Page 23 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

Danny was so tired.

It felt odd being back in the Zeus suit.

Last time he’d worn The Invisible Man, the thought of which still made him shudder.

But tonight had nothing to do with Hades—at least he hoped not.

Tonight he had to be there to stop Prometheus , not because Danny cared if Mal stole something, but because Lucy had asked. Because Danny owed him.

“Maybe Lucy was wrong, Danny,” Andre said over the comms. “Maybe Cho isn’t going to show tonight.”

“I’m not leaving. It’s not like I have to get up for work in the morning. I’ll stay all night if I have to.”

He’d spent hours at this already, but he still didn’t know what he was going to say when he saw Mal.

Maybe all he could do was be Zeus and show Mal he wasn’t the awful version of himself that he’d shown glimpses of for all these weeks.

He couldn’t be the reason Mal stopped being a better man.

The neighborhood needed him. Lucy needed him. Danny …

The clock struck 10PM—a nearby church chimed the hour—and everything changed .

It started as a flicker. Flashes of light through the windows. Danny had no idea how Mal had managed to get inside without him seeing, but he knew the show had already begun before any alarms had been tripped.

“He’s here. I’m going in,” Danny said, standing up from where he’d been perched and lightning jumping down to the street. He went to the back door closest to where he’d seen the flashes. The door was frozen and busted open.

“Danny, are you sure?” Lynn asked. “There hasn’t been any—”

“I’m sure. I’ll keep you posted.”

The museum was dark, save the emergency lights along the edge of the walls and as track lighting on the path through the exhibits for security to follow.

Memories of the first Prometheus heist he ever thwarted, of the first experience he’d had of ice powers stalling his lightning, assaulted him as he saw the ice residue on the walls beside prominent scorch marks. Helios was here too.

Danny didn’t want to startle or subdue Mal; he wanted to talk. So he moved swiftly but without additional lightning jumps, following the trail of damage. They weren’t trying to hide their presence, but they weren’t stopping to take anything along the way either. They had a destination in mind.

The high ceilings in the building meant voices echoed easily.

Danny heard the pair several rooms before he caught up to them.

They were in the art gallery stealing paintings, joyfully laughing and calling to each other as they worked.

The prospect of stopping a heist had excited Danny a week ago, but tonight the sound of their mirth turned his stomach.

“H-Help…”

Danny whirled around to find the security guard leaned heavily against a wall behind him, shivering and half-conscious. They were in the Ancient Greece section. Danny hadn’t seen him when he entered because a marble statue of Persephone blocked his view.

“I have the guard,” Danny whispered as he darted to the man’s side.

“Do you want us to alert OCPD?” Lynn asked.

“Not yet. Let me handle this.”

He shushed the guard as he reached him. The man didn’t have any burns or larger coatings of ice anywhere, but frost covered his clothing and was slowly melting into dampness. Danny never thought he’d feel so much relief at seeing evidence of the cold field. Mal was still upholding their deal.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of them,” Danny said as he helped the man stand. He was unsteady but already thawing. “You’ll be fine. Head out through the back as quickly as you can. I got this.”

The guard nodded through his shivers, “Th-Thank you, Zeus,” and did as he was told.

Shuddering, Danny steeled himself for what came next.

“Still the same weakness, I see.”

At the sound of Mal’s voice, he whipped back around. They must have seen Danny, must have heard him, must have known , because there Prometheus stood, framed in the entryway into the next exhibit.

He wore sunglasses instead of the goggles Danny had yet to return, but the rest of the outfit was pure sex and all for him.

Mal wore the shirt, the one Danny loved, bright teal that brought out Mal’s eyes, with a black three-piece suit, tie, and sharp black trench coat.

He looked so good . Just like Danny had asked for.

“You’re early, Zeus,” Mal called, confident in the way he took up the doorway. “And why might that be, I wonder?”

Danny risked a step closer. “Maybe you’re getting too easy to predict.”

“Lucy,” Mal said with a twisted smirk. “No matter. If I needed to stay ahead of you to beat you, I’d be a poor nemesis indeed. Getting the jump on people is your thing. As you’ll recall, I have something better.”

The cold field struck Danny like a physical force.

He tried to walk forward, but the sluggishness that entered his limbs made him falter, even with the suit on.

Willing sparks of electricity through his body only helped for so long, banishing the stiffness and frost for a handful of moments before it returned faster than he could counter it.

“M-Mal… please …” Danny held up his hands as he tried to inch forward. “Lucy c-called me to…help you.”

“That so?” Mal sneered. “You spout lies at her too? Just what help do I need, Danny? So far the night’s going swimmingly.”

“S-Stop this.” Danny kept his momentum going, even as he hugged his arms around himself and shivered. “D-Don’t be r-r-reckless coz a me. P-People c-count on you— ”

The blast of ice came so fast, Danny hardly noticed Mal had raised his arm. He flew across the room and struck the same wall the guard had been slumped against, barely missing the statue of Persephone.

“Chill out for a while,” Mal said, and when Danny was finally able to push upright and glance toward the entryway, he was gone.

“Danny, your vitals!” Lynn called.

“I’m f-fine…” he said as he fought to stand.

“I’m kicking in the failsafe,” Andre said, and instantly Danny was enveloped by warmth.

“ Stop . Save it for later,” Danny said, even as the heat generated by the suit soothed him. Andre couldn’t do that forever or it’d short out the rest of the suit’s sensors. “The cold field sucks, but it’s not as bad as a strong blast. Even that wasn’t as bad as he could make it. He won’t hurt me.”

“I hear you, Danny,” Andre said as the failsafe switched off and the chill of the cold field crept over Danny again before he’d taken a few steps. “But he also gives you the benefit of the doubt to get out of sticky situations on your own. Don’t underestimate how things could go south.”

“I know.” But Danny deserved a little freezer burn if it helped him get through to Mal. The last thing the thief needed was another stint in prison.

The sudden vision of the two of them serving time together made Danny’s breath catch.

He pushed onward into the next room. The frost built back over him quickly, but he could still move, he could fight this. He saw Mal and Helios one room further packing up paintings and getting ready to make their getaway.

“Dom!” Mal called when he saw Danny coming. “Why don’t you help Zeus warm up before we head out?” His grin was wicked as he took a ready bundle of loot and dashed out of the room through the exit.

Relief filled Danny as the cold field dropped, only for him to realize he was weak and still slow facing down Helios with a manic grin.

He barely dove to the side in time as an arc of fire shot toward him. Hitting the ground and rolling into the wall, a painting they’d left behind was engulfed in flames.

Danny sparked with lightning to slough off the last of the cold field’s effects, finally feeling limber and normal again as he jumped to his feet.

But before he could zip into action, the flames died as Helios lowered her hands, and after a glance behind her at where Mal had disappeared, she lifted the welder’s mask on her costume.

“Zeus! Time out.”

“…what?” Danny halted as Helios stalked forward with her hands held up.

“Did she just say, ‘time out’?” Andre balked.

“Danny, be careful,” Lynn said.

It had to be a trick, a trap, but Danny didn’t think they’d had enough time to plan anything too intricate inside the museum.

“Come here,” Helios gestured when Danny made no move to meet her halfway. She had no visible weapons on her outside of her powers, and her expression was oddly dispassionate.

“What do you want?” Danny cautiously walked forward.

Once they stood in front of each other in the middle of the gallery, Helios lowered her arms. “I know about you two. That you were fucking . He won’t say what you did, but I saw him try to tear up a safe house after you left him hangin’ when he poured his heart out to you.”

Danny’s stomach sunk like it had been filled with lead.

“So if whatever you did after was worse,” Helios snarled as her previously hidden emotions flared to life on her face, “then the least you deserve is this .”

The punch came at Danny as if in slow motion, betraying enough tells that everything around him slowed and he easily could have avoided the hit. He didn’t. He stayed where he was and closed his eyes just before Helios’s fist made contact with his jaw.

It struck him so hard, Danny was certain he’d be out cold if he was a normal human. He stumbled, nearly dropped to one knee, and only just barely righted himself to look at Helios again.

The tall, broad woman cracked her neck, clenched her fists, and started to back up. She fit her mask back over her face and ignited flames from her palms.

“Okay, Spark Plug. Back to the real fight.”

R

Dom was taking too long. She was supposed to give Zeus the runaround, then join Mal outside with the rest of the paintings.

Mal didn’t like leaving Dom alone with the kid, but someone had to get the car ready.

They’d entered from the other side of the museum but had parked the getaway car by where they’d exit. This wasn’t their first rodeo.