Firestarter Read online

  Praise for Chainbreaker:

  “You won’t be able to put this one down.”

  —Huffington Post

  “Chainbreaker is an elaborate tale of magic, gods, and the beautiful, unfortunate humans caught in an ancient titanic struggle. You’ll cheer. You’ll cry. And once you enter this world, you’ll never want to leave.”

  —Traci Chee, New York Times bestselling author of The Reader

  “Mysterious, compelling, and urgent, Chainbreaker’s scintillating prose, complex and multi-dimensional characters, and quick pace will pull you in till it leaves you breathless and transformed.”

  —Aditi Khorana, author of The Library of Fates and Mirror in the Sky

  “Expands on the universe created in Timekeeper, with new mythology, character development and international intrigue that really highlights Tara’s talent for world-building. Chainbreaker combines factual historical research with a believable and original magic mythology to create a world that feels wholly real. With pacing and action running like clockwork, this is a startlingly unique series with a truly golden set of diverse characters.”

  —Lauren James, author of The Next Together

  “A wonderfully diverse read with unforgettable characters you can’t help but root for.”

  —Bustle

  “Riveting and complex … Tara Sim’s newest fascinating tale full of magic, intrigue, and clocks will hook you.”

  —TheMarySue.com

  “An imaginative and action-packed novel set against the backdrop of Indian uprisings against the British occupation.”

  —Book Riot

  “Our most anticipated sequel of the year.”

  —Paste Magazine

  “Sim continues to offer an action-packed adventure for her lovely queer couple, but Chainbreaker features a particularly vivid environment and dynamic new characters thanks to the author’s personal cultural experiences.”

  —BookMarked

  Praise for Timekeeper:

  *A Paste Magazine: Best Book 2016

  *A Barnes & Noble Teen Blog Best Queer Fantasy 2016

  “Timekeeper is an extraordinary debut, at once familiar and utterly original. Between its compelling world, its lovely prose, and its wonderful characters, the pages flew by.”

  —Victoria Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author

  “Alive with myth, mystery, and glorious romance, Timekeeper will keep hearts pounding and pages turning til the stunning conclusion. Reader beware—there’s magic in these pages.”

  —Heidi Heilig, author of The Girl from Everywhere

  “Timekeeper is a triumph … If you read only one such book … let it be this one.”

  —Bustle

  “Timekeeper’s premise is original and its world unique.”

  —EW.com

  “While the world is wildly interesting and fantastic, with broken clock towers that have left towns frozen in time, it’s the emotional impact and diverse cast of characters that make this book soar … The resulting story is an exciting and inclusive one, drawing in elements of magic, mystical spirits, swoon-filled romance, and just so much more.”

  —BookRiot

  “Part mystery and part romance, this fantasy novel delves into what it means to grow up and make important decisions. With an easily relatable main character struggling to fit in, the novel has a realistic and contemplative voice. VERDICT: A must-have richly written fantasy novel that will have readers eagerly anticipating the next volume.”

  —School Library Journal

  “Sim creates a cast of complex and diverse characters, as well as a mythology to explain how the clock towers came to exist … an enjoyable, well-realized tale.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Mystery, LGBTQ romance, and supernatural tale of clock spirits and sabotage that explores how far people might go for those they love. Its strongest elements are the time-related mythology and the supernatural gay romance.”

  —Booklist

  “This LGBTQ steampunk romance sports a killer premise and admirably thorough worldbuilding, helpfully annotated in the author’s afterword. The characters—even the bad guys—are sympathetically drawn and commendably diverse in sexuality and gender.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “An enjoyable start to a promising new trilogy.”

  —BookPage

  Copyright © 2019 by Tara Sim

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

  Sky Pony Press books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Sky Pony Press 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or [email protected].

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  Sky Pony® is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc®, a Delaware corporation.

  Visit our website at skyponypress.com

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available on file

  Print ISBN: 978-15107-0620-0

  eBook ISBN 978-1-5107-0624-8

  Cover design by Sammy Yuen

  Printed in the United States of America

  Interior design by Joshua Barnaby

  For those who thought they couldn’t go on, and who went on anyway.

  And for you, Father. I miss you every day.

  “Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time, effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end.”

  — Madame de Staël

  London, January 1877

  Snowflakes fell in lazy spirals through the dim evening light and collected on Cassie’s hair. The street was quiet except for the crunch and squeak of snow beneath her boots, and she could hear her own breathing, a strangely intimate noise that made her feel as if she were the only living thing on earth.

  The sound of an airship engine purred overhead, but she couldn’t see it beyond the clouds, the sky a riot of gray streaked with veins of white. There were more and more airships these days.

  Hands deep in her coat pockets, she walked the length of the street until she reached the familiar fence. Looking grimly at the surname on the gate, she cursed under her breath.

  “Damn you, Danny. You should be here.”

  What was supposed to have taken three weeks had already become three months. There had barely been any word, barely any news. Enfield was Stopped. Colton had gone to India. Danny was in trouble.

  And there she was, full of secrets, and full of promises not to share them. She closed her eyes tight for a moment and breathed in the sharp scent of snow as flakes gathered on her lashes. She thought back to Danny’s face, pale and worried, and the way his arms had trembled as he hugged her goodbye. And then Colton, steady and determined, following shortly after. Both leaving her with a fear she now had to face alone.

  Well, not alone. Danny’s parents had to face it, too.

  There was a crunch behind her, the sound loud after the silence of the snow. She turned to find a man standing across the street looking at the Harts’ house. Scowling, Cassie took a step toward him, but the man barely paid her any mind. He made a show of looking at his timepiece and slowly walked down the street, as though his behavior wasn’t the least bit suspicious.

  “Little bleeder,” she muttered. Shivering, she headed for the Harts’ front door.
/>   Danny’s mother tried to smile when she saw Cassie, but it seemed her mouth didn’t want to cooperate. “Cassie, dear, come in.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Hart. Is now a good time?”

  “Yes, of course. For you, always.”

  Leila stepped back and let her inside. The furnace was on, but a draft from outside made Leila shudder. She took Cassie’s coat and hung it up.

  “Let me put on the kettle.”

  Cassie caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror near the door and swept the snow from her auburn hair before following Leila into the kitchen, where it was much warmer. She wondered if it was still hot in India, or if they had a winter season like England did.

  “Chris, Cassie’s here,” Leila said as she bustled to the stove.

  Christopher Hart, sitting at the kitchen table, graced Cassie with his own feeble attempt at a smile. There was no doubt he and Danny were father and son; they shared the same messy dark hair, the same green eyes, the same long limbs. Only the sharpness of Danny’s face hinted at his mother’s side.

  “Hello, Cass.”

  “Hello, Mr. Hart.” She sat at the table. “How have you been?”

  Danny’s parents exchanged a look. Cassie, who had been over several times since Danny had departed for India, recognized this look. They had been having a discussion of some importance before she’d arrived.

  She noticed a familiar piece of paper near Christopher’s hand: a telegraph. It had arrived just days ago from the clock mechanics’ office. The message was simple yet hopeful: Christopher’s son is alive and well.

  Judging from Christopher’s and Leila’s expressions, and from the dark feeling swirling in her gut, no one believed it.

  “We’ve certainly been better,” Christopher finally answered.

  “Have you asked to send a wire to Danny in Agra?”

  “The office won’t allow it,” Christopher sighed. “Official news only.”

  Cassie grunted. “Rubbish.”

  Danny’s father touched the edge of the telegraph, his eyes heavy and sad. Cassie hadn’t seen him this way for many years, not since they’d received word that Danny’s grandfather had passed. What a turn—the father Danny had lost now mourning a lost son.

  He isn’t lost, she told herself firmly. He said he would come back. Colton said he would bring him back.

  “After everything that’s happened,” Christopher said, “we’ve grown more and more convinced something is wrong. The Indian rebels trying to rise up again, Enfield targeted …” His face hardened. “And Colton gone.”

  Cassie tried not to flinch. “But Colton left a letter. He said he was coming back.”

  “Who’s to say he was the one who left it? What if someone took him?” Christopher banged a fist against the table, making Leila and Cassie jump. “Damn these clock spirits. Never thinking about the consequences of what they do.”

  “Chris …” The kettle shrieked, and Leila took it off the stove. “We’ve discussed this. Maybe Colton just went back to Enfield.”

  “I don’t believe that. For all we know, he could be in India!”

  Again, Cassie resisted the urge to fidget. Clearing her throat, she said, “I know it might be nothing, but I saw a strange bloke outside.”

  “Oh, him.” Leila huffed and poured three cups. “We’ve both seen him. Comes around like clockwork every two days. We thought he was a salesman at first.”

  “But every time we see him or try to talk to him, he leaves.” Christopher accepted his tea with quiet thanks. “Obviously he’s spying on us. Might know something about Colton.”

  “Maybe,” Cassie said uneasily. She had only just raised the teacup to her lips when the front door rattled under a pounding fist. Leila’s hand shot to her throat in surprise.

  “Who on earth—?” She hurried from the kitchen, her curls bouncing. Christopher and Cassie scraped their chairs back and followed. In the hallway, Leila opened the door to reveal three large men wearing the blue of the London authorities.

  One tipped his cap. “Mrs. Hart, is it?”

  Leila seemed spooked into silence, so Christopher stepped forward. “This is the Hart residence, yes. May we help you, officers?”

  The man’s gaze traveled from Christopher to Leila, sparing only a glance at Cassie. “Christopher Hart and Leila Hart? Parents of Daniel Hart?”

  Leila heaved a shuddering gasp. There was usually one reason why the police showed up at your door with your son’s name on their lips.

  “No,” Cassie whispered, shrinking back against the wall. He’s dead. He promised he’d come back, and now he’s dead.

  Christopher gripped his wife’s thin shoulders, his knuckles white. “What about our son?”

  The constable signaled the other two before they barreled into the house. One clomped up the stairs while the other brushed past Cassie into the sitting room.

  “Wait just a minute!” Christopher yelled. “You can’t barge into someone’s home—”

  “Actually, sir, we can,” the constable said. “And I’m charged with asking you a few questions about Daniel, such as when you last spoke to him and where he was last seen.”

  “We haven’t seen him in months!”

  “Please,” Leila whispered. Her dark eyes shone with tears. “Has there been news? What’s happened to Danny? Please, don’t tell me he’s …”

  The constable sighed, and Christopher tightened his grip on his wife’s shoulders. Cassie could hear the crash of furniture being overturned, drawers being pulled out of the desk upstairs, the ruffling of papers, all of it a distant clamor under the pounding of her heart.

  “By order of Her Majesty the Queen,” the constable said, “Mr. Daniel Hart is to be apprehended and tried for treason.”

  The coast of Bali

  The sea was restless. The normally turquoise waters churned a frothy gray, reflecting the clouds overhead. Waves rose and fell like small, doomed empires.

  Zavier breathed in the humid, salty air and closed his eyes. He tried to focus on that tentative thread stretching between him and the sea, the small link that would connect him to Aetas. As he expected, the connection was thin here. They were too far away from the god’s prison to feel him in Bali.

  But he could feel another. He waded into the surf, deep enough that the tide licked at his shins. Bending, he cupped a handful of water, then pressed it to his forehead as if baptizing himself.

  “Oceana,” he murmured, “you’re anxious today.”

  Zavier had seen her only once, but that one time was enough. He’d been younger then, more a slave to his heartbreak. He’d stood upon the shore, and Oceana upon the water, and looking into her eyes had been like searching all the sea’s uncharted depths.

  She had spoken in that voice that wasn’t a voice, telling him a story, one of gods and rage and time. All of the tales were real, just as he’d always envisioned them: the battle between the god of time, Aetas, and his creator, Chronos.

  The lie—the only piece of the story that was false—was that her brother Aetas hadn’t died.

  The god of time was trapped, and longing for release.

  Zavier wouldn’t have known had it not been for Oceana. And because she had given him this revelation, he knew he could never back down. He had to free Aetas and bring back time. No more clock towers. No more barriers. Just time: free, simple, fluid as the water he stood in.

  He had promised.

  “Zavier.” Edmund had left the aircraft he was repairing so they could return to the Prometheus. As he approached, the tall young man looked worried, and with good reason. Another plane had landed near the secluded beach.

  “They’re from the Kalki,” he said. “Looks like it’s just the two of them.”

  “Be on guard,” Zavier told him. The Kalki Indian rebels knew to leave their crew alone, but there was no telling what they would do now that their second rebellion had failed. A couple of small dealings in the past weren’t enough to convince their group that the Prometheus crew wasn’
t another threat to their cause.

  Even if that cause was already dying. The Kalki’s crew had failed to assassinate Viceroy Lytton; what else did they have planned? Zavier thought, Probably not enough.

  He and Edmund watched as two Indian men approached. The sand shifted under their feet as wind tugged at their clothing. Halfway to the shore, one of them said something to the other, then continued forward on his own.

  He was a young man with brown eyes and thick hair, dressed in an aviator jumpsuit with goggles hanging around his neck. Warily, he stopped before Zavier and Edmund.

  “You look a tad familiar,” Edmund said before the newcomer could speak. “Have we met before?”

  “No, not that I know of.” His accent coated the English words like warm syrup. “My name is Akash Kapoor.”

  “From the Kalki,” Zavier said, a half question. Akash gave a half shrug. “Are you a clock mechanic?”

  “No, but my sister is.”

  “I see.” Zavier wanted to glance at Edmund, but stifled the impulse. “And where is your sister?”

  Akash’s face hardened. “On your ship. As a prisoner.”

  This time he did exchange a glance with Edmund. “Your sister is Meena, then.” Akash nodded stiffly. Zavier breathed in deep, letting the briny air settle his thoughts before he spoke again. “You may see your sister on one condition. You both help our cause. You cannot return to the Kalki, nor can Meena.”

  “She’s not a rebel,” Akash mumbled.

  “Are you?” Again, a half shrug. “Well, whatever you may be, you’re a part of the Prometheus’s crew now, and you will help me convince your sister to join us.”

  “There’s no other way I can see her?”

  “She’s a talented clock mechanic. We need her.”

  The young man thought for a moment, then nodded. “All right.”

  “Thank you. Edmund, we’ll need to radio the ship. Mr. Kapoor, tell your friend over there that you won’t be returning with him.”

  Akash turned away, jaw clenched at the order.

  What was it that Aunt Jo kept saying? Be more likable. That was how to win people over. So far, Zavier hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it.