Page 54 of Matched to the Alien King
Maxx was at my side in an instant, his argument with Miekil forgotten. He whirled me toward him and roved his panicked eyes and fingers over my cheeks, my arms, and even my hair. “What? What is it?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, my face flushing at my overreaction. “The number seven hand closed around mine. It startled me, is all.”
Still holding me to him, he turned his gaze to the wall of hands. “They’re real?”
“No,” I said and pointed at the gap above the wall. “But I think they’re our way up and over and out.”
“And here I thought holding hands with you all was ew.” Judge, standing to the right of Maxx’s bulk, moved across the tiny room, leaving a sticky, drippy film behind on the lower part of the hand wall.
Okay, whatwasthat? And for the love all that’s holy, why were his damn pants wet too, especially in the crotch area?
You know what? Never mind.
“So how does this work?” Miekil asked, crossing into my line of sight, his gaze stuck on the wall. “We use the hands as hand and footholds?”
He reached out and pressed down on one. It fell away from his grip and bent its wrist backward to flop uselessly against the wall. If that hand were real, the wrist would definitely be broken. Seconds later, it lurched back to perpendicular with the wall once again.
“No, only some of them are hand and footholds.” I angled myself toward my fellow contestants, my growing excitement rushing every word out in a torrent. “That’s why the hands are numbered. We have to find the pattern so we can climb up.”
“Or they’ll drop us thirty feet down.” Judge rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. “Sounds…fun.”
“Does anyone else hear running water?” Bling asked, eyeing the walls.
Everyone nodded. Everyone but me, since I still couldn’t hear jack.
Maxx gestured to the clock with fifteen minutes remaining. “I suggest we get started.”
“Start looking for a pattern or a clue or a…” I totally forgot what I was going to say when I spotted a heart-shaped box on the table opposite the water vials. “Is that…chocolate?”
Nobody was listening to me though. Maxx and Miekil were now arguing about the wall of hands and pressing on all of them while Judge and Bling studied the individual vials.
Too soon, I made it to the chocolate table. And by too soon, I meant I took fewer steps than I anticipated to get there. Not like oh darn, I made it to the chocolate table too soon. Never that.
But seriously,wasthe room shrinking?
I lifted the lid of the heart-shaped box and found a note.
Tasty galaxies,
Dark chocolate chips of space dust,
Cosmic bakery.
“Yeah, I’m not trying one of your probably poisoned cosmic chocolates that look so,sogood.” I boxed them up again just so I wouldn’t have to look at them. “Nice try though.”
Something bumped me from behind, so I turned and found Bling and Judge. Still at the water vial table.Notstill across the room from me.
Even though the walls didn’t appear to be moving inward, they definitely were.
“Shit,” I yelled. “Five seven five. Five seven five!”
Everyone whirled, all eyes growing as they took in the shrinking room. We were standing in the middle of a six-foot by six-foot square. For now.
“What?” Judge asked, his voice squeaking higher. “Five seven five?”
“The chocolate haiku. The number of syllables per line.” I waved my hands at the water vials. “Quick. Your turn!”
“Five seven five,” Maxx repeated, finding the matching numbered hands on the wall. “Got them. What’s next?”
