I wanted to say something, too—half of me caught betweenbeggingand reminding her that she did not have the right to do this. And I knew it was useless—of course I knew. It was done. It was over.
But Jinx would have wanted me to say something, I thought. She wouldn’t have wanted me to just give up so easily, no matter how many soldiers surrounded me.
So, I said, “Queens are supposed toprotecttheir people, to take care of us. You…you’re no queen.”
My voice shook again, but the words were out. I said them. If she killed me because of this, I didn’t really care. It made no difference—I’d be dead without my mind, anyway. A different kind of death. Maybe if she cut off my head right now, it would be better. Kinder.
But she didn’t.
The way she looked at me. The way both of them looked at me.
The White Queen said, “And who’s wearing a crown?”
Of course, I didn’t answer. There really was no point.
Her smile stretched and stretched—like a serpent slithering. “Thought so,” she whispered, then turned to the Red Queen and told her, “I won’t ask again.”
The Red Queen threw her a look—and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was full ofhatred. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was the same lookIgave the White Queen.
But even so, she stepped forward. Came closer until barely five feet separated me from her. I was kneeling at the front of the group with Mimi on my right, and March and Silas on my left. The rest were right behind me, and I was trying to think of a way to keep the Red Queen’s magic off them. If at least one of us made it out of here intact, it would have been worth it.
But the Red Queen raised her hand long before I could think of a solution, if there even was such a thing.
Our time was really up.
Sofast.So unbelievably fast.
“Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock,” the White Queen sang behind her.
She was still smiling, but the Red wasn’t. Her eyes were dark. Deep brown, almost black, and they were full of something I couldn’t name.
She looked at us. At all of us—eleven former Hands, only ten conscious, and an old Timekeeper with a belt full of tools, shaking his head as he muttered to himself, tears on his cheeks.
She looked at the ruined plaques on the ground, too.
She looked at March. At me. At our hands locked together between us.
Then March let go.
It was like he’d cut off my lifeline.
For a second there, I thought I’d find him standing up, running, trying to stop the queens—it would be a veryMarchthing to do—but he didn’t. He was still there, kneeling beside me, and he was looking atmewith an expression I’d never seen on his face before.
Not fear. Not sadness. Something…beyond both.
“Ora,” he said, and his voice was steady. Perfectly, impossibly steady.
He leaned in, right in front of the queens, and took my face in his hands.
“What…what are you doing?” I breathed, not sure if this was even real, but he held my face the way he’d done in that bedroom, and in the Garden of Memories, too. His thumbs on my cheekbones. His fingers in my hair. His eyes holding mine like they were my own personal source of gravity.
“I want to give you something. Something evenshecan’t take,” he whispered.
I knew exactly what he meant right away.
“March,” I choked, but I couldn’t spill out another word.
“What are you doing, Heartling?”
