Right there where I’d felt the magic buzzing, the knot loosening, there was nowlightthat my mind’s eye saw, a pulse of bright, teal-colored light that rippled outward from the center, spread to the edges of the large circle that consumed most of the wall.
It was incredible that we hadn’t seen it, hadn’t felt it as clearly, when it wasmassive!It was the whole entire wall that was made of that light, and the harder it pulsed, the clearer it became, until?—
It wasn’t.
It wasn’t there anymore.
Not the light and not the wall.
There was no explosion, no big shift, no crash—only a click that I felt deep in my chest, together with the moving hand on my chronobank. It moved and moved, spun around in itself, becamelighteras the Sparetime that had been in it faded with the bright light. Just a click—exactly like a lock turning.
The seal had been released.
A rush of air hit me before I even opened my eyes—cold, thick, smelling of something old and still andwrong.
Beside me, the Timekeeper collapsed.
Screams and gasps and whispers. I was completely disoriented because there’d been a wall there just a second ago, and now there wasn’t. Now there was a corridor, narrow and dark, right where the wall had been—and the air was much colder—and Calren was no longer standing next to me, but on the floor, eyes closed, fresh blood dripping down his nostrils, a chronobank in the palm of his hand.
Something warm touched my cheeks, raised my head, filled my vision. March’s wide eyes were dark, his skin pale, and his curls wild.
“You’re okay,” he told me, and this I heard clearly. “You’re okay. Breathe with me.”
I did.
I held onto his wrists and I breathed, and with every new blink I was more aware, more grounded, my feet firmer on the floor.
“I’m okay,” I whispered, and March took another second or two to analyze my face before he let go of me and stepped to the side.
Calren Hock was the only one on the floor.
“Is he…” Mimi started as she looked at him, both hands over her chest.
“Alive,” Russ said, and it was like he’d given me back air. “Just unconscious.”
Cook leaned in and grabbed the chronobank from the palm of his hand. Raised it, showed it to me.
“One minute,” he said.
The chronobank had one minute left from sixty.
“Guys,” Anika whispered. “The…the wall. It disappeared.”
As if we were just realizing this, we all turned to look at the wall that had indeed disappeared. To the narrow corridor it had revealed.
A loud breath left me. March took my chronobank from Cook because I couldn’t be bothered. All I could think about wasmove, move, get in there, go!
So, I did.
I went ahead, right into the corridor.
“Ora, wait…”
“We don’t know what’s in there!”
“Let’s just wait for the Timekeeper to wake up first…”
“Just hold on a minute—hold on!”
