Page 101 of The Toymaker's Son

“What if I chose wrongly? What if what I am is wrong?”

“How could you be wrong when I love you so? This town is a curse. It’s hard to see beyond its suffocating hold. If you could leave, I’d show you the world, beginning with Massalia. It is a city of wonders, full of life and art and culture. And science. You’d claim to hate it but secretly love it. It would be… different there for us. The city is more relaxed when it comes to who one chooses to love. Although, still not as free as some places. I’d take you there, to my agency…” I trailed off, unsure which world I was in, which go-around. Was I an investigator or just a madman?

He smiled sadly. “You like it there.”

“I’d like it more with you. You deserve to see the world outside of this backward town.”

He cupped my face. “So do you, Val.”

I’d just told him how much I knew and loved Massalia. “But I have.”

“Of course,” he said, returning his gaze to Hush. “I should fix her. She will be furious to have missed so much.” He plucked the precision tools from their drawer and began to assemble Hush’s tiny body beneath the magnifying glass.

I’d ask him more questions later. For now, I had enough. “May I watch you work?”

“If you wish, although I’m sure it is quite dull.”

“Devere, you are many things, but never dull.”

If I killed Adair, would Devere’s magic stop like Hush sometimes did? I’d ask him, but not yet. With his revelations racing through my head, I watched him carefully rebuild Hush’s intricate layers of tiny cogs, one on top of the other, as though weaving his own kind of spell.

Later, I made us both tea, then left his side and drifted about the toy store, eventually gravitating to the vast wall of clocks. Large and small, some brightly colored, others more intricate and delicate, they each tick-tocked out of synchronicity. Devere had made them all. He had a brilliant mind and a skill like no other. Magic or not, he was a wonder.

One of the clocks was quite different from the others. It lacked the fancy flourishes of its colorful neighbors and appeared to be of simple varnished wood. It had no second hand, but it ticked as triumphantly as the rest. The other clockfaces were bright and loud, full of color and flowers, birds and butterflies. This one was… quiet but honest, and likely the only clock to tell the correct time.

I reached out to skim the beveled frame.

“Don’t touch those,” Devere snapped, appearing beside me. He yanked my hand back.

“I was just—”

“Dreams have anchors,” he said. “Points at which they are pinned down. That clock is mine. It’s best left alone.”

Anchors. Then the plain little clock was the most important thing in the toy store. Did it keep all of this from collapsing? Its plainness made sense now. It didn’t want to be seen.

“Don’t think too hard about it. Some things are best left unexplained.” Devere opened his right hand, and there was Hush.

The little beetle buzzed her transparent wings, then spun in his palm.

“You fixed her!” Relief and joy lifted my heart. Was it foolish to have become so attached to a toy?

She hopped onto the back of my hand and scurried under my shirt cuff, tickling her way up my sleeve.

Devere rolled his eyes. “Of course, she chooses you. You were always her favorite.”

“Jealous?” I teased.

“Some gratitude would be nice.”

I threw my arms around him, rocking him into me, and sighed as he hugged me back. “Thank you. For everything.”

“It is the least I can do.”

Him, this store, the roaring fire, the ticking clocks and chugging trains. I’d worked so hard to get back, to find the truth again, and here it all was. “If it weren’t for the threat of Adair, this moment would almost be perfect.”

Devere peeled himself from my grasp and strode to the hat stand. He collected his coat. “I must go to him before he comes here.”

“How do we kill him?” I blurted.

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