“What in Time’s Trousers is this?!” someone whispered.
“What does that thing do?”
“Is that afork?! For whom—a giant?”
“Is this a doll or a creature? Is it dead?”
Indeed,everythingin here seemed dead. Far too quiet. Nothing made a sound, except us—and the light glowing in the very middle.
It was a lantern, only it was twice as tall as me, the glass of it frosted halfway around the bottom. The light was coming from a large glass-ball in the middle, burning—not with flames, but with magic. The gold-painted metal frame was chipped and rusty, but the shape of it, narrower at the base and wider at the top, was still undeniably that of a lantern. It was a fascinating thing—and it gave off much more light than I’d have expected.
An ocean of forgotten tools and devices I wouldn’t even know what to do with. Some items were delicate, like lace sewn from brass, while others were heavy, brutal, all sharp corners and metal teeth.
For a moment there, I felt like we might have walked right into someone’s secret, and we needed to get out right away before we were discovered, but the more I took in, the more distracted from my own mind I became.
March pulled me gently deeper into the room, his hand warm, his tight grip reassuring.
“What do you think?” he asked me, and my lips did open, but I had nothing to say yet, so I just shook my head. “We think they’re tools and devices used in the past Turning Trials. All these things used to be part of the games, and now they’ve put them here.”
“That…makes perfect sense.” Just likehemade perfect sense to me, somehow. That he existed. That he was here with me right now—likeduh, Ora. Why else would anything haveeverhappened?
My mind had become as curious as this junkyard that wasn’t a yard at all.
“Holy Hour, this isamazing!” Seth shouted, and others laughed.
“You guys realize that wehaveSparetime, right?” Anika said, slowly pulling out the golden chain of her Life Clock from the pocket of her blouse.
“We can actually do magic,” said Russ, like the idea just occurred to him—and it was the best thing he’d ever said.
“No magic,” March and Silas said at the same time, and neither was smiling at the moment.
“We have no idea what these things are,” said March.
“And youdon’t knowhow to do magic even if you tried.” Silas.
March waved a finger around. “Half these things could explode for all we know.”
“Or,” said Reggie, holding up a finger. “We completely ignore these cowards, and we do whatever we want. We’ve got the seconds. We’ve got the minutes, don’t we?” And he himself had pulled out his Life Clock from his leather jacket as he grinned.
Impossible not to smile—he wasinsanein the best possible way. I liked his spirit—everybody did. EspeciallySilas, who was still smiling even as he shook his head and looked at him. His gray eyes sparkled,full.
“Oh—and I do hope this place is to her lady’s liking,” Reggie then said, and he was looking atmenow, bowing dramatically with a hand to his chest. “After all, we planned to let the rest of you find this place on your own, but thetraitorbetrayed us—so I’ve decided to call him Red because his truths obviously bleed…”
Our laughter made the entire place come alive.
Reggie cleared his throat dramatically. “As I was saying, Spade, I really do hope this place is to your liking, since it revealed thetraitoramong us,” he concluded with another deep bow, pushing the wordtraitormore every time he said it, and my stomach hurt from how hard I was laughing. The look on his face waseverything.The sound of his voice, the way he moved—Reggie was something else.
March was shaking with laughter, too, when he pulled me closer.
“You’re just jealous you didn’t get to use this place to impress…someone,”March shouted as we passed Reggie.
He brought both hands to his chest and gasped—so dramatic. “Don’t go spilling all my secrets, too, Red!”
More laughter, and I had tears in my eyes because of it, which hadn’t happened since I was a little girl. The others were all shouting words at one another, making jokes, behaving as though we had known each other years and years, not mere hours. As though we’d been here before, and we’d done things we weren’t supposed to do in the dead of the night, and this wasnormal.Our interaction was perfectly natural.
Then there was March.
Was it just me,or did what he said to Reggie imply that he’d tried to impressme?
