“Hold on, everyone, we’re coming!”
Then they were there, Mimi and Cook at the head, behind them Anika, and Master Talik, and behind them Silas and March, holding Reggie between them.
Reggie, whose head was down, chin pressed to his chest. Reggie, whose feet dragged behind his body because he was unconscious.
But he was there.
They’d done it, too. Time’s Teeth, they’d actually done it.
March’s eyes found mine across the ruined garden. The moment he saw me, he said something to Silas, and they both began to slowly lower Reggie to the ground. They put the boy—still dressed in those awful, colorful clothes but without the hat—on his side, and Silas stayed with him while March ran for me.
Not sure when I stood up all the way, but when he made it to me, I was on my feet. His hands were on my face and a little bit of my soul returned to my body, and he was okay. He seemed perfectly fine—not a scratch on him.
“You’re hurt,” he said, pushing my hair back, inspecting my face. “Does it hurt?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” I said, and indeed the sharp pain between my shoulder blades had lessened, or maybe I just didn’t feel it anymore.
Too many things to think about. Too much relief and fear and panic.
“Hurry, up—quick!” Master Talik was saying, while everyone checked on everyone, and my thoughts were coming back to me as March looked me over one more time.
“What happened? Why are you here—why is Reggie here?!” Because he was—still there, on the ground, with Silas squatting right next to him, a hand over Reggie’s shoulder, looking at the ruined garden, scanning the perimeter.
“There was a blast. The tunnel collapsed. We had to come up,” March said, and Master Talik was waving for us to keep moving—here, over here, this way, quick!
A blast, March said.
“There was a blast here, too! It threw us back, knocked us out cold,” Seth said, wiping the blood from his forehead—but the wound must not have been deep because he looked okay otherwise.
“We got them. Guys, we found them,” said Russ, moving in a circle, looking at the ground, and I took in a deep breath so I could gather strength to move—around March and to Reggie. I wanted to see if he was breathing because he wasn’t moving at all. His eyes were closed, and the more the sky brightened with dawn, the paler he looked.
“We only got five, but there were more?—”
“So many more, and we found them right there in the wall!”
“It was the room beyond the kitchen, indeed—I found it?—”
“And then we couldn’t get through?—”
“And the wall wouldn’t budge?—”
“But then Erith?—”
“And the plaques?—”
“And the walls?—”
“Everyone—STOP!”
Silas was on his feet before I reached Reggie. We had nochoice but to stop when he shouted like that, his arms to the sides, his eyes everywhere around us…
And Reggie.
Reggie still had his eyes closed, but Time’s Teeth, he wasbreathing.I could see his chest rising and falling as he lay there on the scorched ground. Breathing—alive—outof the Labyrinth.
Tears in my eyes, and they slipped out without asking for permission.
“What is it, boy?” Master Talik asked, slowly coming closer to us, together with the others—all standing, all walking on their own.
