Instead, I said, “Well, isn’t that why we’re here, Master Talik?” He looked at me like he didn’t understand what I wassaying, so I explained, “Time’s sentinels that He sent to the realm to make sure His time was never stolen again. The Club and the Diamond, the Heart and the Spade. That’sus. That’s literally why we’re here.”
It made sense in my mind, it really did. When the Great White Rabbit stole from Time, and He sent His sentinels to watch after the realm—thiswas what He meant.
“She’s right,” Silas whispered. “And as much as I hate the Turning Trials, they brought us all together. All four courts. One or two alone couldn’t do it. It would have to beallcourts.” The way he smiled said he almosthatedthe idea just as much as he was thankful for it.
“Holy Hour, that makes sense,” Cook said.
“When you put it like that, it makes this ourdutynow.” Seth.
“Our job. The reason we exist.” Mimi. Exactly my thoughts.
“So, yes, Master Talik,” I said. “I amwilling to die for this. Areyou?”
The Timekeeper laughed.
He stood up and threw his head back and laughed his heart out like I’d said the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
“Twenty years, Talik,” Kohen said over the laughter. “We’ve watched and we’ve measured and we’ve waited. Now it’s time to act.”
For another minute or two, the man laughed.
Eventually, he stopped.
Eventually, he sat back down in his chair, his oil-stained hands flat on the table.
We waited with hearts in our throats, watching his lined face caught in the amber light of the lanterns on the walls. We waited and we prayed and we all thought we knew exactly what he’d say, but…
Then Master Talik drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“We’ll leave by two thirty m.b. to reach the tower in time.” His eyes opened. “That gives us about six hours to prepare.”
Silas exhaled. March grabbed my hand over the table. Mimi covered her face with both hands.
“You’ll also need your tools. All of them,” a grinning Kohen said.
And that was that.
30
We decided against going outside tonight, even though all of us could use some air. Instead, we sat around that table still—most of us, while Mimi and Seth kept moving around from one wall to the other so fast I got dizzy if I looked at them for too long.
The Timekeepers had all gone into the Hollow, and Silas was just telling us that they were keeping Calren under on purpose because if he woke up too early the damage to his brain might be permanent. Irreversible by any magic, and I was having such a hard time picturinghimas a Timekeeper, too. Consideringhimas one ofthem.
It just…didn’t really matter.
Timekeepers were exactly like us. Exactly. I saw no difference—and who even cared about the color oftheir hair? Really, I tried to consider them as their own people, I did. But it never mattered, even when I tried hard.
I looked at Silas every now and again, while we talked and we tried to come to terms with the fact that we’d decided to actually do thiswithoutdeciding. The process had involved a conversation, that’s all. A conversation and some feelings andthen all of a sudden we’d all sworn to go do theimpossibleand try to expose queens that had been doing this and getting away with it for decades.
“Isn’t it funny that so many adults have tried for so many years, and they’ve all ended up dead, and nowwe’rethe next best thing—theonlything they have left to throw to the wraiths?” Mimi flinched. “No offense, Silas.”
“None taken,” he said with a wave and a smile—he, out of all of us, looked the most calm since the decision had been made. “I don’t think it’s funny. I think it’s only natural. The old have gotten tired. Weak. We haven’t.”
“No—the old are just wiser, that’s all,” Levana said.
“I mean, we pretty muchknowwe’re going to die,” said Russ.
“We don’t know that.” Silas.
