“Everything.”
My toes curled. My heart broke and came together again in a single beat.
March said, “I’m all ears, beautiful. Tell me everything about you and start with your favorite color.”
I told him the truth. It was red.
25
Aknock on the door.
“Are you two alive in there?”
Mimi, if I had to guess, though she was more whispering than talking, and when she knocked again, her knuckles barely touched the wood.
March and I, still in each other’s arms, talking for more than an hour now (mostly me as hereallymeant it when he said he wanted to knoweverything), looked at each other. Both smiling. Our eyes sparkling.Comfortable.
“Should we answer that?” I wondered, and he grinned.
The way my heart stopped and started again was unfair.
“I would much rather do what I did earlier again,” he said, and there went my cheeks, melting once more—which then made him kiss them twice. “I love how your freckles disappear when you blush. I should just keep you flushed at all times.”
And I would absolutelyadorethat, but…
Mimi knocked again. “Hey! We’re waiting out here!”
We,she said. And that changed everything.
“Let’s leave the flushing for later, shall we?”
March grinned. “I guess I’ll survive.”
So, we got up and put our clothes on in record time, before we went to the door and pulled it open.
Indeed, Mimi was in front of it, and a little farther down the narrow corridor were a few others.
“What is it? What happened?” I asked in a whisper.
“We’re going up. C’mon! Anddon’tmake a sound,” she said with barely any voice as she waved for us to follow.
March and I looked at one another again.
Up? What wasup?
“Here’s another thing about me: I’m crazy curious about…well,everything,” I said in all honesty.
He kissed the top of my head with a chuckle. “I’m right behind you.”
Upwas up.Literally above the ground.
Apparently, Seth had found a stairway at the other end of the corridor, and he’d opened the hatch and checked out the field, and he told everyone it was safe. It was between those hills we saw before, beyond which was the city of Neverwhen, and there was a big willow tree near the hole in the ground. The others had figured that if we stuck to its shadows, we could safely stay out there and get some air for a bit.
So, we did.
We climbed the thin ladder made of metal that was barely holding itself together, and outside, we found Silas and Cook already sitting near the willow, looking out at the lights between this hill and the next.
The first breath of fresh air felt likefreedom,and my body was instantly calmer, even before I turned around and took in the silhouettes of all the buildings and the small woods that made the Labyrinth beyond the golden bars of the fence.
