“He—? Damn it.” Danny walked in a tight circle and pushed his hands through his hair. “If he did go to Enfield, we’ll find him when we bring Colton back, but I can’t risk leaving until I know for sure Matthias isn’t in London. Otherwise I might never get Colton’s cog back.”
As Evaline tried to make Colton more comfortable, Danny led Cassie downstairs. They speculated on Matthias’s whereabouts and wrote up a list of places Danny could check. Danny often looked out the window, half-expecting Matthias or the police to be coming up the walk. He crept upstairs to check on the clock spirits, but they never seemed to move. What was hours to Danny and Cassie was but a minute to the spirits.
Danny’s mother came home in the early evening, her coat slipping off one shoulder and her hair a rumpled mess.
“The news is all over,” she said, setting down her bag. “Oh, hello, Cassie. Everyone knows that Enfield is Stopped. You should hear them going on about it, not knowing a thing, and the protesters all up in arms again. I heard there was a riot in Hanover Square. It was all I could do to keep from looking like I knew something. Did you find Matthias? How’s Colton?”
She was about to go upstairs to check when Danny blocked her way. “Matthias wasn’t home. Colton is fine. I mean, he’s not, but we’re still sorting it out.”
Leila clucked her tongue. “You best sort it out fast. I don’t know how long we can keep this up.” She headed into the kitchen.
He and Cassie shared a look. “I should be heading home,” she whispered. “My mum’ll worry. And speaking of mums, you need to speak to yours.”
Danny wanted to cling to Cassie, to beg her not to go, but he knew she was right.
She wrapped her arms around Danny’s neck and held on tight. “Ring if you need me.” She promised to check on them tomorrow before she slipped quietly out the front door.
Danny squared his shoulders and walked into the kitchen. His mother was nervously washing the dirty teapot, needing something to do with her hands. He tended to do the same thing.
“Mum, I need to tell you something.”
Leila set the wet teapot on the counter. “What is it?”
Danny took a deep breath. “Evaline is here. The Maldon clock spirit.”
It was a good thing his mother wasn’t holding the teapot, or else she would have dropped it. She swayed and reached for the back of the nearest chair, leaning heavily on it.
“She’s here? The Maldon spirit—here?”
“Yes. She’s upstairs with Colton.”
Leila stared at the tabletop. She pushed herself upright.
“She has to go back. You have to take her to Maldon, Danny.”
“Mum, wait—”
“I swear, if you don’t—”
He grabbed her arms. “Listen to me! She’s our only chance to save Colton. If I take her back to Maldon, who knows what Matthias will do with Colton’s cog? He might destroy it, and then Colton will …”
Leila grew quiet, and his hands slipped away.
“I know, Mum. I know it’s hard. But we’ve got to let her sort things out with Matthias. If we take her to Maldon now, he’ll do something rash.”
Leila swallowed audibly. “Danny, how could you do this?”
The words reopened the wound inside him. It bled a fresh wave of fear through his veins, pulsing your fault, your fault, your fault.
It was a struggle to get the words out. “Do what?”
“You had to know what would happen, getting involved with …” She waved her hand at the ceiling, in the direction of Danny’s room. “You’ve gone and tangled yourself up with a clock spirit, and now Enfield’s suffering for it. Just like Maldon suffered when Matthias had his fun. How could you do it when you knew what would happen?”
They were the same words he’d told himself, but coming from his mother, they took on a whole new existence. They were living things with teeth, eating away at what precious defenses he had left. Danny held his elbows, staring at the floor. He saw what she could not: sunlight through a clock face, the pages of a fairy tale book, a dance across the tower floor.
“I’m so disappointed, Danny.” Her mouth trembled. “Your father taught you better than this. If he could see you now …”
The frail cage Danny had built around himself crumbled with a breath. His nerve endings were suddenly exposed, electric.
“Do you think I decided this? That I woke up and thought, you know, that clock spirit’s rather nice, maybe I’ll fancy him? You know it takes more than that. It takes time. A shared look, a … a shared story. And before you know it, you’re heading toward something you never saw coming, and when it’s there, it’s just … it … takes you away.”
Danny had been shouting, but by the time he finished, his voice was little more than a whisper. He couldn’t bear to look at her.
“I didn’t choose this,” he said.
The kitchen was silent for so long he thought they’d turned to stone. Then Leila said, haltingly, “I didn’t say it was a choice.”
“You may as well have,” he growled. “I know you think it. And if you’re going to hate me for it, I’d rather you forget I’m your son. Lord knows you’ve done a pretty good job of that already.”