Chapter 2 LOCKDOWN

BEAU

The door had barely clicked shut before I pulled my magnifying eye piece down over my left eye.

I did not care what Lord Draycott said. He knew nothing about repair work. He was just a rich man who liked to give orders.

For twenty minutes, the shop was quiet. I sat at my workbench with my fine silver picks, working in silence. The dark metal casing was smooth, but after searching every millimeter, I found a hairline crack along the back latch.

My heart beat fast. I knew I was doing the exact thing he told me not to do. He said do not force the casing. He said it was delicate. But magic objects did not move backward on their own unless something inside was caught on a broken tooth.

"Let us see what you are hiding," I whispered to myself.

I slid the tip of my pick right into the crack and nudged the inner catch.

The metal gave a small click.

A sudden blast of hot air hit my face. The watch did not just warm up this time. It started to shake. The small golden second hand began to spin backward faster and faster, making a loud clicking noise that echoed in my ears. The small gears groaned beneath my tools, fighting the pressure. I held my breath, trying to steady my trembling wrist.

Before I could pull my tool back, a massive bang hit the front of the shop.

The front door flew open so hard the bell above it snapped off its hook and hit the floor.

Lord Draycott stood in the doorway, breathing hard. His hair was wet from the rain, and his eyes were bright with anger. He looked at the watch on my counter, then looked straight at the tool in my hand.

"I told you not to touch the casing," he said. His voice was low, but it filled the whole room.

I stood my ground, gripping my pick so hard my knuckles turned white. "You came back fast, My Lord. Did you forget your manners outside?"

"I felt the magic from the middle of the street," he said, taking two long steps toward me. "And I see you spent twenty minutes ignoring a simple instruction."

"This is my shop," I said, pointing the metal pick right at his chest. "I do not take orders from customers. You brought this to me to fix. I am fixing it."

He did not answer. Instead, he turned around and reached for the door handle to close it properly.

The second his palm touched the wood, the watch on my counter let out a high sound like a screaming whistle.

A bright wave of gold light burst out from the metal. It hit the walls of my shop like a hard wave of water.

The heavy iron bar on the front door slid across on its own with a loud thud. The thick wooden shutters on the windows slammed shut, blocking out the gray daylight. The small room went almost black, lit only by the strange gold glow rising off my workbench.

I jumped back, my heel catching on a floorboard. "What did you do?"

Lord Draycott grabbed the door handle and yanked it with all his strength. The wood did not budge. The iron lock was frozen solid.

"I did nothing," he said, turning back to me. His golden eyes were wide. "Your tools triggered the defense spell."

"My tools were doing fine until you burst in here shouting at me," I said, my chest rising and falling fast. I was scared, but there was no way I was going to let him see it. "The watch reacted to you, not me."

"Step away from the table, Miss Wells," he said. He walked over to the counter, his large shape blocking out what little light was left. "I am taking it back. You are out of your depth."

"Do not touch it," I shouted, moving in front of the table to block him. "The inner spring is wrapped so tight right now that if you grab it without releasing the latch, the whole thing will blow."

"I have handled ancient magic since before you could walk," he said. "Move."

He reached out his big hand to grab the dark metal casing.

My brain screamed at me to step back, to let the rich lord ruin his own expensive toy. But my shop was falling apart, Mama Wells was gone, and this shop was the only thing I had left in the world. If that watch blew up, it would take my workbench, my tools, and my roof with it.

"I said no," I yelled.

I lunged forward and grabbed the watch at the exact same moment his fingers wrapped around the top rim.

The moment our skin touched the metal together, everything went wrong.

A sharp spark shot from my fingertips right into his palm. I felt his magic instantly. It was huge, heavy, and hot, like a giant fire burning right under my skin. My own magic, small and precise, rushed out to meet it like a thin needle catching a thick thread.

The watch did not pop or break. It drank both of our magic in one big gulp.

The golden light on the table exploded upward. It was so bright I could not see my hands, the counter, or his face.

A noise like a thousand clocks ticking all at once filled the room, so loud it rattled my teeth. The floor beneath my boots suddenly felt soft, like wet mud, and then it disappeared completely.

I let out a scream as my feet fell into empty air.

I lost my grip on the table. My body tipped forward into the bright gold light. I reached out blindly, my fingers catching on heavy, wet cloth.

Lord Draycott grabbed my waist with one big arm, pulling me hard against his chest as we both fell. The wind knocked the breath right out of my lungs.

The dark walls of my shop dissolved around us. The air smelled of rain, dirt, and old wood. We spun together through the blinding light, tumbling over and over in the noisy dark until there was nothing under us at all.

Then the world went completely black.