An unfulfilled promise. I never thought I’d see the day. Anything unfulfilled spelled chaos for a Spade, but a promise likethis?
It made my stomach twist and turn every second.
But then there was March. He stuck close to me, always close to me. He listened when I talked. He was there to offer me his hand any time I leaned back in the chair—as if he knew exactly what it was like inside my chest.
Time’s Teeth, I couldn’t wait to see him alone again, when it was just the two of us. I couldn’t wait to kiss those lips that gripped my attention any time he moved them, became the most important thing in the universe to me every time he spoke.
Whatever it was about him, I was so thankful for every second that made him. I was so thankful that he was here; otherwise, I had no idea how I’d have survived all of this.
“What about our families?” asked Seth from across the table, and that word pulled me out of my trance at once.Family.I hadn’t given my parents a proper thought since we got here—but then again, I’d hada lotgoing on. “Do they know? Can we contact them somehow?”
“No,” Silas said, so fast it was like the word had been lying in wait at the tip of his tongue. “The queens will be watching your homes, your families. If we write to them,theywill be the ones to get the letters, I promise you.”
Seth flinched, but he knew it was the truth.
Nobody argued.
“So…what now?” I wondered, and my own voice surprised me, the thought sneaking out without my really thinking about speaking.
Nobody had an answer. We were all looking down at thetabletop, at our laps—me at March’s hand between both of mine. And I thought I would call it a day, no matter that it was still just four in the afternoon. We’d been down there for about five hours, even if it had felt like a lot longer, but I wanted to lie down. Alone. With March.
I wanted to…see what he tasted like. What he felt like against my hands.
I wanted to know him intimately.
But before I could ask him if he wanted to go to his room or mine, the darkness in front of the doorway moved, and suddenly both Master Talik and the Timekeeper Kohen came through, with Damon right behind them.
“Now, we talk,” said one or the other—I couldn’t really tell because all of us were suddenly trying to sit up, to look alert, to stand still somehow at the same time.
The Timekeepers moved fast, dragged chairs from the other side of the room and brought them to the head of the table to sit with us. The way they moved was almost like they were coordinated—parts of the same machine.
“You’ve already met my friend Talik. Silas remembers him, of course, and the rest of you were close—” Kohen started, and Master Talik muttered under his breath, “I wouldn’t sayclose,per se…”
But Kohen continued like he hadn’t heard a thing. “He’s been under the looking glass lately, and he’s been staying back at the Labyrinth to take care of Calren since the trials’ end.He’sthe reason we knew Calren was there in the first place, before he cut off all contact with us?—”
At which point Master Talik muttered, “Safer, safer that way—I was being watched every second?—”
“—until you went in and found him,” Kohen finished.
“Yes. Till you came in and simplytookhim,” the man said, looking at us from under his lashes.
I was wrong—Ididn’tremember him. Almost, like all things, but not quite. Neverexactly.
“We saved him. He was…he was bleeding and—” Mimi started.
“Oh, I know, dear girl. I know,” he said. “And I am thankful. I’m told it was the Spades who felt the lock—of course you did.”
His eyes moved from me to Cook, then back again. I suddenly felt naked sitting there.
“Should have thought to bring one down with me—I searched that wall dozens of times but never found it.” He tapped his temple. “Calren knew Timekeepers would be searching. He’s sneaky like that.” An almost-smile curled the corners of his lips just slightly. “He was always smarter than the rest of us.”
“Were you the one who sent him food?” March asked.
“I arranged it, yes. I bathed him, too, when he allowed. Which wasn’t often,” said Master Talik with a nod. “You were brave, all of you. I am proud to have been your teacher. But?—”
“Have you seen him?”
Silas’s voice was ice cold and sharp as a knife when he cut the Timekeeper off.
