“I’d love to tell themmypart of the story, though I understand now that it’s notthe wholestory. What do you say, Master Kohen?”
His voice was low but clear, so much more powerful than before. Whatever those Timekeepers had done to him in there, he looked like he’d slept a couple days and had eaten all the best food in the world, too. All within the hour.
My heart ached. The gears in my gut twisted. I had March’s hand in one of mine, and Mimi’s in the other, and I squeezed them both with all my might.
“Absolutely, Silas. Come sit with me right there.” He waved for the empty chair where Damon had been sitting, but who was now going back to the other side of the room for another chair.
Kohen smiled like all his dreams had come true, patted Silas on his knee before he turned to us again, eyessparkling.
“Pay attention, Hands, for we’re about to piece together what could be one of the most interesting, incredible stories to have ever been told in all worlds and all timelines—if we’re lucky.”
Another chuckle, and he leaned back on his chair, got comfortable. Of course, there were a thousand things in mymind, running, spiraling at the same time, but just now it all felt very…distant. Suddenly I had space in my head—a lot of space for the most interesting story in all the worlds.
So, I held my breath together with the others, our hearts beating as one.
And Silas said, “Allow me to start by saying, I’ve missed the lot of you terribly in the hour that I haven’t seen you. And I’m forever grateful that you found me.”
Then he beganto tell us the story of how he came to Neverwhen to be part of the Turning Trials and how he met what he claimed were the bravest Hands in all of time.
Us.
For three hours,they talked.
First Silas, and then Kohen, and by then I was almost twelve-hours certain that I knew who Reggie and Helen and Silas were.
I knew, but I didn’t.
And when the story was over, I felt…empty. Which was saying something, since I’d been plenty empty before, too. None of the spots that ached inside me with their hollowness were filled with all that information.
Instead, we’d moved, March and I, had put back all those inches that had been between us when we first sat down, and when the story was over, the others had told themours,too. Everything that had happened since we went back to the Labyrinth the day before.
Too much information. Far too much for my mind to process, which was why, I guessed, I felt so empty.
Even after they’d all taken us to separate rooms in whatthey called theHollow,the part of this underground structure beyond the veil of darkness. The extension of the Labyrinth that nobody used anymore. That was connected—but separate.
That’s exactly how I felt about my own self, too. Like I was me, but…a different person fromme.
How ever much sense that made.
They had rooms down the corridor, small ones but they all had cots in them. Kohen claimed the others had fixed and cleaned them up for us—with clean sheets and everything. We each could have our own so that we had time and privacy and the chance to actually rest.
Time’s Teeth, I was a stranger to all of them, and they to me. I couldn’t bring myself to look March in the face when he stopped by the door to his room for the night. I felt his eyes on the side of my face, felt everything that wasn’t said between us like charges of electricity in the air, yet I couldn’t bring myself to even turn my head.
I just walked ahead to the very last room on the left.
“Brave Ora.”
Stabs at my gut, my chest, the back of my eyes. Or maybe those were the tears that kept trying to push their way out of me by force every few seconds.
I swallowed hard, turned to Silas, the Spade boy who wasn’t just a Spade boy, but a Timekeeper as well.
Half this and half that.Twothings at once.
The way the thought twisted my mind was scary.
“You keep saving my life,” he whispered, holding onto the cane with both hands, leaning most of his weight against it while Damon waited behind him—possibly to make sure he didn’t fall.
But he felt better, Silas. It was plain to see. He was calmer, had more color on his cheeks. Timekeeper physicians had already done healing magic on him, he’d said, and so he’dkeep improving throughout the night. By morning, he’d be good as new.
