“There’s a narrow gap close to the east here. It should fit all of you, though maybe…” He looked back—right at March beside me. “You should all fit, yes,” the Timekeeper concluded.
A minute later, we found the gap—and it was half a fence bar missing.Verynarrow, indeed.
Kohen then looked at March again. “The rest will fit, but you…you think you can make it in there?”
“I will,” March said without missing a beat. He didn’t sound worried in the least.
I leaned in a little and whispered, “You sure?”
“If you go through, I’ll go through.”
He said it simply, like it was a fact, like it was natural, like it was as easy as breathing to him to admit it out loud.
The gears inside me must have been malfunctioning because I could have sworn I heard them groaning—just before my lips stretched and curled and opened to reveal all of my teeth.
Whatever was wrong with me, it was coming from deep, deep inside, and I had no hope of controlling it. At least not yet.
“Aren’t you going to show us the way?” asked someone from the front, taking both our attentions back to the Timekeepers.
“Like I said, we cannot enter the Labyrinth grounds. It will not let us through,” Kohen said.
“Really.” Levana crossed her arms in front of her chest as she watched him. I could just see her profile in the dark, but I already knew what she looked like when she watched you like that. I knew without knowing—however that made sense. “And we’re supposed to just…believethat?”
Kohen opened his mouth to speak, then closed his eyes and sighed, like he thought better of it.
Instead, he fell on his knees right there in front of the missing bar and reached out a hand.
He…touchedthe air, it looked like. Pressed his palm against it, just between the bars. Took his hand back, fisted it, then slammed it between the bars with all his strength—and it met resistance.
Invisible resistance. It was plain to see—unless the Timekeeper was somehow tricking us.
But he stood up, dusted off his pants, and told Levana, “Nowyoutry.”
I was so curious I found myself rising on my tiptoes to see better, when a hand wrapped around my own and I was pulled to the side—March. It washishand and I knew thisbefore I knew it—however this made sense, too—but he pulled me all around the crowd and closer to the Timekeepers so we could see Levana better.
My skin where he touched me burned. When we stopped and he let go, I almost sighed-pouted-groaned in complaint. Luckily, I caught myself in time.
Dangerous, dangerous Heart boy.
Here I’d imagined a completely dream-like version of him in my sketches—soft, silky, like clouds—without having the slightest clue he’d feel a million times more concrete than the earth, more intense than fire.
Meanwhile, Levana was on all fours, sticking her hand through the opening between the bars, and…it went through.
“There,” Kohen said when she sat back on her legs.
“How do I know you didn’t fake it?” Levana said with an arched brow.
“Time’s Temper—either go in or stand back,” said the younger Timekeeper with a roll of his eyes.
“I’ll do whatever I please,” Levana snapped.
“I’ll go through first,” said Mimi, lowering to her knees. “Move over—I’ll go through, then the rest of you can follow.”
I really didn’t think the Timekeeper hadfakednot being able to slam his fist through the bars. It had looked pretty real to me, but Mimi went through on all fours without trouble. Nothing stopped her, and she made it to the other side and stood up with a smile on her face.
“Ta-da!”she whispered, arms raised to her sides.
“I’m next, I’m coming,” Cook said, and he moved aroundLevana, and dragged himself on all fours and to the other side.
