My jaw hit the floor, but he wasn’t done.
When he looked at Mimi the Club, he said, “I expected morepresencehere,but alas…”
“Hey, that was?—”
“It’s okay, Mimi,” Calren cut her off when Johnny continued down the line.
“But he?—”
“Keep your composure,” Calren said with a deep, knowing nod, then added in a whisper, “It’s only Johnny.” And he winked.
Johnny muttered more words under his breath as he looked at the other Hands, before he turned back toward us. I don’t know what it was about the look in his eyes, but he irritated me even before he began the insults.
And then he stepped back, folded his hands behind him and nodded once, as if he was giving us his approval. “I expected morevolume, in general, but you’ll do.”
We looked at one another, and then at Calren, who had taken a step behind the other Timekeeper. He stretched his lips into a fake smile and nodded—to tell us to do the same.
Again, I trusted him, so I did as he asked, and the others followed.
“Glad you think so, friend. Please, allow us to continue. We mustn’t keep the queens waiting,” said Calren, gently pushing Johnny to the side.
“Of course, of course, we mustn’t! Go—right ahead, go,” he said, as if he thought he was giving us permission, but even so Calren continued to guide him away while he nodded at us and mouthed,move!
We did.
We moved toward the queens.
How curious to live this day,I thought, andit should have been Jinx,I thought, andI would have never-ever-reven been here if only she hadn’t died.
Once more the world ran out of air to breathe, and then Calren was ahead of us again, guiding us forward while the queens waited and the guests behind them cheered louder and louder…
“A general rule you will want to stick to—do not engage with Johnny if you see him. The more you speak, the worse it’s going to get. If you’re going to takeanyadvice I give you, take that,” he said, but I was only half listening because the queens were getting closer and closer.
Wewere going closer and closer to them.
“Oh, my dearest tickers—welcome, welcome to the Labyrinth!”
The White Queen sounded like birds chirping. Beautiful music to my ears.
I breathed.
“It’s so good to have you among us, such an honor. Please, gather round—let us see you!” And she waved her hands about so gracefully, too.
We did as she asked, all of us without question. We gathered into a half circle around the queens while they looked at us—and we looked at them.
The White Queen was slightly taller, skinnier, with sharp edges and soft eyes, her hair as white as snow just touching her shoulders, the ends of it turned outward so perfectly, like the edges of a cylinder hat—and it didn’t move at all. Like it was ice for real, like it was frozen. She wore white with a red rose pinned to the front of her flowy dress, and two red rings over her white gloves, which went all the way up to her elbows. Her crown must have been made of crystalbecause it was see-through, and it had red stones here and there, too.
The Red Queen was…regal.She kept her chin up and her arched brows slightly raised, and her brown eyes promised you that they could see more than you wanted her to—but they were also kind. The smile on her face, only half a smile, like that of the Heart boy, was full of mischief, but honest. She wore red, tight around her torso, revealing the flawless curves of her body, then billowing from the hips, red fabric spilling down in a million layers. Her hair was red, too, a different red from the ginger shades of Timekeepers, and it was done in thin curls that looked both sophisticated and wild. Her crown was made of gold, decorated with rubies and diamonds everywhere.
They both looked like they’d stepped out of a storybook, not part of the real life.
How could one possibly be so…much?
“Your Excellencies, these are your Hands, delivered to you as promised,” Calren said and bowed right after he threw us a quick look—to remind us to do the same.
We did.
It didn’t come naturally to me at all to curtsy, especially not deeply enough to properly respect the queens, but I didn’t fall. And when we straightened up again, the queens were smiling at one another?—
