Instead, it was the rest of the Hands.
Levana and Helen led the way, walking arm in arm, smiles on their faces, while Reggie, March and Silas came right behind them.
My heart jumped—too many emotions going through me at once when my eyes locked on March’s. Meanwhile, the others were already at it, accusing them of scaring us shitless. On the one hand, I was irrationally happy that he’d made it, but on the other…ifallof them had been together, why hadn’t he thought to come tomydoor, too? Mimi had.
Then March smiled and all my freckles probably disappeared.
“Relax, relax, we just wanted to mess with you, that’s all,” Reggie was saying. “We went to the other end of the garden, no biggie. We just wanted to see what was out there.”
And they all sat on the grass around our bench, except for Silas. He continued to pace around, eyes up on the mechanical canopy full of fake leaves and apples, analyzing as he went.
“Well,wesat here to enjoy the scenery,” said Mimi with her arms folded in front of her.
“And later we’re going to find the kitchen for snacks,” shot Anika. “Andyou’renot invited.”
Guess it should have made me feel better that I wasn’t the only one they hadn’t invited, but I wasn’t.
Still, I pretended. I was very good at pretending. Had been practicing every day for the past two years and never once failed.
So, I said, “Unless youdidfind something worth exploring.”
“Maybe we did and maybe we didn’t,” March said, and he looked directly at me.
The mischievous grin. The sparkle in his eyes. The way he was spellingsecretwith the way he looked at me.
“Whatever,” said Erith with a wave of her hand. “We’re going to be out here every night for two weeks. We’ll find everything there is to find inside the Labyrinth. Maybe we can even sneak out into the city, too.”
The very idea of it sent chills down my spine instantly. Iwantedto do that. I really wanted to see Neverwhen from up close, but…
“Impossible,” said Silas from where he stood with his hands in the pockets of his trousers, his black coat that reached all the way to his ankles tucked under his elbows.
Wow—he really did look like those men who modeled for clothing brands. Every inch of him could have been drawn, especially his striking eyes and jawline.
“The Labyrinth would never allow it. It has so much magic, it knows and keeps track of each one of us at all times,” he continued.
I narrowed my brows. “How would it do that, though?” It sounded likea lotof magic—and for a place to be able tokeep trackof people? It didn’t sound very sensible.
Except Silas reached for the inside pocket of his jacket, and pulled something out—his Life Clock. He grinned. “Why do you think they made these for us?”
The next second, all of us were looking at our own Life Clocks.
“How do you even know that?” Reggie asked—the only one smiling, his elbows over his knees as he looked up at Silas standing underneath the fake apple tree, still analyzing the branches.
“I’ve worked with Timekeepers before. I know how they do things. The Labyrinth is no joke. It’s almost…sentient,” he said, and I could have sworn his voice turned darker just now.
“How coulda placebe sentient? Don’t be silly, Spade,” said Anika before I could.
“I’m not silly at all.” Silas slammed his feet against the grass. “It’s all machinery, and it goes as deep as a hundred feet underground. The entire place is basically a gigantic clock, and we are its hands. Everywhere we step, everything we do here—they know. It’s how they make the games possible. It’s how they multiply Sparetime.”
Holy Hour, that actually made sense.
I looked down at the bench I sat on, and at the ground, with a new light. The others argued that it wasn’t possible for a machinery that big to even exist, and Silas listened intently, but didn’t interrupt. They all looked at him, waited for what he’d say next as my mind spun. If what he said was even close to the truth, it was…wrong,wasn’t it? There was no end to this. No balance. If this entire place was a machinery underneath—whoheld all the power?
“Thegoodthing about it is that nobody can hear us here,” said Silas. “This garden has natural immunity to any spyware that might be planted around The Ever, and the rest of the Labyrinth.”
I thought I probably heard him wrong, but…
“Spyware?” Russ said. “Why would anybody want to spyon us when we’re not playing in the trials? That makes no sense.”
