Extraits

There comes a moment when time seems to slip faster, running long then short, shadows shrinking as the sun climbs. It's the moment, he decided, when you're no longer a child. When the concept of time and the need for more of it come together and make you powerless. Make you yearn for the longer days, the lazy days, before you knew what time passing actually meant.

Colton glanced at the clock face, and Danny read his thoughts. His scratches had been healed with resin and buffing. It didn't make sense to Colton why Danny's skin would be any different from his own. The spirit stared at Danny's chin again. Colton touched his thumb to the scar, following the slant of it.

"I wish I could heal it for you."

"You are." At Colton's confused look, he explained, "Time heals scars."

"Don't give up." His voice fell upon the syllables like a slow-swinging pendulum. "You can't. You're Achilles and Perseus and Heracles." He struggled to smile. "You're the prince who saves the day, remember ?"

He turned and ripped off the nearest clump of honeysuckle. He thought, coldly, that love was simply that -- a handful of bruised flower petals. Beautiful and terrible and fleeting. Too easily snatched away, too easily ruined.

"Can I tell you a secret ?" Danny asked. Colton nodded. "I don't want you to be normal."

The spirit frowned. "Why ?"

"Because that's why I liked you in the first place. You're not normal. There's only one of you in the whole world. There's a spirit of a boy, who is also the spirit of a clock, and his name is Colton." He swept his thumb over Colton's cheek. "And he's mine."

"Yes, it's blood."

"Does it hurt ? Are you all right ?"

"I'm fine."

Colton frowned thoughtfully at the red bead quivering on the pad of Danny's thumb. "What an odd thing."

Danny pressed a handkerchief to the wound to stop the bleeding. "I suppose clock spirit don't have fluids ?" Fluids ? What had posessed him to say fluids ?

Colton shrugged. "I suppose not. My body's not like yours." He touched his chest, then touched Danny's. When he felt Danny's heartbeat, he pressed his palm against it, mesmerized. "You're a marvel."

The planes within Danny shifted and overlapped. Before, his world had just been I. Now it was expending into we. Danny knew the shape of Colton's lips, the arch of his eyebrows, the whisper of his hand as it slid into his own. The calm measured beats of his voice. He knew the strum and twist of time, the spark of recognition instead of fear. His panic slumbered, tucking its head down.

For the first time in three years, Danny did not have to force his laughter.

He turned and saw Colton standing there. Golden and beautiful, ancient and new. The shining apex of the world. And when Colton smiled the light burst stronger, filling the cold cavities of Danny's chest where no sunlight had touched for so long. It ached. And it was sweet. And it was ancient and new.

"That's not true," Colton said. "You're everything. You're...You're chaos and order and everything in between. Like sunshine kept back by clouds. Like the entire world's imploded inside you, but all I see are the stars are sewn in your skin. You're filled with soft, dark music." His smile was gentle. "I hear it all the time. Your music."

A timid heat rose inside him. Danny's thumb kept chipping at that splinter, eyes fixed on it's point. "What does it sound like?"

Colton's eyes drifted back on the window. "It sounds like rain."

"No one's treated me this gently in a long time," the spirit said.

Danny looked up at him. Colton's face was grave, the fairy tales now reduced to nothing but a childish distraction.

"My father taught me to do it this way. The other mechanics haven't been gentle ?" Colton shook his head. "I'm sorry. Not all mechanics are careful, I'm afraid. A few aren't even all that good. Just because someone's born to sense time doesn't mean they have any skill with it."

"You're a good mechanic," Colton said. Their eyes met, and Danny fought to swallow. "I want you to be my mechanic."

"Weel, that's not really my choice to..." His voice died away as the spirit leaned down and kissed him.