The crowd split at once, like children on Easter morning to find eggs hidden around the yard. Danny slipped away.
He couldn’t stay here. He needed answers, needed to confront Matthias. He also needed Colton in order to cross the barrier, yet the farther Colton was from his cog, the weaker he would become, and Danny didn’t know—didn’t want to find out—what happened to a clock when separated too long from its life force.
But in London, where time ran smooth and strong, Danny might have a better chance. The energy of Big Ben alone could power three clock towers, and Evaline had said it was a great help to her. If Evaline could survive with her cog and Big Ben nearby, surely Colton could feed off of the clock’s power until his own was restored.
Danny’s walk to the outskirts was warped. He sensed himself walking forward, then passing the same house three times, crossed the village green then not recalling when he crossed the village green. The time fibers were frozen, gray, dead. He checked his timepiece. Time had Stopped at 11:14 in the morning. No matter how much time passed outside, in Enfield it would remain 11:14 until the cog was replaced.
Brandon waited just beyond the town line, where Enfield Chase became Greater London and the two time zones met. The border was divided by that strange gray wall. Colton lay on the ground, his skin now the shade of Danny’s own.
Danny knelt beside him and swept his hair back, afraid for a moment that Colton wouldn’t stir. But the spirit’s eyes fluttered open, searching frantically for him. Danny tried to smile, and Colton’s lips twitched in a heartbreaking attempt to return it.
“I know this’ll make no sense,” Danny said, loud enough so Brandon could hear as well, “but I have to take you out of Enfield.”
Colton struggled to keep his eyes open. “Danny, no—”
“Are you mad?” Brandon snapped. “You know nothing can come in or out!”
“I have a theory I’d like to try. I think that so long as I’m holding onto a clock spirit—” he nodded to Colton—“I’ll be able to pass through the barrier.” After all, Evaline had done it.
“What’ll that do to the town?”
“Nothing. I know it won’t, because it’s been done before.” Not sparing much time for details, he filled Brandon in on what he’d discovered in Matthias’s house and how Evaline had escaped Maldon. The apprentice stared at him with parted lips.
“Come off it. There’s no way that’s true.” Brandon glanced between Danny and Colton. “Is it?”
“That depends on how much you trust me.”
Brandon was silent for a while, eyes flitting between the two of them, before he sighed. “You’re too bleeding insane to be lying. Damn it. What’m I to do, then, while you’re out there playing detective?”
“Danny, no,” Colton whispered again. He plucked weakly at Danny’s sleeve. “I can’t.”
“It’s the only way I can get to London,” Danny said. “Besides, you might be safer there. Brandon and the others will search for your cog.”
Brandon grabbed Danny’s arm. “You’ll come back, won’t you? You won’t leave us here?”
“I’ll be back. I promise.”
Danny carefully lifted Colton. The spirit turned his head at the sound of the townspeople’s voices. Danny saw the desire to stay in his pale eyes, to not abandon the people he had grown to love, generation after generation of Enfield families all watched over by a spirit who mourned their deaths and celebrated their births. Danny almost turned around, almost gave in to the same longing.
He forced himself to swallow. “We’ll be back soon.”
He hoped his theory was correct. Colton sagged in his arms as Danny pressed their bodies against the barrier. He braced himself to be rejected, electrocuted, something—but his shoulder sank into the grayness, and he gasped. Holding Colton tighter, he plunged through the barrier.
Colton’s influence helped them both squeeze through the murky ocean of gray threads. It was a muted, colossal space, an impossible distance to cross. Veins of gold shot through the gray, slivers too thin for him to touch or feel, and in the distance he heard a muffled sound like waves crashing. There was a horrid weight in his chest, pressing all his organs together until he couldn’t breathe.
And then they were on the other side.
Danny stumbled. When he turned, he faced a wall of gray, rising up into a dome with no hint of the town beyond. The familiar sensation of Big Ben’s energy washed over him.
He let his forehead fall against Colton’s. The spirit felt even lighter now, like his entire substance was dissolving. Danny drew in a shuddering breath and turned to where his father’s auto sat waiting.
As he laid Colton in the backseat, the spirit opened his eyes. Danny stared at him for a helpless moment and touched the cog in his pocket. He drew it out and pressed it against Colton’s palm. The pale hand closed around the little cog like a lifeline.