I nodded without hesitation. “I can always buy more Sparetime.” And even if for some reason I couldn’t, I could live just fine without magic. I’d done it my whole life already, hadn’t I?
“He can have mine, too. I don’t need it,” said Cook, holding up his own chronobank.
“And mine.” Mimi.
“Definitely mine.” Seth.
“He can have all of them.” March.
“I think we’ll be fine to start with this.” I reached out a shaking hand for the Timekeeper’s.
Time’s Teeth, it didn’t look like a hand at all. All bone and skin cut in too many places to count, nails broken. But he let me take his hand, raise it between us, put my chronobank in the center of his palm. Closed his fingers around it.
All the while he looked at me.
“Let’s do it. Together. Let’s find the seal.”
“Ora,” Cook whispered. “What if…what if he didn’t make it? What if it was someone else?”
A very real possibility that sent shivers down my back. I swallowed hard. “Then we’ll know.” If it didn’t work, we’d know, and we could figure something else out.
For now, I stepped to the side and, with his hand between mine still, I pulled the Timekeeper gently toward the wall. Cook grabbed his other hand, his chronobank at the ready, and we moved slowly.
The Timekeeper walked.
His legs shook. It was a miracle that he was able to slam against that wall the way he did, over and over, when he could hardly stand. A miracle he was still here somehow, still doing this.
The wall was right there, stained with blood and grime. Cook placed the Timekeeper’s hand against it. I did the same on the other side, pressed his hand with thechronobank against his palm to the wall, and put mine next to his.
“Close your eyes,” I whispered, still not entirely sure that the Timekeeper could even understand me—but hoping. Hoping with all my heart.
He did close his eyes, and Cook followed, and so did I.
The buzz was immediate—louder now, sharper, almost angry, as if the seal could feel us, too. Like it didn’t recognize us.
“Feel for the edges,” Cook whispered. “It’s easier to penetrate from the edges of the magic.”
He was right. “It feels…like a knot,” I said in wonder, but I saw the shape of the magic in my mind. Almost like it was a concrete thing. An actuallock.
Behind us, the whispers had already started.
“What if there’s nothing back there? What if it’s just more wall?” Levana, always the optimist.
“Then why would he seal it?” Seth shot back.
“Maybe he sealed it before he lost his mind. Maybe he doesn’t even know what he sealed anymore.” Russ.
“Or maybe it’s the proof,” said Anika, and I heard her shift closer.
“Yeah, probably not.” Erith. “We’re wasting time here, but okay…”
“A device, maybe? Something he took from those barred rooms?” Seth.
“Could be a weapon.” Russ.
“Why would you seal a weapon behind a wall?” March wondered.
“I dunno…maybe because he’smad?”
