Page 24 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

She probably had about a million questions by now.

“What?”

Allie was staring intently at my chest. “If you carry mine in there, where is your heart?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I ever had one. Or if I did, it’s been lost a while.”

Her one eyebrow quirked up. “You don’t want to find it?”

“I’ve never needed a heart to live.” Nonchalantly, I turned away. “I know I’m a monster.”

“The Queen is a monster,” Allie corrected. “For making you do this. She’s manipulating you for her own gains…” Her forehead creased as if in an inkling of a recollection and a dark shadow crossed her face. “I think…maybe I might have also done something like that.”

On the brink of eagerness and anticipation, my eyes widened. “Are you starting to remember something about who you are?”

She dropped her gaze. “I have a feeling I was not truly good either.”

I studied her face, waiting to see if she remembered anything else. If she did, then perhaps all my troubles could be over as soon as today.

A brief streak of sunlight slipped through the clouds, filtering in through the windows, but the momentary glimmer of a trance on her face passed just as quickly.

Pursing my lips, I straightened up. I supposed I shouldn’t have expected it was going to be that easy.

Allie dropped her gaze. Her thoughts had visibly shifted. I could almost see the gears in her mind turning. “That girl, last night—she…died when you put her heart in that thingy.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“But I didn’t die when you took mine,” she noted.

“They don’t always die,” I dismissed since I couldn’t explain any further.

All these centuries of doing this, it had never once occurred to me to ask how exactly a Heartlamp functioned. And why should it? Such details were irrelevant to my job.

I tapped my chest, gesturing between us. “Besides, you might have noticed. One doesn’t always need a heart to survive in Wünder.”

Allie’s eyes narrowed. Her busybody brain was working on something. “Right. So the fact of the matter is…you don’t really need me. For some reason, you just need my heart. And I could go on happily existing even without it.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t say ‘happily’. You should have lost all your emotions.” Or at least she should have.

I knew this much for a fact. Wünder had a certain population of people wandering around, sallow and stripped of feelings, many of them victims of my services. These people moved through their day-to-day like ghosts haunting their villages. They may as well have been ghosts.

But for reasons I was cautious to admit even to myself, Allie, of course, was nothing like them.

“What?” I prompted, my tone lowering half in dread. I wasn’t sure if I ought to be worried or not about Allie’s slow nodding as she processed this information.

“The other day, you offered to help me.” Allie met my gaze. “I have a counteroffer. An exchange. You help me find a way home and in return, you can keep my heart. I mean, all the evidence suggests you don’t really need me—at least, not me in particular.”

I sneered again. “I already have your heart. I own you. You have no leeway for negotiation, no leverage.”

Allie narrowed her eyes. “But I have a distinct feeling you’re as eager to get my heart out of you as I am to get home. And if you haven’t ripped it out of your chest just yet, I’m sure there is a reason. Given what you are, and having observed your behavior for the last few weeks, I even deduce that it’s actually detrimental to you to have a real heart after all these years. Ergo, I will help you with what you need if you help me with what I need.”

I blinked at her unexpected insights.

Damn, this girl was clever.

“And if we don’t find you a way home?” I quirked an eyebrow.

“Well, then that is my risk to take.” She nodded solemnly. “Do we have a deal?”