“So…they’re coming?” March asked, and my heart rushed so much she skipped beats.
“Most likely,” said Silas?—
And he hadn’t even finished speaking when we suddenly heard the sound outside.
Footsteps.
Not from the door we needed to open, but from the door behind us, the one we’d come through, which had slammed shut when the game activated.
Heavy footsteps, rushing, getting closer.
“I’m going tomurderyou!” Russ hissed when he pulled Seth to his feet and slowly backed him away, disrupting the clock that the gears and pieces were trying to make again—and this time theydidattack us. They clamped onto our feet, but we didn’t even care to be afraid when someone wasright there,outside the door.
The face of the Timekeeper woman was at the center of my mind. This was it—we were done for. We were caught. We were so, so doomed…
“Just stand back. Just stand back,” March was telling us, moving in front of us with his arms spread like he thought he was a shield. I stuck beside him.
“We’ll be okay,” I breathed. “It’s the Labyrinth—it will free us again. We’ll be okay, we’ll be okay…”
Except I didn’t really believe that. Not anymore.
Because if that was the case, the Labyrinth would have let us all out by now. We’d be long free. Those doors would have long opened.
Then the footsteps stopped together with our lungs. With our hearts.
A split second later came a second sound—a faint jingling, like small metal tools clinking together.
My mind was clear of thoughts, my hand squeezed March’s, the other holding onto that seeker tightly…
And the door opened.
Smoothly.Almost silently.
A silhouette filled the doorway. Thin frame, tall limbs, gray clothes topped with a stained apron, and ginger still clung to the hair around the back of his neck stubbornly, while the rest had long turned silver.
A clock was in his hand—a Timekeeper Clock, twice as big as my chronobank—and a bunch of keys in the other.
A Timekeeper. Clearly one who maintained the games around here, and he’d already seen us.
Time’s Teeth, Silas was right. It was already as good as over. They found us, and now this guy was either going to lock us in here again and go call for others, or he was going to force us to follow him to the upside of the Labyrinth—and what could we do?
Could we run when we got the chance? Silas probably couldn’t.
Could we fight?
Would the Labyrinth save us again?
Then the Timekeeper spoke.
“Don’t.Move.”
His voice was low, thick. It was like he’d slapped me right across the face, and my entire body froze as if his words were my command.
But the Timekeeper walked—past uswithout another look our way—and went straight for the clock spinning on the floor.
He carefully stepped onto the pieces that were still trying to assemble, then fell on one knee in the center of it. Hereached for something in the pockets of his apron, pulled out this long, thin device with a hooked end, and inserted it into the center of the mechanism.
I still didn’t dare breathe, didn’t dare relax my muscles, didn’t even consider telling everyone to justrunout that door he’d opened, even if it took us back where we came from.
