Everything came to a halt again.
The Labyrinth,he said.
As in the place where the Turning Trials were held. The same place where we woke up that day without our memories, standing in an arena with a cheering crowd.
“You must be joking,” said Mimi while the others behind us whispered, and my mind tried to come up with the best excuse it could find as towhythese Timekeepers would kidnap all of us and bring us here, just so they could send us back to the Labyrinth.
It couldn’t be to play games, could it? The trials were over.
And…that’s it.That was all I was able to come up with.
“I’m afraid now is not the time for jokes, no,” said the Timekeeper. “We brought you all here because we need you to go back to the Labyrinth.”
Need,he said. Not simplywant.
With every word he spoke, and with every ticking second, this Timekeeper didnotlook like someone who kidnapped people all the time.
On the contrary—the more I looked at him, the more I got the impression that he was veryuncomfortable sitting there. Not his friend, though.
But I still had to ask, before anything, “What happens if we sayno?”
A second ticked by slowly. The wide blue eyes of the Timekeeper met mine.
Yes,veryuncomfortable, and also a little panicked, his expression read.
“Nothing,” he finally said. “You can be on your way.”
Another stretched second.
“We can…go?” asked a girl from behind us.
“Of course,” said the Timekeeper, like he hadn’t kidnapped us and brought us here against our will at all.
“Well then. Let’s go,” said the Diamond boy, and a couple of them moved behind us, stepped away from the chairs, but…
“Wait.” All eyes on the Heart boy’s face, but he looked at the Timekeepers. “What happens if we sayyes?”
That was exactly what I wanted to know, too.
“The truth,” said the Timekeeper, and every thought in my head faded away. “I will give you the truth of everything that has happened since you came to Neverwhen for the forward Turning Trials, until the day you unwon the backward ones.”
So many words.Forward, backward, unwon.
I turned, looked at the Heart boy. He looked at me. We all looked at one another—the three of us twisting in the chairs—and it was clear to see the desire, the suspicion, the fear that colored all their cheeks. Possibly mine, too.
The truth.These men here had answers that they were willing to share with us.
“They lie,” whispered the Heart girl—possibly Levana.
“Nobody has ever agreed to tell me the truth. Not even my own parents,” said one of the Diamond girls. She was either Erith or Anika—there had been no more girl names in the notebook.
“Not even my best friend,” said Cook—and you could just hear the heartbreak in his voice.
The same heartbreak thatI’dfelt every single day since I went back home. Since my parents, my cousins, my friends refused to even look at me when I asked them for the truth.
Now these Timekeepers who’d kidnapped us were offering it so freely.
“I haven’t been…well.” The words slipped out of me by accident. I brought my fingertips to my lips, but they were out there now, and they all heard them.
