“How in the Everstill did you get in here?” the Timekeeper woman said, her voice just over a whisper as she slowly took a couple of steps toward us, clearly shocked.
Nobody dared to say a single thing—and I realized just how utterly unprepared for this we were. ThequestionsI should have asked Kohen before he left—thisshould have been one of the questions!If we get caught, what do we say? What do we do? Do we run or stay or talk? Do we pretend to be someone else?
Yes,nowI could think of a hundred questions, but Kohen was long gone.
What in Time’s Teeth were we going to do?!
“Send word to the queensnow,” the Timekeeper woman said, and for some reason every single instinct in my body was suddenly on high alert. I wanted to do everything—everythingin my power to stop her, and I didn’t even know why.
“You heard me—go!” the woman shouted at the men standing behind her, one a Timekeeper, one a Spade judging by his light hair and black shirt.
Suddenly they both turned around and ran back out the door, nodding their heads, a terrified look on their faces—as iftheywere afraid ofus.
We were no match for them, and they knew it. This woman here—she knew who we were, too.
And now she was getting closer.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” she said, her wide brown eyes hopping from one face to the next, while the rest of them came at us from the other side, too.
“You will follow us now, and you will do exactly as I say. Do you understand?” The woman was barely five feet away from us now. “Answer me—howdid you get in here?!”
I looked at March. He looked at me. We all knew by now not to say a single word.
“That’s okay. You’ll answer Her Royal Goodness when she gets here, I’ll bet.” The Timekeeper woman ran her hands over the sides of her head, clearly frustrated as she inhaled deeply.
“Move when we tell you, and stop when we tell you—no sudden movements; otherwise, Iwillknock you out cold,” she said. “Move along now, follow them.” She raised her index finger stained with ink or oil or both, and she pointed to the other side of the room, to the three Timekeepers andthe maids who looked positively panicked as they watched with their hands over their mouths.
“Take them upstairs, to the second,” was the next order the Timekeeper barked.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” said Mimi, trying but failing to keep her voice from shaking.
“I beg to differ,” the woman said, her hand on a thick leather belt over her dress where the golden chain of one of her clocks peeked through. The other appeared to be in her chest pocket. “The Labyrinth is sealed. Nobody enters without authorization from the Crown. You didplentywrong.”
Her voice alone sent shivers down my back.
March pulled at my hand. “Let’s go,” he said, not an ounce of fear anywhere in his expression as he watched the Timekeeper woman waiting for us to walk ahead.
He was right. There was no need to panic, at least not yet. Seeing him like that brought a calm over me, too—we were okay.These people were going to take us somewhere, possibly lock us in, and we could then talk. Make a plan. Make our escape. There were plenty of windows here, and we had our chronobanks. Even if we had to blow something up, we didn’t need specific spells or anything like that. We just needed brute force to get out of here—once we were alone.
So, we walked.
The maids went first, slipped out the door behind them, and two of the Timekeepers went with them, while the last one, the biggest of the three with shoulders twice the size of March’s, stayed behind, never blinked, his eyes almost bloodshot as he watched us.
He followed right behind us together with the woman, close—too close to Cook and Anika, who were the last in the group.
I didn’t dare let go of March’s hand.
“As soon as they’re secured, do a perimeter check. Alert all staff. We need to search the grounds,” the Timekeeper woman said.
I was trying so hard to keep my composure, but the more I thought about her words, the quicker that calm faded, and the more I squeezed March’s fingers.
Which then made him lean closer and whisper, “We’re going to be all right.”
Maybe we would and maybe we wouldn’t. But when he spoke, it helped to focus on him and not the fear.
We continued ahead. What other choice did we have? We were outnumbered, and they were all adults with chronobanks they could actually use.
And I could fight. Well—spar,really, but to do that I’d need weapons. Pretty sure the others were the same, which was why nobody had made a single attempt to run or speak or do anything at all exceptwalk.
