“We don’t have a second—we have to go!” Russ, if I had to guess.
“Not yet. We wait for the signal, not yet…” Master Talik.
“How much longer? They’ll be coming in any second now!” Mimi.
My mind spun and spun, and my tongue touched the roof of my mouth, and I finally said, “Silas.”
The name stumbled out of my lips like it was drunk. I forced my eyes to open with all my strength, and it worked. A little light slipped through—the amber hue of Master Talik’s hand-lantern as he paced around the room we were in.
Not a room—but a hallway. The walls, the floor were made of stone, and there was a stairway on the far right, and a door on the left, but no window. I had no idea if it was night or day, and I didn’t care.
“There she is.” Footsteps. “Brave Ora. Can you see me?” Silas.
I blinked and blinked and tried to move, and March helped me sit up straighter—I knew it was March from his touch alone. I knew the weight of his hands, the heat of his skin.
“Tools,” I thought I muttered—because that was the most important thing. I’d lost the tools, and?—
“We found the tools in your pocket. We got them. We got them,” March said, and it was like he handed me the entire realm.
I hadn’t lost the tools. They’d been in my pocket all along, even if I’d seen them floating in that hole, and the realization gave me a much needed boost to get myself together.
I was sitting on the floor, and everyone was there with me, all the former Hands—well. Notall.
My heart beat and beat. My thoughts slammed onto one another. My mind had started running already before it could even walk, and everything I saw, all those images andsounds and stories came crashing into my head at the same time.
I was drowning, and thoughts were forming, old ones and brand new—but one thing stood out to me, pushed by my own instincts, my ownguilt.A promise I’d made, threaded with words I’d heard back there in the Distribution Room, linked with a scene I saw in that gallery while I fell.
A moment in time. Someone else’s moment, but it had become mine even if I didn’t realize it then.
The Timekeeper drawing invisible images on the stone underneath a glass ceiling.
“Silas.”
“I’m right here,” he said, and his hand was ice cold when it grabbed mine. “We’re all here. Breathe.”
But breathing was not what I needed right now.
“Reggie,” I said, and I blinked and blinked, and I saw March first. I saw him now just like I saw him then, as I was falling. I saw him and I was reminded of why I could never stay in the past, even if I got to listen to Jinx play for the rest of eternity.
I could never because he washere.
And—the thought came at me slowly and calmly, like it was the most natural thing that had ever occurred to me—where he was, that’s whereI’dbe. Just like the day was wherever the sun went in the sky. As simple as that.
“Breathe, Ora,” said March, his hand on my cheek, his eyes wide open, concerned. “Breathe. You’re okay. We’re safe.”
A snort. “Yeah, right,” someone mumbled, but…
“What about Reggie?”
Silas was sitting on the floor on my other side, his hands still wrapped around mine, still ice cold.
“Give her a minute,” March said—but I’d had minutes.
“Pull me up.” My tongue was so dry, but the words stillcame out. March pulled me to sit up straighter until I realized I could keep my own body upright.
I was okay.
“You should have watched for the floor.”
