the fence gate, both of them jittery with nerves.
“Ora, it’s here, darling! It’s here!” Father called as he ranoutside the gate, waving his hands like he really was afraid I’d somehow miss him.
“Yes, I see it. I see it, it’s here,” I said weakly, but neither paid me any attention. Father was rushing inside again, and Mother ran toward him, and they jumped in each other’s embrace, chanting—it’s here, it’s here, the carriage is here at last!
Yes, it was. The royal carriage, half white and half red, a perfect circle atop wheels painted golden, was here—and it was herefor me.It had come to take me to Neverwhen, the capital city of the Clockrealm.
The hour of the Turning Trials had actually come.
Breathe, Ora, breathe,I reminded myself—only the white horses pulling the carriage forward seemed to be moving impossibly fast. Maybe it was just me, but I could have sworn I only blinked once before they popped up in front of the fence.
Air slid down my throat, and people called my name—all my cousins and our neighbors had come out to see me off. All of them cheered and clapped and wished me good-timing, and it made no difference whatsoever, unfortunately. Their voices, their smiles didn’t give me courage. The only person who could have eased the panic attack building inside me right now was long gone.
No matter how many people stood around me, I was alone.
With my eyes closed, I paused for a moment, focused on the sound of Jinx’s voice again, imagined her standing next to me, telling me to be brave. It was the Turning Trials, after all. The most important event of the decade, she once said, and she could very well be right about it. It was a game like no other—and though I’d had no interest in it before this year began, I was now going to be a part of it.
Me—not Jinx.
She’d been the one who always wanted to go, whocounted down years, preparing, even agreeing to spar with Father and me just so she could complete the application, before?—
Before.
Mother and Father cheered. They hugged me quickly, and I felt nothing, for which I was thankful. They were happy, their eyes glistening, their smiles wide—why-why-why are you smiling?!
A silly, redundant question I already knew the answer to. It was because I was chosen to be a Hand in the Turning Trials, of course. It was an honor to the family, they said. Never mind that it was Jinx who should have been here in my stead.
Jinx—you remember her? Your eldest daughter?
Perhaps I wasn’t being fair.
Perhaps I should have found a way to let go of this resentment, though I hadn’t honestly noticed it building up in the first place. Layer by layer, it had crept up on me, had created a thick foundation long before making itself known.
Yes, perhaps I should have just…moved on, too.
“You’ve got everything, don’t you, darling?” Father said, opening my black backpack for the fifth time since we came out here to wait for the carriage. “Your new sketchbook, your pen, your picture, your clothes, your undies?—”
“She has everything—of course she does,” Mother said, and grabbed the backpack from him, zipped it, gave it to me. “It’sOra! She’s never-ever-reven forgotten anything in her life.”
Only Ihadforgotten plenty of things.
Not important, and they were laughing again, so I didn’t say anything.
One of the two men who’d been sitting in the front holding the reins of the horses was already by the carriage, the round door on its side open. He stood there with a smileon his face, looking at me like he already knew exactly who I was.
Shivers rushed down my back.
I’d never been outside the Court of Spades before, and now suddenly I was going to live in Neverwhen for two whole weeks. The reasonswhyincluded: it’s what Jinx wanted; I’m doing it in her name, for her; it’s the Turning Trials—I’ll be rich and famous when it’s over; I’ll get to see the Labyrinth with my own eyes, maybe even meet the queens of the Clockrealm while at it…
