When Twist made it through the day without more than mild fatigue to complain about, Dr. Rodés had no choice but to let him return to work again the next day. As soon as the sun was peeking out over the surrounding hills, and Arabel had gotten him to eat something, Twist walked back into the cool echoes and dust of the palace hall. The moment he stepped over the threshold, the air tightened sharply around him. This time, he knew exactly who it was.

  “Damn, she's wide awake today,” Jonas muttered, standing beside him as Aazzi spoke softly to herself in her own language. His eyes were glowing softly as he looked over the space.

  “Princess,” Twist said to the throbbing, full air. “I came back, just as I promised. Please, leave me to work. I'll be finished much faster if you do.”

  The tension in the air wavered for a moment, but then it lessened, drawing back into the depths of shadow that lingered even in the sunlight. Jonas frowned, watching it.

  “That's downright spooky,” he muttered.

  “I told you,” Twist said, walking forward. “She's quite reasonable.”

  “She's still watching us,” Aazzi said, following close.

  “Naturally,” Twist said as kindly as his impatience would allow.

  He stopped at the end of the stair, and looked over the work that was still left to do. She looked much better already: her hands, arms, face, and neck were all repaired and shining while her long wire hair lay untangled under her head, polished back to its natural dark-maroon color. Twist sat beside her and began working on her legs. The moment he touched the metal, his Sight leaped up to fill his mind just as readily and clearly as it ever had. Twist let out a silent sigh of relief and resumed his work.

  Hours passed namelessly to Twist. Jonas and Aazzi spoke occasionally, but they both stayed at his side throughout. The soft, warm, electric hum of Jonas's presence served as a touchstone for Twist. Whenever his Sight began to wander off into the ghost's memories, he followed Jonas back to himself and to his work.

  Before long, Arabel arrived to insist that Twist take a break for lunch. When Jonas and Aazzi joined her cause, Twist had no choice but to acquiesce. While he was out of the palace hall, Dr. Rodés gave him a quick looking over as well, much to Twist's annoyance. Once the others were convinced that he was rested, well fed, and not overstressed, Twist returned to work while Aazzi and Jonas resumed their posts.

  When the light started to fail outside the glow of Twist's candlelight, a soft rain began to fall as well. The thin air chilled with the moisture, dragging in wafts now and then while the remaining sunlight fought its way through the clouds. When Twist looked up to stretch his stiff neck, for an instant he thought he was back in London. He jerked, looking around, but the confusion passed just as quickly.

  “What? Are you all right?” Jonas asked instantly.

  “No, no, it's nothing,” Twist said, shaking his head. “It's just…the rain. It sounds like London. I thought...” He smiled meekly and looked away. “Never mind.”

  “Are you going to take a break any time soon?” Jonas asked, pulling up his goggles to rub at his eyes. “It's been hours. We talked about this,” he added, glancing towards Twist under the edge of his goggles.

  “I'm almost done with this whole limb,” Twist said. “Just let me finish it.”

  “Aazzi?” Jonas said with a sigh. “You going to back me up?”

  “Give him ten more minutes,” Aazzi said. “Then we'll drag him out.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Jonas said, smiling at Twist through his goggles.

  “That's not funny, you know,” Twist muttered.

  “Is too,” Jonas assured him with a nod.

  Twist gave his sightless gaze a nasty look and then went back to his work. He finished with the last leg of the puppet as quickly as he could and then moved on to the last part of her, the core of her metal body. He reached out to gently stroke below the dip in her slender throat, and let his Sight run through her. He took in a sharp breath and pulled his hand away quickly, a decidedly concerned expression on his face.

  “What?” Jonas asked. “What's wrong?”

  “Her heart,” Twist said, ever so softly.

  “What?” Aazzi asked, moving closer.

  Twist reached out to the puppet's shoulder. His fingers instantly found the latch and he pulled off the front casing, revealing the infinitely complex clockwork beneath. In the center of innumerable fine, thin copper gears and tiny levers, where a human heart should have been, was a single, large, crimson crystal in the shape of a perfect sphere. There was an ugly crack running through it at an angle, almost shearing it in half. “It's broken,” Twist said, looking up to the others.

  “Can you fix it?” Aazzi asked after a moment.

  “That crystal is the source of every movement in the rest of the body,” Twist said. “Every other part leads back to it. If it can't resonate at the exact, perfect vibrations, then the body won't respond. She would be paralyzed.”

  “But, you can fix it, right?” Jonas asked slowly.

  Twist looked up at his covered eyes. “I can't mend a broken crystal. It's impossible.”

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  “No, no, that can't be,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “I saw the two of you together—talking, laughing—like nothing was wrong. You will complete her, eventually.”

  “Is your Sight never wrong about the future?” Twist asked.

  “Never,” Jonas said, his tone darkening.

  A high, slight cry seemed to echo off the palace walls in the depths of the slowly encroaching shadows. Aazzi turned instantly, following the sounds with her silver eyes, and muttered to herself quickly.

  “Has she been listening?” Aazzi asked them.

  “I'll find a new crystal,” Twist said to the darkness, as loudly as he could. “Jonas is right, I'm sure,” he added with a gesture to him.

  “Is it just me, or is it getting colder?” Jonas asked quietly, watching the shadows with softly glowing eyes.

  “Princess, please,” Twist said, getting to his feet to address the entire hall. “Trust me. I will bring you back into this world. I swear it.”

  A sharp blast of wind rushed in from a broken window and snuffed out the candle flame. The cold grew deep enough to turn Twist's breath into silvery clouds, and the shadows seemed to reach out from the walls toward him. Jonas and Aazzi both got quickly to their feet, standing close to Twist, with their backs to him. The darkness before Jonas grew so black that it almost appeared to take a solid form in the matter of an instant.

  “Holy...” Jonas breathed, staring into the shadow, now with much more brightly glowing eyes and a decidedly alarmed expression. “She's taking shape!”

  Aazzi moved to stand beside him, between Twist and the blackness, speaking quickly and clearly with her hands held out before her. Twist peered between them as the blackness seemed to pause in its approach, as if it had run into some kind of wall. His body began to tremble in the sudden cold, his heart racing in his chest.

  “I can see her,” Jonas said. “She's yelling, trying to say something, but I can't hear it.” He paused, frowning. “Ah hell...”

  Jonas braced as if expecting an attack, and Aazzi's voice rose in volume. In a flashing instant, the blackness flooded forward, washing over them like a wave and then crashing down onto Twist. To him, the others disappeared like smoke before the wind, and the princess appeared in their place, standing before him as real and solid as she had before. The darkness around her lifted as well, bathing them both in a haunting white light.

  “Princess,” Twist said, his voice all but lost to his shock.

  “There are others now,” she said to him, taking his hand in hers. Once again, Twist twitched when her cold skin touched his, but no vision came. “They say they will take you away. Can't you see them?”

  “Who?” Twist asked, alarmed to find fear on her gentle, childlike face.

  “They arrived last night, on the other ship,” the princess said. “They say very bad things. They just said they will kill the others if they stand in their way. I tried to tell you, but you couldn't hear me, could you?”

  “Where is the other ship?” Twist asked, his mind struggling to catch up.

  “Here,” the princess said, placing a hand on his back to lead him away, to one of the windows. As they approached, Twist saw that the glass was now repaired, and gleaming like new. “It's drifting beyond that mountain top,” the princess said, pointing through the window to a green-and-gray bluff not half a mile away. “They jump to my palace like birds, on mechanical wings,” she said, staring out as she took an absent grip of Twist's arm. “They hide and watch you,” she added, looking to him intently.

  “There, there,” Twist said softly, disturbed by her fear. He could remember seeing people reaching out to hold a frightened child, and tried it himself, hesitantly putting one arm around her slender shoulders. She responded instantly, wrapping both arms around his waist and fitting her head into the crook of his neck. “Don't be frightened,” he said gently, fighting to keep focus as he held her cold body in his arms.

  “I don't like them,” she muttered bitterly. “They say such bad things about you.”

  “Twist!” a distant, echoing voice called from very far away.

  “No!” the princess yelled, holding him even tighter. “I won't let you go. I want you to stay here with me! I'm frightened.”

  “There, there,” Twist said again, rubbing her back softly. “They are only worried about me. They think I'm in danger because they can't wake me up.”

  “Don't wake up,” she said, pulling back just enough to look up to him with her shimmering, dark eyes. “Stay with me.”

  Twist knew that his heart was barely beating, that he was likely on the verge of death as she overstressed his Sight. He knew he needed to wake up to tell the others that they might all be in danger from the newcomers. He knew that there were many reasons to break out of this dream. But as he looked into her eyes and held her in his arms, very little of him cared.

  “Twist, please!” called another voice, still far away in the distance of light.

  “My dear, I want nothing more than to stay with you,” he said finally, surprised by how easily the words left his lips. She smiled slightly. “But I have to go. Just for a moment,” he said, this time fighting for each word. Her smile faded away. “I have to tell my friends what you told me. They don't have any idea about the other ship. If we're attacked, we'll be defenseless. They could take your puppet away and trap you here forever.”

  “I don't want to be alone anymore,” she said, pain coloring her face and dampening her eyes. “I've been all alone for so long!”

  “I don't want you to ever be alone again,” Twist said quickly. “Please, let me make sure of it. Let me protect you.”

  She pulled him tighter again, pressing her cheek to his shoulder as she looked away. “I like you,” she said, ever so softly. “You're not like anyone else. You're so sweet to me. I watch you work so gently on my puppet. I like to watch you.”

  “You know I don't want to cause you any pain,” he said, stroking the long tail of black hair that hung down her back. “You can trust me, princess.”

  “Myra,” she said.

  “I'm sorry?”

  “My name,” she said, looking at him again. “Servants call me 'princess.' I want you to call me by my name.”

  “Myra,” Twist echoed, tasting the name with a smile. He couldn't stop himself from reaching up to stroke the side of her lovely face, but she only moved into his touch with a smile of her own. “Let me go, please. I need to make sure that you will be safe. I would never forgive myself if I let something happen to you.”

  She looked down slightly and took a heavy breath, letting it out to run over the skin at his throat. “All right,” she muttered.

  “Thank you, my dear,” Twist said gently as she pulled away from him.

  “I'm trusting you,” she said sternly to him.

  “You can trust me to the end of the world,” Twist said.

  Myra smiled and took a step away. The white light burned in from the distance and enveloped her completely until Twist was alone in a pure-white space. He reached out with his senses and found Jonas's electric resonance wafting indistinctly in the air. He caught it and pulled, dragging himself closer and closer.