“And you can’t do this yourselves?” the Diamond boy asked.
“No. The Labyrinth will not let us inside,” said the old Timekeeper.
“And what guarantee do we have that you’ll tell us the truth after?”
“You don’t. You will just have to have faith,” said the young one, that same smile curling the corners of his lips.
It would be silly to have faith in strangers, that much was clear. But we did have leverage, didn’t we?
“The proof,” Mimi said, the same thing occurring to her, too. “We will not hand over the proof until you’ve told us the truth.”
The Timekeepers exchanged another look, only this time I couldn’t really decipher the expression on their faces at all.
But a tick later, they both turned to us, nodded. Said, “Deal,”in unison.
Deal.
We had a deal.
With Timekeepers who’d somehow kidnapped us and claimed we were in Neverwhen—but we had a deal.
The truth was suddenly…possible.It was so close I couldalmost touch it if I reached out my hand far enough. The actual truth.
“Well, then,” said the Club boy from behind us. “Before we go, you should know—I’mreallyhungry.”
A smile stretched my lips as my stomach rumbled, but I caught myself before anybody saw.
Andmytruth was, I wasreallyhungry, too.
8
They left us alone for a few minutes, told us to wait for them to get back, to not go anywhere, as if that was even an option for us at all. But when they came back, they brought fruit and pastries, bottles of water, roasted meat and vegetables, and then Kohen brought tea, too. The teapot was old and well worn. Steam curled out the spout, and it smelled heavenly. Since we’d already eaten the food and hadn’t died of poison, we all said yes to the tea, too.
We’d brought the chairs close to the three-legged table that threatened to tip over any time someone pressed their elbows too hard against it, and we’d sat down while the Timekeepers were still gone.
We shared theories about what the proof they wanted us to find could be, then dwelled a little on ideas about what we’d forgotten, and lastly onwhohad stolen our memories or kept us stuck that Mimi had written about in her book.
It occurred to me, while we spoke, that we barely knew each other. Whatever had happened that we didn’t remember, whatever kind of a relationship we’d had before, wewere strangers—yet here, we had no inhibitions. We spoke like wetrustedeach other, which was strange all on its own.
I felt it the most with March (yes, that was his name. We all reintroduced ourselves when we first sat down). He’d sat right next to me at the table, and every time he spoke, my thoughts spiraled like they were trying to warn me of something, like they were screaming for my attention. The way he always seemed to be looking at me didn’t make things better. The way he listened when I spoke, like every fiber of his being hung onto the sound of my voice, definitely made me even more curious.
The Timekeepers left us alone to eat, disappeared beyond the doorway. The Diamond boy Russ asked them what was back there, but all they said was,you’ll see soon.Which meant the way to the Labyrinth was through it.
As afraid as I was, I was also excited. I didn’t much remember the Labyrinth in those short minutes I’d been in it that day. I did remember thefeeling, though. Of wonder. Of awe.
“So, we’re just…going to go,” said Levana as she finished the piece of bread she’d been eating since forever. She had refused to touch anything else, even though the rest of us hadn’t keeled over yet. “We’re just going to trust the Timekeepers and?—”
“Nottrust,”March cut her off as he spun a red apple between his hands. “We’ll just go to the Labyrinth.”
“And findproofwithout even knowing what it is,” said Levana, frustrated.
“But we’ll bein the Labyrinth.”
Mimi, who was sitting by her right, reached out and put her hand over Levana’s arm. I almost expected the Heart girl to jump back but she didn’t, only looked at Mimi like she couldn’t decide whether to scream or cry or smile.
“Think about it—we’ll beinthe Labyrinth, which is whereit all happened. Maybe we’ll get our memories back once we see that place again. Those Timekeepers,” she said, her whisper low, and she turned to the doorway once more to make sure nobody was there, “—they can’t get to us there. We’ll go in, see what we find, see if we remember anything—and then we can decide what to do next.”
Holy Hour. That was actually a very good idea.
