Even though Neverwhen was primarily a Timekeeper city, Clockfolk from all courts lived in it, too. It wasthecity to be in, where there were always opportunities to climb the ladder in society, in your career, for those who cared to achieve something bigger than their roles in their courts. Not to mention that this was where our queens lived, and most importantly, where the Great Clock stood proud in thevery heart of our realm, which was the very heart of Neverwhen, too.
Even so, I didn’t expectso manyClockfolk to be here among Timekeepers, holding signs of welcome to all Hands, cheering and applauding when they saw our carriage approaching—but it wasn’t just ours. There was another carriage identical to the one I was in ahead of me on the road, and…
The people pointed back,behindme. I pushed the window open and stuck my head out through the small space to see yet another identical carriage behind mine—and a boy’s head was sticking out the window, too.
My heart jumped. Another Spade Hand.
He disappeared for only a second, then his arm came out the window, all the way to the shoulder, and he waved at me.
My own laughter caught me by surprise. I stuck my hand out as well as I could to wave back when he showed me his face again, and he was grinning. I’d never seen him before, which was no surprise, but he had sandy blond hair like most Spade males, and light eyes if I wasn’t mistaken, though we were too far to tell for sure.
Then he disappeared again and stuck his arm out to wave once more.
I turned—another Spade boy was looking out the carriage in front of mine.
Not entirely certain why I was laughing still, but I was. Even as I forced my hand into the tiny space to wave at him, I was laughing. There were three of us here—which was information I’d had since forever. There were three Hands from each court in the Turning Trials, but actuallyseeingthese boys here made the whole difference. I was running to a foreign place, yes, but apparently, I wasn’t entirely alone.
People cheering and clapping, waving as we went, children throwing flowers at our carriages, jumping up anddown to get our attention—and it was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen in my life.
They were doing thisfor me.For all of us, like we were already…important.
Then I looked up.
The Great Clock was the reason why our realm existed. It hovered over a hundred feet into the air, a gigantic thing that held a part of Time Himself and forced it into order with every new second it ticked. Funny thing about it was that it showed you its face no matter what angle you looked at it from.Isaw the face of it, and the large hands clearly indicating that the time was just before six s.b., which stood forsun-bound.And whoever looked at it from anywhere around it, no matter which side, they would all see the Great Clock’s face and the time. It was the way the Great White Rabbit had created it.
Fences ahead, large and golden, and as we watched, the gates swung open. So many people around it, Timekeeper and Clockfolk together, which I found oddly freeing. Morecarriages ahead of us—another three. The Hands of another court must have gotten here before us, and as soon as those gates swung open, the white horses took the carriages through.
It seemed we’d arrived at the Labyrinth, the place where the Turning Trials had been held for the past one-hundred and fifty years.
Our journey was officially over.
2
Not enough seconds to breathe all the way. Half of what went on around me was lost, my mind almost glitching, unable to properly store memories just now.
So many things.
So many people.
And both queens of the Clockrealm were here.
Here. In the same space as me. Barely thirty feet away, beyond the glass of whatever building they’d brought us to.
“Uh…hi.”
I blinked. Turned to the side, and though it was a girl’s voice I’d heard, my eyes landed on a pair that had been on me already—those of a boy to my right, who had his hands in the pockets of his jacket, and who’d stolen all the best colors of the world for his own eyes.
Unreal.Red and brown and everything in between, the colors so vivid Itouchedthem with my mind.
Seconds passed without air, but I didn’t really mind this time, so long as I got to see more of those colors…
A hand waved in my peripheral. Impossible not to look—it was the girl who had spoken.
“I’m Mimi Montes,” she said. “Court of Clubs. Nice to meet you all.” She smiled. She grinned.
She was absolutely breathtaking with her dark skin and moss-green eyes, hair done so well her braids looked polished. She was taller than me, taller than most of us, and she wore green, just like the two boys at her sides. They must have been Clubs, too.
The boy next to them with all those vivid colors in his eyes wore red—from the Court of Hearts. The curls of his rich, reddish-brown hair looked effortlessly perfect, too, and his skin smooth, his shoulders wide, and his lips…smiling.Just a corner slightly curled up to perfection.
