“You don’t…you don’t understand. You don’t know—” the Royal Timekeeper tried again, but the White Queen didn’t want to hear it.
“Iwin,” she spat. “I win—tomorrow, and today, and always! I don’t care where the boy hides. He’s half-dead already with my magic latched onto him. I won’t even need to bother to try to find wherever he’s gone.”
She doesn’t know,thought the Royal Timekeeper.
The queen didn’t knowhe’dtaken the boy, but…
The Royal Timekeeper hadn’t known something, either—that the White Queen’s magic had touched him. That it wasonthe boy even now.
If left unattended, without a healer, he would indeed die in just a few days.
“No,” he whispered, shaking his head as the queen came closer.
“Ohyes,” she said, grinning ear to ear.
“No, no, Your Majesty, you don’t know who he is. You?—”
“Oh, stop it!” she shouted, her voice sharp enough to make him want to cover his ears. “I know who he is just fine! I saw the clock in his hands—andyouknew, too! You knew, didn’t you?!”
She was mad now. Completely mad, and the Royal Timekeeper moved back, shocked, terrified, trying but failing to get his jaw to move so he could speak fast enough—because her hands had lit up. White magic hung to her fingertips, waiting…
“Please, you have to listen to me—you don’t know who Silas is,” he said as her hands rose, and her smile spread, and her eyes darkened.
“Actually, I think I’ve heard quite enough, rustblood.”
In that split second, the Royal Timekeeper knew he’dalready lost. There was no talking to the White Queen. She wasn’t going to wait or to listen.
Even so, he still tried.
“He’s—”
That single word managed to leave his lips.
Then the world turned white once more.
1
Ora Reese
Tick-tock-tea-talk…
My eyes opened.
I looked at the door beyond the edge of my bed, but it was closed. Silly door—must have forgotten to open to let Jinx through.
Because she was there, wasn’t she?
I heard her voice—only she ever used those words when she came to me in the morning to share her latest dream. Only she.
Except…the door remained closed.
And my room remained silent.
And those words repeated as if to let me know that they weren’t really real. They only existed inside my head.
Reality was chock-full of cruel seconds lately because it hid and hid for as long as it could from my own mind, then hit me all at once. Reminded me ofeverythingin a singletick—and then I was spinning, falling down a hole in the ground, even though I was perfectly aware that I was lying in bed still.
My bed. My room. My home.
