Probably because we all recognized we were in this together.
So, we danced, laughed for a moment at Reggie and March making faces and marveled at the way Cook spun Mimi, Anika, and Helen around in one motion as he danced with all three of them. His every movement was so graceful, so flawless.
Then Silas said, “Why did you come to the trials, if I may ask, Ora?”
I focused on his face again.
“My sister,” I said, the words escaping between my teeth before I realized what I said. He just caught me by surprise. “She wanted to be a Hand before she…” I stopped. Swallowed hard. “I came here to honor her memory.” And I’dnever oncespoken so freely about Jinx to anyone back home, even to the people I knew.
The smile on Silas’s face put me at ease right away, though. “Then you are braver than I gave you credit for,” he said, and it was like honey down my suddenly swollen throat.
I smiled. “She was far braver than me.” And that was the truth of it.
I expected Silas to ask me what she’d died of, but to my surprise once again, he didn’t. “I’ve always wanted a sibling, to be honest. Well—most times, anyhour. I do so enjoy my solitude, but sometimes being annoyed serves you in some strange way.”
I chuckled. “You have no idea how right you are. She used to come to my room every morning she had dreams—and she had dreamsall the time—with a tray full of tea and pastry, and she’d announce, while I was still asleep, mind you, that it was time for a tea-talk.” The memory was right there within my reach. “She’d sing,tick-tock-tea-talk!in that annoyingly beautiful voice of hers, and she’d sit down and wait for me to be awake enough to handle a teacup—and her dreams.”
Silas laughed with me, and it was genuine. The way he looked at me as I spoke—he was almost as invested as March was.
Maybethat’swhy it was easy?
“Well, now, don’t be surprised if I knock on your door with a tray full of tea the next time I dream,” he said. “My dreams can get pretty intense sometimes.”
“You know what—I wouldn’t mind that at all.” And I strangely meant it.
“Then I will hold you to that, brave Ora.”
Oh, the tongue on him—so smooth. But it was the earnest look in his eyes that gave power to everything he said.
“You said,you don’t know how to do magicbefore,” I said as the memory came back to me, and it was Silas’s turn to be surprised now.
“What’s that?”
“When we first entered this place, you saidyou don’t know how to do magic,” I explained, and his thick brows shot up instantly. “Doyou?” It had just been an odd thing to specifyuswhen he was one of us, too. “Have you started the School of Magic? Howoldare you?”
We usually started the School of Magic after high school, after we turned eighteen and our magic was more or less reliable. Or, at least, when we had enough of it to understand how to use Sparetime from chronobanks to perform simple magics, at first. Maybe Silas was older than me and he’d already finished the first of two years—or maybe the whole two?
But he shook his head. “No, I just turned eighteen,” he said. “I only…misspoke when I said that. I meantwe,notyou.”
Except Silas had been very honest with me about everything he’d said so far, andthis time,he wasn’t. It was very easy to see the difference, the way his eyes moved downward and his jaw locked and his shoulders went rigid.
I leaned in and whispered, “Looks like March isn’t the only liar among us.”
His smile confirmed it. Silas shook his head and his cheeks turned slightly pink. “They say Spades are the best at keeping secrets. Is that true?”
“Well, since you’re a Spade as well, you should ask yourself that.” But he was right—that’s what everybody said. Ididn’t know if it was a Spade thing or not, but I would never in a million years tell anybody about our conversation, especially if to him it was a secret he wanted to keep.
“Then I sayyes,” Silas said with a solemn nod. “It’s true.”
“My turn! Spade on Spadeon Spade—may I have the next couple of dances?”
It was Cook who came to us this time, cheerful, smiling so big he looked like a different guy, and he spoke to Silas first, then me, then spun around as if to show us he had moves.
We both laughed, and Silas stepped away, let go of me. “Till next time,” he said with a wink, and I grinned.Till next time—and maybe then he could tell me more secrets to keep.
Dancing with Cook was otherworldly. I had no idea what I was doing, but that was the thing—I didn’tneedto. He spun me and threw me to the side, then caught me all by himself, and the rest of them had all gathered in a circle around us, clapping their hands and laughing—except March. He wasn’t clapping, and he wasn’t even smiling, but I couldn’t look at him for longer than a second before Cook moved me.
He wasincredibleat this—and when I thought I was going to lose my balance, I stepped aside and held up my hands in surrender. Whatever he was made of, my body did not stand a chance.
