Holy Hour, he didn’t feel it, either.
I pushed myself off the wall and stepped back, shook my head. “A…a buzzing. Magic, I think. There’s magic there.”
Seth was suddenly on my other side, pressing his hands to the wall. “I know how magic feels.” He looked at me, wide green eyes focused. “There’s nothing here.”
Great. Now I’d lost my mind, too.
“Maybe it’s just the residue you feel,” Mimi told me, her hand over my shoulder. “Maybe he tried toattackthis wall too, like he did the door.”
Which was the most logical explanation, of course.
“Yeah. Yes, you’re right. That’s probably it.”
I let go, stepped back, smiled at Mimi.
“We’ll be all right,” she said. “We’ll find proof. We’ll…remember eventually. Right?”
Except even as she said this, she didn’t sound like she believed it. She just sounded like she wantedmeto reassure her—but how could I lie to her face like that?
“Chains,” said Seth from the other side of the room, near the corner that would lead to the exit. “You guys saw those, right?” And he hit something with his foot on the floor, something that rattled. Definitely chains.
The kind we put on clocks to secure them to our clothes. Two of them, silver and gold.
“That’s probably from his chronobanks. Where is his Timekeeper Clock?” asked Levana as she bent over to inspect the chain.
Meanwhile, the Timekeeper remained there on the floor on his side with his eyes closed.
“It doesn’t really matter, does it? We have to go, guys. Wereallyhave to go now before it’s too late,” said Anika.
It felt like throwing my own heart to the floor and stomping on it—but she was right.
“We’ll come back. We’ll tell Kohen,” March said from behind me, as if he could read the thoughts in my head and knew exactly what I was thinking.
“I know,” I whispered. Though I didn’t really think Kohen—or anyone at all—could do anything about this if they hadn’t until now.
But hedidhave food brought to him. The plate was full, and he must have eaten at some point. Of course, he did—otherwise he’d have been long gone by now. Someoneknewhe was here. He wasn’t all alone.
Not a big consolation, but it was better than nothing.
Mimi cried in silence as we walked. All of us, one after the other, heads down, shoulders heavy.
Every instinct in my body raged. Demanded I stop, turn,stay. The thoughts were so powerful that I stopped just as we’d passed Calren, and March bumped into me.
Something smells like rotten seconds,I thought.
Then…
“Guys?”
We turned, all of us, back to the wall stained with blood. To Cook standing there all alone, a hand pressed to it, his eyes glistening.
“I…I feel it, too. I feel the buzzing.”
14
Atick of silence.
“Missing things have no edges,” the Timekeeper suddenly said. “They can’t tear lies apart.”
