Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1)(84)

It was a good thing his mother wasn’t holding the teapot, or else she would have dropped it. She swayed and reached for the back of the nearest chair, leaning heavily on it.

“She’s here? The Maldon spirit—here?”

“Yes. She’s upstairs with Colton.”

Leila stared at the tabletop. She pushed herself upright.

“She has to go back. You have to take her to Maldon, Danny.”

“Mum, wait—”

“I swear, if you don’t—”

He grabbed her arms. “Listen to me! She’s our only chance to save Colton. If I take her back to Maldon, who knows what Matthias will do with Colton’s cog? He might destroy it, and then Colton will …”

Leila grew quiet, and his hands slipped away.

“I know, Mum. I know it’s hard. But we’ve got to let her sort things out with Matthias. If we take her to Maldon now, he’ll do something rash.”

Leila swallowed audibly. “Danny, how could you do this?”

The words reopened the wound inside him. It bled a fresh wave of fear through his veins, pulsing your fault, your fault, your fault.

It was a struggle to get the words out. “Do what?”

“You had to know what would happen, getting involved with …” She waved her hand at the ceiling, in the direction of Danny’s room. “You’ve gone and tangled yourself up with a clock spirit, and now Enfield’s suffering for it. Just like Maldon suffered when Matthias had his fun. How could you do it when you knew what would happen?”

They were the same words he’d told himself, but coming from his mother, they took on a whole new existence. They were living things with teeth, eating away at what precious defenses he had left. Danny held his elbows, staring at the floor. He saw what she could not: sunlight through a clock face, the pages of a fairy tale book, a dance across the tower floor.

“I’m so disappointed, Danny.” Her mouth trembled. “Your father taught you better than this. If he could see you now …”

The frail cage Danny had built around himself crumbled with a breath. His nerve endings were suddenly exposed, electric.

“Do you think I decided this? That I woke up and thought, you know, that clock spirit’s rather nice, maybe I’ll fancy him? You know it takes more than that. It takes time. A shared look, a … a shared story. And before you know it, you’re heading toward something you never saw coming, and when it’s there, it’s just … it … takes you away.”

Danny had been shouting, but by the time he finished, his voice was little more than a whisper. He couldn’t bear to look at her.

“I didn’t choose this,” he said.

The kitchen was silent for so long he thought they’d turned to stone. Then Leila said, haltingly, “I didn’t say it was a choice.”

“You may as well have,” he growled. “I know you think it. And if you’re going to hate me for it, I’d rather you forget I’m your son. Lord knows you’ve done a pretty good job of that already.”

She took a step back, her eyes wide. “Danny, don’t say such a thing!”

He glared at her, feeling not like Danny Hart, but someone else using his voice. “Matthias was selfish for keeping Evaline. You were selfish when you chose to go to Chelmsford. And I was selfish, too, wanting something I couldn’t have. But I’m doing what I can to save Enfield and Maldon. In order to save Colton and Dad. Don’t compare me to Matthias, Mum. Don’t blame me for something I haven’t done.”

Leila looked away. Danny moved to the stove, angrily preparing another pot of tea. It came as naturally as breathing.

“It isn’t his fault.”

They both turned at the sound of Evaline’s voice. The spirit stood in the kitchen doorway.

Leila opened her mouth, but Danny rushed to speak first; he couldn’t trust his mother not to drive Evaline from their house. “How’s Colton?”

“Worse, I’m afraid. If we find Matthias I can ask what he’s done with the cog, but I don’t think he would tell me. Not after—”

“Why did you leave?”

Evaline turned from Danny to his mother. Leila was breathing hard through her nose, her fists clenched.

The clock spirit dropped her eyes. “It’s difficult to explain.”

“Difficult to explain? There’s nothing to explain. The town’s suffered—we’ve suffered—because of you. You have to go back. You have to free my husband!”

Danny stepped between them. “Mum, wait. She didn’t know that the town would Stop, and Matthias told her it had been fixed. Blame him, not her.”

“She’s still responsible for her actions. Leaving … leaving Christopher there …” She almost gave in to tears, but collected herself at the last moment. “She’s the most selfish of us all.”

“If Matthias had just told her—”

“No,” Evaline interrupted. “No, she’s right. This is my mistake to fix.” She closed her eyes, regaining control of herself, and then returned her gaze to Leila. “I’m sorry,” she said, “for Stopping the town and for preventing your husband from coming home. If I had known, I would never have left. I only had eyes for Matthias, and I see now that I was foolish. Perhaps clock spirits are not quite so different from humans after all.”