Page 73 of Wonder

I blink. “Excuse me?”

Whatinhibition?

“Nerve compression,” Aiden says smoothly. He looks as though he’s trying not to laugh. “A signal’s been cut between areas of his body. He’ll be dead in a few minutes.”

“Well, you learn something new every day.” I move away from Bruce’s twitching body. “Have you seen anyone else?”

Both of them shake their heads. Aiden frowns. “Can you hear that?”

“The ticking?” I turn to look over my shoulder when he nods. “I was following it when Bruce found me.”

Kayden swipes a hand over his face. It’s covered in cuts, and I open my mouth to ask.

Then I close it again, deciding that I probably don’t want to know. “Shall we?”

They flank me as we walk away from Bruce, back up the passage. As we move, the ticking becomes louder. “It sounds like a clock.”

More than one, in fact.

“Scary,” Kayden murmurs. “We get rats, spiders, moving walls and an electrified puddle, and you getclocks?”

I stop to stare at him. “An electrified puddle?”

“It was bigger than a puddle.” Aiden rolls his eyes as he holds up his hands, showing me the cuts that look awfully similar to the ones on Kayden’s hands. “We had to climb the wall to go around it.”

I’m not about to complain that my experience has been quieter than theirs. “I did get Bruce, though.”

Kayden makes a sound that might be a growl of some sort in his chest.

The ticking grows louder, until it’s a cacophony surrounding us.

We turn into the next section, and all of us come to a halt.

Aiden whistles. “Somebody got a clock phobia?”

The whole passage is filled with…clocks.

Wall clocks, small and large, decorate the entire passageway, hanging from the walls. Barely an inch of green is visible. Even the ground is covered. Ahead of us, a grandfather clock chimes.

I examine the clocks closest to us, noticing one detail that stands out. “They’re all set to the same time.”

Six fifteen.“That time mean anything to you?”

The twins both shrug.

We start picking our way through the spread on the ground. Kayden kicks some out of the way, the tinkling sound of glass breaking filling the air. “The fuck is this about?”

“Maybe nothing,” Aiden suggests.

“No,” I murmur it, looking around. “It’s too precise. Too focused not to mean anything at all.”

It feels like… a message.

The clocks continue as we move through them. When I stop, holding up my hand, the twins instantly tense. Kayden turns, checking behind us. “What’s the matter?”

Brows kitting, I look around. “I can hear something. Talking?”

It sounds like…muttering. A low murmur, deeper than the high-pitched chimes and ticking.