“No,” Danny said. “I told Matthias about the clock tower in Enfield. I was assigned there to help with repairs.”
Danny felt dizzy, and it was all he could do to focus on the road before him. “I think Matthias planted the bombs.” Even though he had no way to confirm it, voicing the thought felt finite, irreversible. “He wanted to get rid of another clock spirit to have a tower free for you. Maybe he thought if he broke a tower’s central cog with a bomb, the spirit of that tower would disappear and he could install your cog instead. All this time I’ve been thinking the protesters had something to do with the attacks, or Tom and George, but Matthias could have easily used them as a cover.”
Matthias had lined up the pieces for him like the mystery books he so loved, waiting for Danny to put the wrong ends together.
He swallowed hard. “And he couldn’t use the new Maldon tower because he’s exiled there.”
“So there was a new tower?”
“Yes, but your darling Matthias destroyed it.” But why, apart from not being able to use it? Another thing he didn’t know. The blood pounded painfully in his head. “He killed Lucas. He nearly killed me, and Daphne.”
Danny glanced at Evaline, the wind whipping their hair as the auto sped through the streets of London. Her eyes were round.
“What? He …” She trailed off, wandering down that particular trail of thought until it came to its grim end. When she spoke again, she sounded leagues away. “He’s been so strange these last few months. I’ll catch him staring at nothing, or weeping, or locked in his bedroom working. And he doesn’t even try to reassure me anymore. His eyes are emptier than when I first met him.”
Danny’s throat tightened. After a moment he said, “I understand how Matthias feels, you know. The spirit in that tower, he and I …”
She nodded for him to go on.
“Matthias knew the bombs weren’t working, so he stole the Enfield spirit’s central cog. The spirit is with me now, in London.”
“Without his cog?”
“My apprentice is searching for it. I wanted Colton—that’s my spirit—to stay with me, to stay safe. You told me the tower here in London helps you. It’s helping him, too.”
They didn’t speak for the rest of the drive. When the auto shuddered to a stop, Danny turned to Evaline. She gazed solemnly back at him.
“I may be in the same position as Matthias,” he said, “but I won’t make his mistakes. He’s going to try to put you in that clock tower, but if he does, Colton might disappear. I’m going to do everything I can to stop that from happening. Do you understand?”
She nodded. Without her tower, Evaline was as pale as Colton. Her tired eyes made her look older than the woman she would have been if she were human.
Danny called for Cassie as soon as he opened the front door. She came out of his bedroom holding her wrench and started when she got a look at Evaline.
“Blazes, that’s her, isn’t it?”
Danny didn’t answer; he ran up the stairs to Colton’s side. There was no change in him, though his eyelids flickered when he heard Danny’s voice.
“He’s the same,” Cassie confirmed. “Hello there, are you Miss Evaline?”
The clock spirit had followed them, drawn to Colton’s presence in the house. She gave him a brief, sympathetic glance before turning to Cassie.
“Yes, that’s me. Do you know, too?”
“Cassie can be trusted,” Danny said. “She’s been taking care of Colton.” He nodded toward the spirit in his bed. “If you wouldn’t mind?”
Evaline drew near the edge of the bed. Colton struggled to open his eyes, sensing her presence they way she sensed his. A tiny ripple went through the air as she walked, a slight tug from the cog. Even Danny felt drawn toward it.
Evaline leaned over Colton until he opened his eyes fully. When he saw her, he made a small noise of recognition.
“Evaline,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Colton.”
“Do they know each other?” Cassie murmured to Danny, who shook his head. They were products of time, more or less made of the same substance. Of course they knew each other. In a way, they were each other.
Evaline removed her cog from her satchel and set it carefully on Colton’s chest. He tensed, fingers curling into the sheets, but his expression soon smoothed into relief. He opened his eyes and nodded.
“It helps him a little,” she said, turning to Danny and Cassie, “but it’s not a solution. Will you return to his town soon?”
“We have to. But I need to find Matthias first.”
“I don’t know where he is,” she admitted with a frown. “He said he was going to the office to resign, but that was hours ago.”