“They will need time to grow,” Aetas replied.
“And that is what I am asking for, Brother. Time.”
He understood. Aetas spread his hands and felt the stir of time across his body, wisps and coils of golden light. They snaked around the saplings, twining through their thin branches, hugging their lean trunks. As they watched, the saplings grew and spread.
Time tugged him forward, and Aetas frowned. For even as the trees became large and strong and green, the settlement grew and grew and grew. People aged. Tombstones speckled the landscape beyond.
Aetas carefully pulled back until time reversed. The trees shrank and groveled toward the earth. The settlement contracted. The tombs gave up their dead.
“I cannot do what you ask, Sister,” Aetas said. “These trees need to grow on their own. Think of the repercussions that ripple of time will have on other living beings. The humans will all be dead before they can reap the benefits of the fully grown trees. It will cheat the trees out of many years of their long lives. Let them come into their own.”
Terra’s eyes were the grayish-green of uncut emeralds, shining as Aetas’s words opened a well of sadness within her.
He took her dark hand in his golden one. “Do not fret, Sister. The humans will grow up wise and strong like these trees. They will care for them. And when enough time passes, both will be better for it.”
For Aetas should have known that to play with time was to go against the wishes of Chronos, his creator, the originator of the power that flowed through Aetas’s body like veins of golden thread. He did not want the wrath of Chronos upon himself or upon his sister. He did not want to do something he would later come to regret.
Aetas said goodbye to Terra and resumed his travels until, weary, he walked back into the ocean to rejoin Oceana, where time was his to keep. Where each thread from his body could push in and out with the tide, touching every shore, running the world.
There were several things Danny had never expected to happen to him in the course of his life. Become the King of England, for instance, or have his name written in a history book. The list ranged from the implausible to the idiotic: become a baker, fight in a war, swim in the Thames.
In that entire list, he had never expected to include be kissed by a clock spirit.
Danny bit the inside of his cheek as Cassie disappeared under his auto. It was currently propped on a metal bed, its parts exposed like intestines. It had finally broken down on him, and he’d needed it towed to the warehouse where Cassie worked. He didn’t trust anyone else to take a look.
He ran a finger over his lips again, as if amazed to find them on his face. He recalled the moment perfectly, even the eyelashes on Colton’s face, a dusky blond at the tips that darkened to black at their roots.
It was a thing so strange, so bizarre, so exceptional, that Danny felt he ought to tell someone. But he knew all too well why he couldn’t. There would be an investigation, they would find out about Colton, and the kiss, and oh God—he would be exiled from Enfield quicker than a door could be slammed in a salesman’s face.
“Oh, s’not good at all,” Cassie said from under the car, her voice muffled. All Danny could see of her were dark coveralls, which were baggy on her sturdy body.
“Should I hand over my entire life savings, then?”
“Don’t be dramatic, Dan.”
He kicked the sole of her boot. “Then don’t say dramatic things. Tell me what needs fixing.”
“Everything.”
Danny pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to five. When he looked up, Cassie was sitting with her back against the auto, her auburn hair streaked with oil.
“I just need it to run for jobs,” he said.
“Then you may need a new boiler. Dan, I’m telling you, they’re making newer models that run like a song. Why don’t you try one of those out when you’ve the money? Loads easier than these clunky things.”
“How much for the new boiler?”
“Twenty quid.”
He groaned. Due to his leave of absence, his pockets were not exactly bursting with riches.
“Either that or pay for another tow,” Cassie said bluntly.
Danny sighed and pulled out his wallet, hoping he had enough. Cassie examined the auto behind her. Danny knew that look. As he expected, she began to disappear back under the framework.
“I think I forgot to check—”
Danny grabbed her ankles and pulled her back out. She glared at him from the floor.
“You’ve done all you can for now,” he said. “Leave it alone.”
She huffed a breath that stirred the loose hairs on her forehead, but her expression was strained.