Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan

I owe you much. I will answer all questions and do anything you ask.”
    It would be so easy for Cornelius to melt into him and fall under Johann’s spell. He tried to resist. “Do you know why they sent you on a suicide mission? What were you a distraction for?”
    “Something on other side of town. Airships have troops looking for weapon to destroy.”
    Cornelius frowned. “Destroy? Not steal?”
    “Destroy. They say so many times. Bad weapon, kill many Austrians.” He shrugged, as if to say he didn’t really believe them.
    This did not fit, though, with Félix’s report, or Conny’s mother’s letter. He worried the edge of his sleeve. “But you don’t know what weapon they spoke of?”
    Johann shook his head. “They tell us nothing.”
    “Why didn’t they try to steal the weapon?”
    “I don’t think they can use. I hear them talk when they don’t know I listen. They sound afraid. This weapon is bad. They say…” He consulted the dictionary again. “Corpse. Corpse who walk. This is weapon. But it sound like story.”
    Yes, it did—the same story Félix had just told him. Cornelius felt sick. Any country making an army of the dead would commit a crime beyond all other crimes.
    The secret to doing so lies in Johann’s chest. And he knows nothing about it.
    Probably.
    This time Cornelius took both of Johann’s hands. Conny’s heart, all too human and vulnerable, pinched inside his chest. “Things have happened today. Serious things. I…I believe I am in danger.”
    Johann sat up straighter, looking ready to go to battle. “Where is danger?”
    Cornelius tried to smile, but oddly it made him feel like he would cry. He steadied himself with a breath. “I need… I cannot tell who I can trust right now.” He pulled a hand away to clap it over his mouth as he closed his eyes, sending a few of the tears out.
    “Hush.” Johann brushed the tears away with his good hand. “No tears. I will keep you safe. I am strong. Good at walking now. I know weapons. Swords. Knives. I can fight. I will protect you.”
    Cornelius forced his eyes open and choked the words out of his throat. “Can…I trust you?”
    They seemed the stupidest words in the world, because of course a spy would lie, but Cornelius was not a spy. He was a sentimental tinker, and he wanted the man wiping away his tears to be real more than he wanted anything in the world.
    Johann took both of Cornelius’s hands again, drawing them to his mouth and kissing them with a reverence that sent shivers down Cornelius’s spine. “You saved my life. It is for you now. I serve you. Protect you. I am not enemy. I will not hurt. I only help.” He squeezed Cornelius’s fingers gently. “What is danger?”
    Cornelius was so tired, so overwhelmed, he wanted to weep, to hide in his bed, or better yet in his workshop and pretend none of this was happening. But he couldn’t. He let out a breath. “I think…I need to leave Calais. Tonight.”
    “Where will you go?”
    Cornelius bit his lip. “I…don’t know. My mother sent me a letter telling me to come to England, but it is so strange. Something about it feels wrong. I know it’s from her, but…I don’t know.”
    “I can read this letter?”
    “Oh—I’m sorry, no. It’s in English. She’s an actress, in London.”
    Johann’s sideways smile did devilish things to Cornelius’s insides. “I speak English.”
    Cornelius’s mouth fell open. “You—you what ?”
    “I know English.” He switched over to it, and his accent was almost gone, his words clearer. “I learned it with the pirates. They were English, and Chinese. But Chinese is very difficult to learn. I do know some curses, but that’s it.”
    Cornelius slouched in his chair, his hand to his mouth. “All this time. We could have been speaking all this time.” He cleared his throat. “So you read English as well?”
    “Yes. I make some mistakes, but not so many as French. But I spoke it for nearly two years, so it makes