Page 34 of Trapped By Clocks and Hearts

The veins in my neck bulged in protest. I was the most goddamned powerful sorcerer on Wünder. Before Allie, things like this never happened to me on a daily basis. This was all her fault!

Of course, I couldn’t choke the life out of her. I couldn’t hold her head under the water and watch the bubbles slowly dissipate as she fought for breath. At the moment, I could barely keep my body upright.

I blew out all my pent-up frustration in a loud, aggravated, resigned sigh. And all I could do was make a face and mumble under my breath in my defense, “Am not.”

As we went on, the sandy ground from the riverbank turned into more solid soil beneath our feet. Soon, we were on a distinctly well-trodden path in the middle of a rainforest.

Still supporting the crook of my arm, Allie glanced over her shoulder as we passed a wooden sign by the side of the path. “Why does that say ‘Beware rainbows’?”

I gave her a flat look. “Rainbows are dangerous things. Don’t you know anything?”

She tilted her head. “Why? What’s so dangerous about rainbows?”

I sighed again to explain. “If you are unlucky enough to walk into a rainbow, you might reach its end where it may grant you the greatest wish of your heart in that moment.”

“You’re kidding. Like a treasure?” Allie gaped. “You’re telling me there’s really a treasure at the end of rainbows?”

“That’s what I said.” I groaned again. “It’s pointless.”

“It’s brilliant!” Her eyes lit up like an epiphany. “Do you think if we found a rainbow, it could show me a portal to get back home?”

I stopped short. I hadn’t considered that. I hadn’t considered that we would encounter a rainbow either. If the rainbow did indeed show her a way home, my entire plan would fail. I needed to dissuade her from engaging the rainbow. Not that I really needed to try. In my experience, rainbows were atrocious things.

I cleared my throat. “Perhaps. But rainbows are tricky. Often it will interpret your wish in an unexpected way, or give you a mere one part of something even when you wished for a whole thing. They’re highly unpredictable and very dangerous.”

“Are you kidding me?” She dropped my arm to wander around as if on a hunt for it. “If it could give me a way to get out of this place? Worth a shot, I’d say.” She walked backward, casting her gaze around the clearing. “So, where is this illustrious, magical rainbow that’s supposed to be around here somewhere?”

I furrowed my eyebrows almost in mocking. “I thought you were a scientist? Don’t you know you can’t have a rainbow without—”

A crackle of thunder interrupted my sentence and a drizzle began to fall from the gray clouds that were rolling.

“Rain!” Allie exclaimed. Her face lit up with a childlike joy as she tilted her chin up to the sky. She closed her eyes for a moment as if to savor the sensation of the droplets falling on her face.

One corner of my mouth turned up ever so slightly.

Ignorance must indeed be bliss. Allie had absolutely no idea she was summoning one of the most treacherous things in all of Wünder. She even seemed…carefree, relaxed.

She smiled. “Mmm…That feels so good.”

My mouth twitched. “Be careful. You’re beginning to sound like those women again who keep me company at night.”

Allie’s laughter was as delicate as the rain. “I wasn’t even trying before. Shall I do another one? Here.” She let out an exaggerated moan—except she sounded like a cow about to be slaughtered.

I cringed. She sounded wholly ridiculous. But quite unexpectedly, I was unable to help letting out a short cough of amusement.

Allie’s eyes widened larger than Chez’s in abject surprise.

I supposed she didn’t even know I could make that noise.

“Did you just…” She turned to face me. “That sound just now—was that actually laughter?”

There was an undeniable lightness in my chest. The prospect of finding a rainbow and potentially a way home must have triggered great joy in Allie. And it made me…laugh.

She continued to peer closely at my face. “Are you going to do it again?” she coaxed. “Come on, Rabb. Do you want to hear a joke? A limerick?” She cleared her throat. “There once was a man from Nantucket…” She paused in hesitation. “Something about a bucket that could suck it. I think he had a daughter named Nan. Who took the cash in the bucket—wait. Did he go down a well?” She stopped to think before starting again, “Wait, wait, wait. I think I have it.” She waved her hand as if in ceremony. “There once was a man from Nantucket. Whose john was so long he could s—”

“Stop it.” I shot her an absurd look, even though I was struggling to contain a smirk from the ridiculous look on her face. “Stop trying to make me laugh.”

Allie was finding the situation entirely too amusing. Her melodious laughter rang in the air. “I wonder if your rainbows have the same colors as the ones I know. Red, yellow, orange…” She cast me a glance. “What’s your favorite color?”