by Tara Sim
Frowning at the tone in his voice, Danny sat up. “Colton … are you only humoring me?”
Colton suppressed a wince, answering the question with silence.
Danny ran his hands through his hair with a mirthless laugh. “Do you want to be swept away like all the other spirits when Aetas is freed?”
“I never said that.”
“Then why isn’t your heart in this fight, Colton? You should be doing this for yourself, not for me!”
“I don’t have a heart.” The spirit pressed a hand to his still chest. “I’m not human anymore. I’m not like you. If I … Even if Zavier found a way, and I stayed safe, what would happen?”
“We would be together,” Danny said, voice rough.
“Yes, but for how long? A few years? A few decades? Danny, you’ll grow old. You’ll die. And I won’t. I’ll be stuck in that tower, back to where I started. Alone.” The terrifying promise of it touched the edges of him, and he shivered. He couldn’t face that gaping stretch of loneliness again. He refused to.
“After enough time, you’ll forget about me,” Danny mumbled to his hands. “In hundreds of years, I won’t have even existed to you.”
If Colton did have a heart, it would have broken. He touched the side of Danny’s face. “I would never forget you.”
“Colton … please, just—just let me be selfish. Let me keep your tower.”
“It’s not your tower. It’s mine.”
Danny looked like he’d been slapped. He shrank, eyes dropping to the wrinkled covers. “You once said it was mine, too.”
“That’s before I knew—” Colton shook his head. “You know I want to be with you. But”—he touched his central cog, lying forlorn on the bed beside him—“why should I be the only one to survive? What about Ben and Evaline and Lalita? What makes me more deserving than any of them?”
“Because I need you,” Danny whispered.
“No, you don’t. You think you do, but if I were gone, you’d find someone else. A human someone.”
“God, not this again!”
“Yes, this again. I want you to be happy.”
“Well, this isn’t making me bloody happy!” Danny made to get up from the bed, but Colton grabbed his arms. “Let go of me!”
“Let go? You don’t even know what letting go means. These memories …” Colton pushed back against the images in his mind, forcing him to look at his past, to remember all he’d lost. “I’ve accepted my own death, and now you need to—”
“SHUT UP!”
Danny hung his head, breathing heavily. “Everyone,” he started, his voice breaking, “everyone keeps telling me it can’t work. That we shouldn’t be together. If they don’t say it, they’re thinking it.” He fought to swallow. “I thought you wanted this. I thought you wanted to be with me.”
“I do, but—”
“But you’d rather die!”
“What else do you expect me to do?” Colton said, raising his voice. That weight from earlier had broken open, flooding him with hopelessness and impotent rage. He pushed Danny down, putting his hands on his shoulders to have something to grip onto, to make sure Danny heard what he was saying. “I have two options, and neither of them are what I want. I do want you, but what am I supposed to do when you’re gone? Or you grow so old you don’t want to be with me anymore?”
“That—”
“Just think for one second, Danny. If you were a clock spirit, what would be going through your head right now?”
“I—”
“I lived a life where I couldn’t afford to be selfish. And I’m glad for that, because it meant I could help others. Help you.” Colton tightened his grip at the unfairness of their situation. “So this is the last thing I’ll do for you, the last selfless thing.”
“Don’t bother,” Danny growled. “Just waste away like the others, if that’s what you want.”
“That’s not what I want! God, Danny—!”
“Let me go!”
“Just listen!”
Danny cried out, and his whole body jerked. Colton had squeezed his shoulder so hard the wound had reopened. Fresh, bright blood seeped from the tear.
“I-I’m sorry,” Colton stammered, letting him go. “Danny, I’m so sorry—”
His body began to vibrate, and a strange, prickling sensation traveled over him. Looking down, he saw his hand was coated with Danny’s blood.
As he tried to get up, the air around him crackled. The blood was hot. Too hot. The room warped, tilted. Whimpering, he fell from the bed as light exploded from his body, golden white and blinding.
“Danny,” he called, frightened. He tried to wipe his hand on the floor, but the blood only spread. “What’s happening?”
Ticks and tocks echoed in his ears, the movement of every clock and timepiece on the ship. Danny’s timepiece was loudest of all, its ticks deafening, and Colton wanted to smash it against the wall if only to stop the sound.
Time writhed. Time pulsed. Time wrapped around him like a blanket, greedy and excited.
Colton crawled to the wall, shuddering. He couldn’t feel his body, just the blood, strong and hot. Groaning, Colton held his head, smearing the blood into his hair.
The door burst open. Zavier first took in Danny, sitting on the bed and clutching his bloody shoulder as he stared uncomprehendingly at Colton. And then those penetrating gray eyes swung to him, and in a blink, Colton knew Zavier understood.
“That’s it,” he breathed into the light inching outward from Colton’s body, his voice nearly drowned by the ticking. “That’s how it’s done. Blood.”
Jo’s voice crackled through the speaker: “We’re approaching Meerut. Landing party, prepare yourselves.”
Danny sat on the infirmary bed as Charlotte stitched his wound closed once more. His eyes were glazed over with shock, his skin still tingling and his heart beating madly.
“Breathe evenly,” Charlotte murmured. “In, one, two. Out, one, two …”
Elsewhere, crewmembers were making preparations for the landing, but Danny sat unmoving in the center of their activity, a boulder among the rapids. There was a flutter of fear in his stomach at the thought of what had happened. He knew Colton hadn’t meant to hurt him; he was strong, and admittedly, he’d provoked him.
But that reaction …
Zavier had pulled him from the bed and forced him to dress. At Zavier’s order, Edmund had brought Danny to the infirmary not twenty minutes ago. The last image Danny recalled was Zavier standing over a cowering Colton, bloodstained and glowing so bright he’d almost disappeared in the nimbus of light.
When Charlotte finished bandaging his arm, she came around to look into his eyes. “Danny, I don’t think you should go down with the others. That wound is going to open again if—”
“Don’t worry, he won’t be coming.” Zavier strolled into the infirmary, his eyes blazing in triumph. “He and Colton are going to stay on the ship while the rest of us go down and stop the Builders.”
Danny began to stand, but Charlotte placed a warning hand on his uninjured arm. “Where is he?” Danny demanded through gritted teeth. “What did you do to him?”
“Dae is helping him. We’ve gotten the blood cleaned off, and Dae’s making adjustments to the cog holder as we speak.”
“I want to go to Meerut,” Danny said. “I want to stop the Builders as much as you do.”
“We can’t let anything more happen to you.” His eyes drifted to Danny’s shoulder. “Especially when we have so much to talk about.”
Liddy appeared in the doorway wearing a wide belt with a brace of guns and her taser. “Zavier, c’mon!”
“I’ll be right there.” He turned back to Danny. “This is monumental, you know. It may very well be the way to free Aetas, but it means something else.”
“Like what?” Danny asked dully.
“A way to save Colton.”
Danny’s fingers twitched. Zavier gave him a cool smile before walking out the door.
&nbs
p; Charlotte sighed before helping Danny back into his shirt. “Stay right here. I’m going to make you some tea.”
While Charlotte was gone, Daphne and Meena rushed into the room.
“We felt it,” Meena said. “What happened?”
Daphne took in the suture needle and cursed. “Your wound?”
He nodded, feeling as if he were in a surreal dream. “My blood got on his hand. Zavier saw the result.”
The girls shared a knowing look.
“What’s going to happen now?” Meena whispered.
“They’re going to stop the Builders from starting a new Meerut tower,” Danny said tonelessly. “And then they’re going to free Aetas.”
Meena came forward and lifted his chin. “Don’t give up yet,” she said. She’d reapplied her bindi, and he stared at it as she spoke. “We’ll negotiate. We’ll do something to stop them.”
Charlotte came in with tea, followed by Felix.
“We have to go,” he said.
Daphne and Meena gave Danny wary looks.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, though it sounded thoroughly unconvincing. “Be safe.”
They reluctantly turned to the door as Felix took his wife in his arms, murmuring something in German. She responded in kind and they shared a kiss, Felix placing his hand on Charlotte’s stomach. Charlotte noticed Danny’s stare once Felix had left, putting her hand where her husband’s had been a moment before.
“How long?” he asked.
“A few months.” She swallowed. “They’ll be all right.” But she sounded about as convincing as he had.
It surprised him how badly he’d wanted to go. Maybe for a chance to strike out at the villain, like in the stories—a chance to stop the people who were repeating violent history. Colton’s history. If they got their hands on a Meerut mechanic …
He stood woozily, but the tea had helped clear his mind.
“Are you sure you should be up and about?” Charlotte asked in a disapproving tone.
“You’re one to talk.” She huffed in amusement. “I’m not going far. Thank you for …” He gestured to his shoulder.
“Of course. Come find me if you need anything else.”
The ship always felt empty, but the silence and stillness now had an eerie effect. The corridors were dark, and his footsteps echoed off the walls.
Trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, he found his way to Dae’s workroom, one of the first places he’d visited after Zavier kidnapped him.
If he could go back and tell that version of himself what was about to happen, he wouldn’t have believed it.
Danny pushed the heavy metal door open. Dae was at the forge, pounding at metal. He wore goggles and a thick apron and gloves, his dark curly hair falling toward his face, sweat running down his temples.
When Dae looked up, he pointed to the corner with his hammer, then resumed his work.
Colton was sitting on the floor playing with a metal contraption. He was dressed and no longer shining like a newly born star. But his eyes were distant, as if locked on another world.
Danny knelt before him, placing his hands on Colton’s knees. The spirit looked up, still playing with what Danny now saw was a brass model of a train car, complete with pistons.
“Are you all right?” Danny asked under the sound of Dae’s hammer ringing on metal.
“You shouldn’t be asking me that. I’m the one who hurt you.”
“Not on purpose.”
Colton looked down at the train car. “Zavier knows. I ruined everything.”
“You didn’t. He said there might be a way to use the power of our blood to save your tower.” Remembering their argument, he winced. “If you still want that.”
Colton nodded slowly. “I want that.” He set the train on the floor, pulled it back, and they both watched as it chugged forward.
“I’m sorry,” Colton whispered. “I keep making your life more difficult.”
Danny pulled him closer. Colton rested his head on Danny’s good shoulder. There were times, like this one, when Danny wondered how things got to be so complicated. In the end, it was simple: his heart beat for him.
“I’d rather have a difficult life with you in it than a boring one without you.”
Colton smiled against his neck, then carefully drew the collar of Danny’s shirt away, revealing the freshly stitched wound. He traced it, making Danny shudder in pain and pleasure, then placed his lips solemnly against its sensitive edge.
“I’ll never let you be hurt again,” Colton whispered against his skin.
“If you wouldn’t mind taking your canoodling outside my forge?” Dae said irritably.
But at that moment, they heard something in the ship move. It sounded like the hangar opening.
Danny stood, his arm wrapped around Colton. “They can’t be back already.”
Dae looked toward the doors, frowning. “Maybe they forgot something.”
“I want to go with them to Meerut,” Colton said, face set in determination.
“Me, too.” After all, Zavier wasn’t their only enemy. They had to unite against the true threat before the world was changed again, and for the worse.
Colton retrieved his cog holder from Dae and they headed toward the hangar. But even with someone else by his side, the ship still felt too quiet, too empty for Danny’s comfort.
As they reached the hangar, Danny wondered how he’d go about convincing Zavier to let them help. It was ironic, really; all this time spent refusing to work for him, unwilling to go on missions, only to suddenly do an about-face.
The hangar door opened, and someone stepped into the hall. Danny opened his mouth, but his words turned into a strangled gasp.
A woman with short blond hair smiled at him, revealing her canines as two Builders appeared at her side.
Phoebe Archer.
“Run!” he yelled at Colton.
Danny grabbed Colton’s hand and took off down the hall. The pounding of boots followed them.
“Is that the Archer woman?” Colton demanded as doors streaked past them. “Why is she here?”
“I don’t know, just run!”
They raced deeper into the belly of the Prometheus, not toward Dae’s forge, but toward a darker, less used section of the ship’s maze. Where the hell were the others? Where were Jo, Sally, Charlotte?
Danny didn’t have time to think. He ducked into an empty room, closing the door as quietly as his shaking hands could manage, then made Colton huddle with him in a corner behind a row of exercise equipment. While he struggled to catch his breath, Colton didn’t make a sound. His amber eyes gleamed in the darkness, focused on the door.
The sound of running footsteps passed. Danny put a hand against his mouth, stifling the noise of his rasping breaths. One Builder paused outside the door for an unnerving amount of time; Colton tensed while Danny’s heart threatened to burst from his chest.
A door banged open and they both jumped, but it wasn’t theirs. Another crash echoed down the hall, then another, and another, moving closer.
“Come out, come out,” the Builder sang. “We’ll find you eventually.”
Colton tugged on Danny’s hand. As they crept toward the door, Colton picked up a metal rod coated in dust.
They waited in bristling silence as the footsteps stopped just outside.
When the door shot open, Colton jumped forward, slamming the metal rod into the man’s head. The man was knocked to one side as he fired his gun, the shot missing Danny by a foot.
“Come on!” Colton pulled Danny into the hall, past the other Builder, who cursed as he grabbed for Danny’s back and caught only air.
Danny’s shoulder throbbed, his head spinning. Though he tripped and weaved, Colton kept urging him forward.
“What do we do?” Colton asked. “Where do we go?”
“I don’t—I don’t know.”
Hurrying down another corridor, Danny grabbed Colton’s arm to make him slow down. There was a shadowy mass on the grou
nd that resolved into a body—Dae. He was lying spread-eagle, his eyes wide in surprise under the pulpy mess of the hole blown through his forehead. Blood spread in a halo around him, shining black in the darkness.
“Oh, God.” Danny stumbled into the opposite wall. “Oh, God.”
“Danny.” Colton’s voice was strangled as he tugged him along. “The others. We have to find them.”
They ran into a familiar hallway, toward the plant nursery. If Charlotte was there, they could warn her about the Builders’ attack, and there was a radio they could use to contact Jo on the bridge.
But when they burst through the door, the room was empty save for the plants.
“There’s a radio in here somewhere,” Danny gasped as he held his side. Remembering how Charlotte had put a protective hand on her stomach, he was ferociously thankful they hadn’t found her body. “We—”
The door opened and a Builder threw himself at Colton. The clock spirit grunted as he hit the floor.
“Colton!” Before Danny could kick the Builder in the head, his partner lurched into the nursery. Danny dove behind a bamboo plant, scrambling for something to use as a weapon. His hand closed around a potted lily at the same time the Builder grabbed his ankle.
The man dragged him closer, and Danny twisted and smashed the terra-cotta pot against the man’s skull. Blood trickled from the Builder’s hairline as he fell to the floor with a groan.
Danny frantically searched the room for Colton, but when he saw the spirit pinning the other Builder beneath him, he turned his attention back to finding the radio. There—on the other side of the ficus.
He fumbled with the controls. “Jo? Jo!” Nothing came through except static. “Jo, if you’re there, Builders are on the ship. You have to get word to Zavier!”
Colton cried out. Danny whirled around, dropping the radio. The second Builder, teeth gritted, had wrenched the cog holder from Colton’s back and flung it across the room with a loud clatter. Colton sagged, and the men wasted no time tying him up.
Danny flung himself at the Builders. His shoulder blazed with pain, but he ignored it. He ignored the fist that connected with his jaw. He ignored the sound of the door opening behind him.
