I asked her,“Do the people know what actually happened?”
And she said, “We know how much Sparetime has been shed!”
Impossible not to believe that all we’d learned about the trials in the past, all they’d allowed to be projected in the archive records was lies. We had no idea what had happened in the other trials, either, and now I had this overwhelming urge to turn back time somehow and go find the Hands who’d already played, all who were still alive.
Too late now.
My eyes opened, and sunlight fell on my face but it did nothing to warm me. I was cold on the inside. My bones could have been made out of ice.
A look to the side, beyond Silas and Cook (I’d chosen to stand last in line this time, as far away fromhimas I could) and beyond Helen and Levana (March had chosen to stand in line after the two of them, as far away from me as he could). He had his head turned to me, too, his eyes on my face.
We hadn’t spoken much, March and I, since that night. The most we’d come to interacting was while sparring in the arena with Asha yesterday, and that was that. He hadn’t said a single word to me, and I hadn’t said a single word to him.
But I’d drawn him.
I’d drawnallof them, had written down their names. All the Hands that I’d absolutely adored when I first came here, and I thought I still did. I just…didn’t care much about anything these past few days.
It was like I was back to those first months after Jinx’s death all over again. I simply couldn’t be bothered, but my heart still did all those jumps and pauses and skips when my eyes locked on March’s, and my body still came alive under his gaze, always.
Say you want me or say you don’t.
What a fool.
What a time-damned fool he was.
The suspicion was there, though, clear in his eyes, and it cut me wide open. Filled me with guilt, as thoughIwas the reason he didn’t trust me, not because he’dgiven uphis trust.
…was I, though? Because I couldn’t help but feel like maybe it was justme.He didn’t have trouble trusting the other Hands. I never once saw him looking that way at them—except for Silas sometimes.
And evenIknew Silas was hiding something, so…was it really me?
I guess they were right when they said you never really knew with Hearts.
“The third trial is a special one, indeed,” Johnny continued, pulling us both back to the now. March looked away from me first, though. “You’ve all heard of the Thirteenth Hour, I assume.”
Boos from the audience. Johnny laughed.
“Yes, I suppose we were all terrorized by our parents as children. All of us, equally,he-he-he.”
Here I’d always thought the Thirteenth Hour was a Spade thing—a myth that Spades had created to scare the little ones when they didn’t behave or refused to sleep. I should have known better.
“The hour that doesn’t belong to any clock. The extra time that exists only when things and magics goespeciallywrong,” Johnny said, trying towhisperinto that device of his, and making it whistle so loud most had to cover their ears. “We all knew not to be naughty, lest the Thirteenth Hour woulddevourus all in its big mouth, chew all the hours and minutes and seconds in our bodies, undo us completely!”
The people laughed with him this time.
“Of course, we all know now that there is no such thing as a Thirteenth Hour…exceptin there.” Cheers and screamsas the people jumped in the air. I couldn’t see Johnny, but apparently he was somewhere to the right of the audience, because that’s where they were looking before they turned to the gates.
The glass dome and the trees were gone, no sign of them anywhere. No sign of the Tree of Years, either, almost like the ground had swallowed it whole.
Now, large golden gates were in front of us, surrounding what appeared to be nothing but a black cloud hovering just over the ground.
Raw darkness. Pure. It absorbed all the sunlight that fell on it like I’d never seen before.
That’swhere the third trial would be held.
“The chamber beyond those gates contains more time than it can safely hold, friends,” the speaker said. “Sound has been arranged here with care as well, and my advice to you is tolisten closely.”The audience erupted in whispers, like they were suddenly all trying to figure out what Johnny could mean. “Here’s the catch, though. If the Thirteenth Hour wakes, it isover,”he said. “Over for good—and I do not mean that as a joke. It will destroy the chamber—and all ofyou,dearest Hands, with it.”
Applause. Cheers. Screams.
