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.”
The guard scowled. “’Course you are, and I’m a ballerina.” He pointed sternly at the auto. “Out.”
“You don’t believe me?” Danny shoved the badge in the guard’s face again. “I’m a bloody mechanic. It says so right here.”
It was his age again. The guard had taken one look and dismissed them as children.
The man pursed his thick lips in irritation. Cassie plucked Danny’s sleeve and they turned back toward her auto.
“What, you’re just going to give up after driving all the way here?” Danny demanded.
“No, I have an idea.”
He didn’t like the look in her eyes. “Cassandra …”
“Daniel.”
“What are you going to do?”
“You’ll see, my chuckaboo. Wait here.”
She hopped into the auto and started the engine. With a wink at him, she sped off. Toward the barricade.
“Cass!”
The auto hit the edge of a canvas divider and dragged it several feet, creating a wide opening. Guards shouted and ran after Cassie as she drove in circles. Danny caught a glimpse of her face and laughed. She was enjoying the hell out of this.
Before anyone could see him, he ducked through the gap.
When he laid eyes on what was left of the tower, his breath caught. He wasn’t prepared for the reality of the tower’s destruction that now spread before him.
Rubble was everywhere. The base of the tower was intact, but stood sadly empty, the rest of the structure lying in jagged pieces like a neglected puzzle. He walked through the debris, kicking up mortar dust that stung his eyes.
“God,” he whispered as he sank to his knees. He touched a loose brick and shivered. What if this had been Colton’s tower? Pressing the back of a hand against his mouth, Danny closed his eyes and fought the rising panic within him.
When he’d composed himself, he pawed through the rubble searching for something helpful. Wooden beams jutted up from the base, broken and skeletal. Shards of metal glinted in the sun. Danny found a small gear and picked it up.
A sensation rippled up his arm, there and gone too quickly to process. It was almost like how the air warped when he touched Colton, subtle but powerful. In this case, it was barely detectable. The air smelled sharp and metallic, the scent before a lightning storm. His scalp prickled.
Had the tower worked, then?
He remembered when he’d accidentally cut his thumb in Colton’s tower. He thought about Lucas in this tower, a gear slicing into his chest, spilling his blood. His own blood seeping onto the floor of the Shere tower, time flickering around him.
Danny dropped the gear.
What does it mean?
“All right, you’ve had your fun.” A guard grabbed his elbow and dragged him out of the enclosure. Fish Lips had a hand wrapped around Cassie’s arm outside.