Behind us, there were quite possibly hundreds of people in row upon row of tiered seats, white and red. They were on their feet, screaming and cheering, holding up signs with my name on them—and the queens were there, too. In a box made of glass in the very middle of those seats, isolated from others, but still part of the crowd. They stood in frontof their chairs and watched us from the distance, no more than forty feet away, if I had to guess.
And in front of us was a dome that most definitely hadn’t been there the day before. There’d beentreesin its stead when we were running laps in the training arena. Trees—not a giant dome made of thick glass, half frosted so that we couldn’t see anything but darkness inside it. Silver moonlight slid on the surface of it like it was slippery, and the archway in the middle, some thirty feet ahead, had no doors, only raw darkness on the other side.
Where did that thing even come from? And where did those doorslead?
Yes, I tried to reason with myself, breathe deeply, calm my fears, but it didn’t work. My gut was still turning relentlessly.
“Calren, this doesn’t feel right,” I said before I could catch the words between my teeth.
If only the queens came a little closer.
If I could just speak to the Red Queen, just to remind her of what she said at the cocktail party—one mistake.We had one mistake, and I was so sure I would make it the moment the trial started. If she assured me that it would be all right, maybe I wouldn’t feel as though I was walking straight into a bad loop.
“Itreallydoesn’t,” Mimi said next, and she was breathing heavier than me. “It just…it feelswrong.”
“Hey—breathe with me, Mim-Mim,” Calren said, and I was sure he called her that on purpose. Mimi had told us about her little sister, how the first ever word she’d ever uttered when she was just one year old wasMim-Mimand it had stuck since. Her family, her friends, even her teachers now called her that.
And it worked to calm her down a little. Mimi closed her eyes and nodded, drew in a deep breath.
“You, too, Ora. Breathe,” Silas whispered from my side,and farther away, March looked at me like he wasthisclose to breaking formation and running for me.
The idea that he’d get in trouble snapped me out of it somehow, and I mouthed,I’m okay,even though I wasn’t.
“We’re in this together,” Cook said from my other side. “We’ll be all right.”
All those bad thoughts in my head came to a halt for a second.Those words.
Time’s Teeth, he was right. We wereallhere, weren’t we?
“Exactly. Plus—it’s a party,” Silas said. “What could possibly go wrong?”
A party.
“What’s it going to be like in there, Calren?” I asked. “A party in the trials?” I shook my head, looked behind us at the crowd. I didn’t seethatpart in the recordings. Never did they show an audience—only parts of the games. Never did they say that people were allowed all the way inside, or that they would be holding signs with the Hands’ names on them while they cheered.
“Is it a game we’llknowhow to play?” Erith wondered.
“We’re not going to embarrass ourselves, are we?” Levana.
“You could never,” Calren said. “You’ve beaten hundreds of applicants to be here today. You’ve attended your lectures and you’ve done everything Asha and Hector required from you since you got here.” Holy Hour, we had.“You’re as ready as you can be.”
Calren was absolutely right.
We’d learned about courts and timekeeping, even if we only touched on the basics. Our muscles were already used to running, and our hands were used to climbing. We’d all completed all the tests that Asha and Hector had given us. It was only for three days, but iftheythought three days were enough, they had to be.
If Calren really thought that we were ready, then we were.
“There you are.” He smiled all the way, yet I could have sworn just now it didn’t reach his eyes. “All better. Breathe, and try to enjoy yourselves, Hands. It’s your first trial, after all.”
“Our first trial, guys,” said Anika from the end of the line. “He’s right. C’mon, cheer up! It’ll be a breeze!”
A smile tugged at my lips.
“We’ll set the whole thing on fire if we don’t like it,” said Reggie with a wicked grin, his sparkling eyes on Silas. “Who’s gonna stop us?”
“Who possiblycould?” Silas shot back.
Nobody.
