“I was here last week!”
“Leave the boy alone, Leila.” Christopher ducked out of the kitchen into the hall. Like Danny, he had long limbs, green eyes, and unruly hair. “Can’t you see he’s tired?”
“I am, actually,” Danny said. “I had to clean the tower this morning.” The soreness in his limbs was a muzzy weight that would only grow worse by tomorrow.
“Come into the kitchen, then. Supper’s nearly on.”
He asked if it would be all right to invite Cassie, which of course it was. Cassie often complained her mother couldn’t cook worth a fig.
She showed up within five minutes, still wearing her work coveralls and a streak of oil in her auburn hair. She was just as obsessed with auto mechanisms as Danny was with clockwork.
“You’re a savior, Dan.”
“I figured you’d want an excuse to leave the house.”
Cassie groaned. “You try living with two sisters and two brothers and not lose your blooming mind. Mum and Dad have no idea that I’m planning to find a place of my own soon.” Danny caught the look on his mother’s face that screamed, What, without a husband?
Surrounded by light and the smell of sizzling sausage and the voices of those he loved, Danny couldn’t help but be amazed. If someone had told him a year ago that he would be here now, eating a meal with both his parents, he would have scoffed. Such a notion had been impossible, once.
A testament to just how difficult belief truly was.
Christopher told Cassie a joke that made her laugh so hard she nearly choked. As Leila admonished her husband, Danny studied his father’s face. He was still in his early forties, near the same age he’d been three years before, when he’d left to fix the tower in Maldon. Leila had aged ahead of him—it showed in the worry lines around her eyes and the threads of white in her hair.
Despite those years apart, they were just as devoted, just as capable of exchanging wordless conversations. Even when his mother needed her quiet healing days, when she was too wan and withdrawn to handle the world around her, Christopher need only put a hand on her shoulder. Danny had once thought he would never be capable of such a bond.
And then he’d met Colton.
Danny reached into his pocket and touched the small cog Colton had given him, a castoff from his clockwork that had been replaced long before. When Danny touched it, he felt sunshine on metal, heard the hum of gears and the soft chime of Colton’s laugh. He sensed a world within and apart from himself, reserved only for the two of them.
His mother knew about Colton. Though it was dangerous, she’d come to accept—with a fair amount of resignation—that her son could not choose whom he loved.
But his father still didn’t know. Christopher had been the one to tell the Lead about Matthias and Evaline. If he ever caught on that Danny’s relationship with Colton was anything other than professional …
“Danny, eat up,” his mother scolded. “Your food’s gone cold.”
After supper, Danny and Cassie lounged in the sitting room at the back of the narrow house. Well, Cassie lounged; Danny perused the cramped bookshelves. He’d already taken a few books to Enfield, including the green leather-bound collection of fairy tales and the book of Greek myths Colton so loved.
Cassie was sprawled on the worn couch behind him, and hummed curiously when he told her about Daphne’s warning.
“She seems fairly sure of herself,” Cassie remarked.
“I dunno, Cass. What if they do want me to go?”
“Would you say yes?”
Danny paused, crouched before the bottom shelf. Despite telling Daphne he didn’t want to go, he was searching for any book that mentioned India. “I’m not sure. I don’t want to leave Enfield.”
“You mean you don’t want to leave Colton.”
“It’s the same thing.” He worried out a slim book packed in tightly among the others and added it to his pile. “We’ve only just managed to find something that feels halfway ordinary. If I leave …”
Danny wasn’t only concerned about Enfield and the clock tower. He worried that if he was gone too long, Colton would forget him, or that his feelings for Danny would somehow fade with time. Danny had no idea how the heart of a clock spirit functioned, other than mechanically.
“Take it a step at a time,” Cassie said, running a hand through his hair. “The Union will likely send others first. No need to fret just yet.”
“That’s true.”
“Now that’s out of the way,” Cassie said coyly, “tell me about you and Colton.”
Danny glanced at the door, but his parents were still talking in the kitchen. “Would you stop asking about that?” he hissed. “I can’t—do that with a clock spirit.” He paused. “I don’t think.”
He started to wonder about Matthias and Evaline, then waved away the image with a sound of disgust. He did not want to think about that.
Cassie ignored his outburst. “Well, what’s the rest of it like?”
He returned to a memory of just the other day, when he and Colton had been in the clock room. Somehow, they’d ended up on the floor—nice and clean, thanks to Danny’s efforts—and Colton had wrapped a hand around his hip. That little movement in itself wasn’t much, but Danny had shuddered all the same, keenly aware of that hand as they kissed. Colton’s fingertips had reached up ever so slightly, between the buttons of his shirt, burning his skin.
“You’re redder than a baboon’s bum,” Cassie said cheerfully. Danny grabbed the nearest pillow and whacked her with it. She yelped and grabbed her own, and then it was an all-out war. For a blessed moment, clock towers were the last thing on Danny’s mind.
Sitting on the edge of his bed, Danny held a wad of crumpled paper in his hand. The creases were soft, the paper having been unfurled and refolded many times. He was about to flatten it out when there was a knock at the door.
“Danny? It’s me.”
He shoved the paper in his pocket. “Come in.”
His father eased the door open, wearing his I want to talk to you smile. “All right, Ticker?”
He hadn’t heard his father use that name in years. Hearing it now, he wanted to cringe—or cry.
“All right, Dad. How are you?”
Christopher settled beside him, dipping the mattress even more. “Well, let’s see. I have a brilliant job, a beautiful wife, and an incredible son. How did I ever get so lucky?”
Shame bloomed hot and deep in Danny’s chest. His father wouldn’t say such a thing if he knew the truth.
“I am troubled by the news, though,” his father went on.
“Do you mean the tower in Rath?”
Christopher’s expression darkened. “I was wondering if you’d heard. It’s been flying around the office since yesterday. The Lead’s thinking of sending a few mechanics out to investigate.”
Danny’s heart beat a little harder. “Do you know who?”
“A couple of the senior mechanics, I’d imagine.”