Chapter 4
The four courts of the Clockrealm surrounded the city of Neverwhen. Beyond them stretched the Spill—the far edge of the realm, where the world ended.
Clockfolk from each court had their own strengths and weaknesses, their own likes and dislikes, but they all served a purpose.
They made life possible, and made sure time continued to work as it should, and the two queens that ruled over the people were always chosen by these courts.
They ruled together as sisters. They made sure time was distributed evenly to everyone from the Great Clock—and they oversaw the work of the Timekeepers, who kept the Clock working as it should.
Except now it was stuck.
“I don’t understand.” I must have said it over five times now, yet the woman refused to answer me.
She’d put the white suede suit decorated with black and purple on me, had zipped the zippers and tied the laces, had put the Life Clock in my chest pocket designed specifically for it. A chronobank with fifty-eight minutes in it—all for me to use.
It didn’t really feel all that great to be rich at the moment.
The small black pouch she’d brought with her had its own pocket, too, on my side, and it was full of basic tools to fix gears.
When I asked her what I needed it for, she said she didn’t know, just that she was supposed to make sure I had it on me.
I knew how to use these tools—everyone in the Clockrealm learned how to fix clocks in elementary school.
But for some reason carrying that bag made me incredibly uneasy.
“What was your name again?” I asked the maid for the second time as she tied the new braid on my hair with a black leather tie she’d produced from the pocket of her white uniform.
“Lida. I’m Lida, Miss Reese.”
I had never known a Lida in my life. She wasn’t a Timekeeper, or a Spade. If her light brown hair was any indicator, she was a Diamond.
“And you don’t remember me, either,” I asked, just to make sure I’d understood her right.
“Correct. Nobody remembers what happened,” she said—the same thing she’d told me before.
“So, how do they know that any of this is real?” If nobody remembered, how did they know?
“Because the Great Clock is stuck, of course,” was her answer.
I shook my head. “Why, though—why?”
“Because of the curse. Her Royal Goodness must have told you this—the curse stopped the Clock.” Her cheeks were flushed, and she seemed both nervous and irritated at the same time with every new question I asked her.
“But…how?” The Great Clock never stopped. It gave us time. It made living possible. Without time, there would be no realm. There would be nothing, only chaos.
“It’s only temporary, Miss Reese. It’s stuck only until you unwin. Everything will go back to normal then—everything, you’ll see.”
She didn’t believe it for a second, yet there she was, getting behind me, pretending to check that everything was right with my suit just to avoid having to look at me.
“Have we spoken before, Lida?”
“I…” She stared at me through the mirror and she looked spooked. “I assume we have, Miss Reese.”
“Have I ever told you to just call me Ora?” I did not feel a miss yet, and it bothered me now like it always had back home.
“Maybe you have and maybe you haven’t, Miss Reese.”
“Have I ever…” I looked back at the bedside table, at the picture of my sister.
Had I ever spoken to her about Jinx, I wondered?
“Tick-tock. Time to go,” Lida said, and she dragged me right out the door.
The hallway was packed. All the other Hands were just coming out of their own rooms, too, and they all wore suits.
White, but some had red threads and pockets on them, some green, some silver, and one other black and purple, like mine.
Easy to see which court they all belonged to.
It didn’t come as a surprise to me to find that the boy with the curly hair who smelled of roses but not quite was a Heart. His suit was mixed with red.
“It’s rude to stare. Come, come. We’ll be late if we’re not on time.”
Lida pulled at my hand and dragged me again to the other side of the hallway just as the boy turned.
A feeling of possessiveness rang alarms in my head. It was so foreign to me, yet my body behaved like it knew it, like it had felt it before, many times.
Mine, rang the noise in my head. Mine-mine-mine.
And then we were back in that same eating hall, the table set with all kinds of food this time, and Lida ordered me to sit just like the other maids and butlers ordered the other Hands to do.
Disoriented. Afraid. Ready to start running. That’s how all of them looked.
That’s exactly how I felt, too.
I sat in the same place, with the same cup of tea in front of me. My plate was empty, but bigger ones around it were full of food, steaming. The scent made my mouth water.
My insides sang.
The help were already out the door. The high-backed chair at the head of the table was empty. No White Queen, which for some reason was a relief.
It was just us.
Silence in the hall. The walls hadn’t changed, but the chandeliers and the lanterns burned brighter, because the sky was dark outside.
It was nighttime still, yet I felt like I’d slept hours.
The clocks claimed it was almost seven. They were all moving backward, too—even the smaller ones between the dishes.
My eyes went to the Heart boy. He’d switched places with the girl who had sat next to him last time—also a Heart, judging by her suit colors—and now he was right across from me. He was watching me, always watching me. Always searching my face.
I searched his.
“Um…hi.”
All eyes went to the girl sitting on the second chair on my side of the table.
“I’m Mimi.” She raised a hand and waved awkwardly, and her rich green eyes glistened as she looked at us. Paired with the brown of her skin and the black of her hair, she was breathtaking. I had no idea how I hadn’t noticed before. A Club, judging by the green on her suit.
“I’m Erith,” said the first girl sitting on the left side of the table. She wore silver, so I assumed she was a Diamond.
“I’m Anika,” said the girl across from her—a Diamond, too. She looked especially terrified, her big brown eyes full of tears that would slip out the moment she blinked.
“I’m Reggie,” said the boy next to her, and he was a big guy, wide shoulders, dark hair and a strong jaw. He was a Club, too.
So was the one sitting across the table from him. “I’m Seth,” he said with a nod, and the golden-brown hair that covered his eye moved a little to reveal a scar cutting his left brow in half. I only saw it for a split second before his hair fell over it like a curtain again.
“I’m Helen,” said the girl next to him—a Heart with her hair cropped closed to her head, and beautiful golden earrings shaped like hearts on her ears. She was very pale, and her lips were very red and her Cupid’s bow was so pronounced they looked like a heart if I squinted my eyes a bit.
“I’m Russ,” said the boy sitting next to me—a Diamond. There was silver in his suit, and a single streak of it painted his dark blond hair on the right side of his face. Possibly intentional.
“Levana,” said the girl across from him—another Heart with lashes so thick and long the tips of them touched her arched brows when she blinked.
I had my breath held before I realized what I was doing.
The boy with the curly hair next to her finally spoke. “I’m March.”
March.
I had never-ever-reven heard such a name, and yet I knew it. It was mine, too.
A second ticked by. They all watched me now. It was my turn.
“Ora,” I said, and the Heart boy flinched like I might have spilled hot tea on his lap.
“I’m Cook,” said the boy sitting next to me—the other Spade. The last at the table, because the seat across from him was still empty.
There. All eleven of us. Five boys. Six girls. Uneven.
Mother always said eleven was bad luck.
“You guys don’t think the queen meant it, right?” said the girl who’d first spoken—Mimi with the moss-green eyes.
“But she did,” said Seth, the Club. “And we’d best get some food in because they will be coming for us soon, I tell you.
” He reached for one of the plates full of roasted vegetables on the table.
“The Great Clock stopped at eight-thirteen, didn’t it?
I will bet you anything that that’s when they’ll want us to start the trial. Backward.”
Someone gasped.
Some covered their mouths or put their hands on their chests.
Most shook their heads but reluctantly reached for the food.
The Heart boy March didn’t. He only looked at me and sometimes at the rest of the Hands. The suspicion in his eyes was sharp as a blade. Fascinating how it hid his fear so well—unless he really didn’t feel any.
“But…but it’s insanity,” said the Diamond girl Anika from the beginning of the table. “I don’t remember ever coming to Neverwhen. I don’t remember how I won the trials. I don’t remember any of you!”
From across the table, Erith reached out her hand for hers to comfort her. It looked…odd from where I was sitting, not only because I didn’t feel the need to do so—and actually cringed at the very idea—but because I felt I should have.
Some old, rusty instinct, maybe? Because I didn’t quite feel like myself, but I was also not entirely certain I knew who myself was.
Which then made me wonder, had I always been like this, or had I been different?
I tried to think, I really did. For the Time in me, I couldn’t remember.
“Me, neither. But I do remember hunger,” said the boy next to Anika—the other Club, Reggie.
They were a strange people, the Clubs. They had to be on the move to survive. If they stood still for longer than a handful of hours, they aged at an incredible speed.