Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)(76)



Danny narrowly avoided the bump in the road he always managed to forget.

Brandon cursed at his side. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny said. “Look, the town’s just there. I promise your life’s in good hands.” Brandon didn’t seem convinced.

Since Brandon looked ready to leap from the auto rather than stay in it another minute, Danny parked on the outskirts of Enfield. Danny removed his goggles and followed his tall apprentice toward the green. The weather had driven nearly everyone inside, and the abandoned look of the place didn’t make Danny feel any better.

“What can you show me that’ll be on the assessment?” Brandon asked once they’d climbed the tower steps. Danny unbuttoned his coat and thought about what would take the least amount of time.

“How about I show you a trick with the mainspring?”

Danny felt Colton’s eyes as they worked. He sometimes looked over his shoulder and saw the spirit leaning on the wall directly behind him with arms crossed, or sitting far above them on a beam. Danny explained the procedure as best he could, but he could barely hear his own words.

“Rather than directing time, you have to listen to it. It’ll tell you where the rift is, or where it’s torn. Time’s like threads woven into a pattern. It’s your job to understand the pattern and make sure you patch it up right. Some mechanics think you can control time, but that’s not how I see it. Time is in control of you. You just have to know how to let it guide you. How to feel it.”

Brandon had always seemed intelligent, but Danny knew from the look in his dark eyes that he understood exactly what he was saying. Brandon would pass his assessment easily.

Brandon insisted they go to the pub for lunch, but Danny saw Colton’s impatient face over his apprentice’s shoulder and felt his own matching tug of frustration.

“In a minute. I’m going to take a quick walk to clear my head.”

Danny waited until Brandon was gone before walking down the stairs. He sensed more than saw Colton follow him, barely noticing when Colton held up his coat so he could push his arms through the sleeves.

He stepped outside and shivered, his face already raw from the wind. Colton, at his side, probably didn’t feel a thing in his billowing shirt. The spirit met Danny’s eyes with a small shrug, as if asking, “What now?”

Not wanting to stray too far from the tower, Danny took Colton’s hand and steered him toward the hedge. No one would see them there.

Danny wasn’t quite sure where to begin, so he asked, “How’ve you been?” It felt stupid, but as automatic as putting a teaspoon of sugar in his afternoon tea.

“The same as I ever am.”

They turned the corner, heading in the direction of the Aetas statue. “Something’s troubling you,” Colton said as they slowed to a stop. “Can you tell me?”

Danny nodded and took a deep breath. It came in starts and stops, many of his words half-formed. He told Colton everything he’d learned: that Matthias had been lying to him—to everyone—and that the Maldon clock spirit was not destroyed, but in London.

Colton’s eyes were wide when Danny finished. “If she’s alive, she can fix her clock. You can free your father!”

Danny remained silent, and Colton’s elated smile began to fade.

“You can’t?”

“I don’t know.” Danny turned away. “The thing is, I trusted Matthias. I went to him when I missed my father, when I needed someone to tell me what the right thing to do was. He was always there for me, even when I didn’t want him to be. To find out he was … all this time, he was hiding this …”

Danny’s voice began to shake, and he coughed to hide it. “If Evaline can’t convince him to let her leave London, what can I do? How do I even speak to him?”

Colton put his hands on Danny’s shoulders. The air shivered around him, soft and comforting, like a cat’s vibrating purr against skin.

“From what you’ve told me, Matthias sounds like a good man. Even if he’s done this, there has to be a reason.”

“Yes,” Danny said, voice low. “He loves that spirit. He loves her so much he would sacrifice an entire town for her.” More than one town? his mind whispered, but he shoved the idea away. “That’s not being good. That’s being bloody selfish.”

He turned and ripped off the nearest clump of honeysuckle. He thought, coldly, that love was simply that—a handful of bruised flower petals. Beautiful and terrible and fleeting. Too easily snatched away, too easily ruined.

“Danny, stop.” Colton took the crushed flowers from his fingers. His eyes were pinched and his voice sounded a little slower. “You’ll find a way to solve this, I know you will. And I’ll help. What can I do?”

Danny ran his hands through his hair until it stuck up in the back. He was wasting the time he had with Colton to complain instead of focusing on his next steps.

“I know what you can do.” He brushed his thumb across Colton’s jaw. “You can keep telling me what an idiot I’m being.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Colton said. “You’re upset. What’s your plan for when you go back?”

Danny lifted his arms, like the Lead did when stumped. “Try to speak to Matthias, I suppose. If he won’t listen, I’ll have to tell the authorities, and I really don’t want—What’s the matter?”

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