Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)(61)

“Danny, this is—”

“Stupid, I know. I’m an idiot for keeping this from you. But you understand why, don’t you? Do you realize what’ll happen to me if I’m found out?”

Cassie looked from Danny to Colton. Her shock gradually faded into curiosity. “Your name is Colton. Like the tower. You’re a …” She fumbled over the words. “A clock spirit.”

Colton glanced at Danny and nodded.

She studied him a moment, trying not to let her wonder show and failing miserably. “It’s … er … nice to meet you at last. Danny’s told me about you. Just not everything.” She glared at Danny, and he shrank back.

Colton’s wary expression broke into a tentative smile. “He talks about me?”

“All the time.”

“What does he say?”

“Where do I even begin?”

Danny watched, struck dumb, as the two suddenly started talking at a fearsome speed. When he tried to get a word in, they barely acknowledged him.

“He was so flustered when he told me about that first kiss—”

“Said you live down the street from him—”

“Have all sorts of embarrassing stories to tell you—”

Danny sank onto a box and put his head in his hands. He had expected anger, fear, betrayal. This was far, far worse.



Although Cassie put on a bright face for Colton, which had done wonders to break the awkwardness between them, she turned stony when she and Danny left the tower later that afternoon.

He stepped toward his auto. “Guess I’ll just—”

“Danny, get in my auto.” Cassie was giving him a look, one she’d learned from her mother, that bored straight into him.

He did as he was told. She started the engine, which ran smoother than his own, and they drove down the narrow streets of Enfield to the outskirts in silence.

After a while she said, very softly, “Why would you keep this from me?”

“I already told you why.”

She took a deep breath through her nose. He couldn’t stand the expression on her face, the hurt he’d caused.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I wish I had told you sooner. I trust you, Cassie. I do.”

“It’s not that.” She tightened her hands on the steering wheel. “You’re behaving exactly like Matthias did.”

Danny’s heart gave a single painful thud. “You think that hasn’t crossed my mind?”

“What are you thinking? Whatever Matthias did, if he actually loved a clock spirit like he told everyone, Maldon was Stopped because of it. He was exiled, Danny. You’ve told me over and over again how miserable he is, and how much it hurts you to see him that way.” Her voice thickened with tears. “Didn’t it cross your mind that the same thing could happen to you? That I would have to see you that way?”

No, it hadn’t. He had been so focused on his fear of losing Colton that he had never considered how he might end up hurting Cassie.

He looked out the window and frowned. “This isn’t the way to London.”

“I know. We’re going to Maldon.”

“What?” His fingers twitched. “No, we can’t. I don’t want to go there.”

He had only gone once, right after the town had Stopped. All that stood there now was a gray domed barrier, an opaque bubble that enclosed the entirety of Maldon.

“Not the town,” she clarified. “The tower. The new one.”

“It’s ruined, Cass. There’s no point.”

“I know you want to go. So we’re going.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but she was right. He did want to go, no matter how many ghosts stood in the way.

They drove in silence. Danny stared at his lap and wondered if there was a way everyone could win—a situation, however implausible, in which everyone he loved could have a happy ending just like in Colton’s fairy tales.

“Here we are.” Cassie parked the auto a short distance from a sectioned-off plot of land, blocked from prying eyes by tall canvas dividers. Beyond those dividers lay the rubble of the tower.

A few miles away, Danny could see the ominous gray dome of his father’s prison.

“You’re the best mechanic in your class,” Cassie said. “Maybe something here will help you understand. Maybe it’ll help save Colton from the same fate.” Her hand slowly found Danny’s and squeezed. “I don’t want you to be wracked with guilt like Matthias is. Like I am.”

It’s too late for that, Cass.

Danny closed his eyes for a moment. He didn’t want to see the wreckage, the ruined dream he’d shared with his mother. But he had no choice. The attacks wouldn’t stop unless someone figured out what was causing them.

He opened his eyes and nodded. They slipped out of the auto.

Danny and Cassie lurked behind the bonnet, surveying the site where a few guards were patrolling.

“I think I can get us through with my mechanic’s badge,” Danny said. “Want to give it a go?”

When they approached an opening in the canvas, a guard with lips like a fish stopped them. “Hold on there. No one gets through without identification.”

Danny showed his badge. “I’m a mechanic.”