Time’s Teeth, it was like they held my very soul in their hands.
Nobody made a single sound for a second.
Then…
“Run.”
A voice I knew. A voice I’d heard just the day before.
Kohen the Timekeeper was right behind us.
“All of you—run, and don’t look back.”
17
More Timekeepers.
Six new faces I’d never seen before, three of them moving about that strange room with the three-legged table, while the rest of us sat anywhere we could, with blankets over our shoulders and steaming teas in our hands, waiting.
They’d taken Calren somewhere else, into another room, they said.
They’d taken Silas, too, to rest, but he was awake, at least. His eyes were half open and on me while the Timekeepers carried him through that doorway that still revealed nothing but darkness to us from this room.
I sat on the floor—couldn’t tell you why. Maybe I just needed the support of something larger than the back of a chair to lean against.
March came to sit with me, his tea in his hand, and then Mimi came to my other side, too.
For the longest time, nobody spoke, only watched the Timekeepers as they came to check on us, then disappeared beyond the doorway again.
Then Anika sighed from where she sat at the table, running her fingertip over the rim of her teacup.
“I can’t believe cats can talk.”
That definitelywasone of the stranger things we’d seen today, but somehow it wasn’t…shockingto me in the least.
“I can,” said Seth. “What Ican’tbelieve is that someone would be stuck in a room behind a wall without food or water, barely breathing, and just…survive.”
“For a whole month,” said March from my side, his voice sending shivers down my spine.
I dragged myself a little closer to him on instinct.
“Somebody’s lying,” said Erith from across Anika.
“Everybody’slying,” shot Russ, tapping his foot against his chair’s leg relentlessly. He hadn’t even bothered to put that blanket they gave us around his shoulders. Not that any of us really needed it—they’d dried our clothes and hair with magic as soon as we’d come through, like they had minutes to spare on such trivial things. We weren’t cold, but the weight and the feel of the blanket around my shoulders gave me some strange kind of comfort.
I dragged myself a little closer to March again. There was still an inch or so between us.
“True,” said Mimi. “The only people we can really trust isus.” She made a point of throwing her small green notebook in the air and catching it again.
“Except we have no clue what happened,” Erith reminded her.
“But that Spade boy does,” said Seth.
“And he was one of us…somehow.” Mimi flinched, then opened her notebook. “Why isn’t his name in here, though?”
“The same reason why there is no Reggie and no Helen.” Those names. They stabbed at my gut as I said them, my own body rebelling against me.
“Who even are they?”
