Page 57 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

Ludgate’s laughter sounded over the line.

The shiver of cold Danny felt before burned hot as he clutched his cell phone tighter. “If you’ve done anything to him…”

“Calm down, Zeus. We’re just passing the time, real friendly like. See?”

“Danny?” came John’s voice, gruff and weak.

“Dad!”

“Don’t listen to him! Don’t fall for—” but he cut off abruptly, and Danny imagined Ludgate kicking him or striking him, which only made him angrier.

His eyes locked on Mal across the room. The similar coldness he found there, the firm set to Mal’s jaw, made him feel justified in that moment for wanting Ludgate’s head on a platter.

“What do you want, Hades? I know what this is about. You think you have to hurt him to get back at me for killing your father. Isn’t that right? ”

Ludgate huffed a laugh. “Finally figured it out, huh?”

“Enough markers prove you have to be related. Him being your father makes sense—Cassius Dougal Junior . That’s why you hate being called Ludgate . Because your father never accepted you. Maybe because he was an Elemental and up until recently, you weren’t. What a disappointment you must have been.”

Ludgate roared, “And it’s because of you he’ll never see me at my true potential!”

“Your father caused that explosion, not me,” Danny fired back, “and you still blame me for your powers? ”

“The explosion? I didn’t Awaken from the explosion. Oh, it trapped me inside the mirror world, pushed me in before I was ready, but I was stuck there, unable to get out, only capable of watching. And do you know what I saw? Your fight with my father.”

Danny’s stomach sank. Knowing he’d killed Thanatos was one thing, but Ludgate saw it?

“The closest reflections looked right out at you as you murdered him in cold blood. That’s what sparked my Awakening. That’s why you’re to blame and who I have to thank. So thank you , Zeus. I hope I can pay you back in full.”

A cry sounded from the line— John and whatever Ludgate was doing to him.

“Stop! If you hurt him…” Danny clutched the phone tighter.

“Let’s move on to negotiation, Zeus. You’re working on a plan? Probably to trap me or lock me out of the mirror world again? So, tell me, do you have some new reflective surfaces for me to invade?”

Danny scanned the faces of his friends, who had all been working so hard the past few days, putting their differences aside to be a team and face Ludgate together. In the next few moments, all that could amount to nothing.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Good. Bring them. Set them up just as you planned. Wherever you want.”

Ludgate assumed they couldn’t outmaneuver him, but he didn’t know what they knew about his powers and the belt. John didn’t know either, so Ludgate couldn’t get information out of him, and everyone else was with Danny.

They still had a chance to win this.

“The field out of town where you visited the circus.”

Several faces looked to Danny in disbelief for giving up the location of the fun house.

“Clever,” Ludgate said with a note of derision. “Done. Go ahead, plan your worst. Just remember: your father’s in here with me. You have one hour.” He hung up, and Danny felt all sense of control slip from his fingers.

“Danny…” Stella said, offering a gentle hand on his arm for support .

They couldn’t kill Ludgate, they couldn’t kill him, they couldn’t . Danny wanted to be better than that. But if anything happened to his father…

Holding Mal’s gaze, an understanding passed between them that made Danny sick to his stomach, yet he didn’t know what else he should be feeling right now. He didn’t want to be the man he’d been before he learned to love Malcolm Cho, but for now the only thing that mattered was saving his father.

“Nothing changes,” Danny said, shoving his cell phone into his pocket. “Ludgate has my dad…but everything else continues as planned. He gave us an hour. Let’s use it.”

Priestly and Andre jumped into action, not even waiting for a signal. The others looked to Danny for direction. Mal continued to stare at him with a promise in the depths of his eyes that Ludgate was not taking anything else away from them.

“Let’s get to work,” Danny said, and he and Mal turned to the others, one by one, and began issuing orders as if their teams had always worked in tandem, with a captain of the OCPD in their ranks and more firepower than most armies between their Elementals and tech.

Ludgate believed he couldn’t lose; Danny intended to prove him wrong.

R

It was still early, closing in on 10:30 in the morning.

Olympus City’s skyline looked peaceful in the distance, still and bright with the sun reflecting off the buildings like sparkles of crystal.

The location for setting up the mirror trap wasn’t far from the woods Mal brought Danny to earlier.

When this was over, he wanted to go there again, push Mal against one of those trees, and kiss him.

Replace a few bad memories with better ones.

When this was over…

“Hey,” Stella’s voice pulled him from his thoughts, his gaze distracted on the view of the city and the remains of the power station nearby. “I know this might seem like a stupid question, but…are you okay?”

He turned to her, wearing the Zeus suit but with the cowl drawn back.

Behind Stella, the trap stood tall as it received its final touches, the mirrors all facing inward, though with a few crevices and corners within the closed off space to tempt Ludgate.

There was a single entrance that teased them with the edge of the first mirror, its surface muted from the Miasma Field.

The others all had their parts to play. Oz was back watching Mal’s neighborhood in case Ludgate strung them along with decoys and tried to play dirty.

Carla was still safely tucked away at the morgue with Mai and Michael.

They’d always been out of earshot from the group’s planning because Carla didn’t want Michael to worry about his favorite superheroes.

Michael had hugged Danny and Mal goodbye before they left, only knowing that they had a bad guy to catch, so he wished them luck.

Captain Shan sat vigil in his office. Someone had to be ready to send in the cavalry once Ludgate was on ice and ready to be taken into custody. The rest of the team was all within Danny’s field of vision.

Lynn, regardless of her injured arm, refused to stay back in case medical attention was needed. Joey had insisted on helping Andre and Priestly, and of course Stella wasn’t willing to be left behind either. Not this time. Not if something went wrong.

Then there were the Titans—Mal talking with Dom and Lucy with that deliberate way about his gestures that Danny found hypnotic.

Dom had a cigarette between her lips, and Danny had seen her roll her eyes more than once in just the span of time he’d spared a glance at them.

Lucy stood with her arms crossed, frowning at her brother, worried. They all were.

“I’m scared for Dad,” Danny said, dropping his eyes to look at Stella, “but I’m okay. Really. Because I know we can do this. Half of me keeps thinking if only I’d realized Dad was missing sooner. If only I’d stayed away from that damn mirror in the hospital and never let Ludgate take me…”

“Danny…” her brow knit in sympathy.

“But the other half of me,” Danny pushed on, “that other half knows it isn’t my fault.

So if I’m not going to wallow, then I am going to do something about it.

Right now I’m focused on the plan. If it works, this will finally be over and…

we can celebrate by taking Dad to lunch.

” He snickered, not wanting to envision a scenario where John needed to be rushed to the hospital.

“That sounds wonderful,” Stella said, smiling back even through her downturned brows. “Burgers or someplace nicer?”

“Actually, there’s this Korean café attached to a corner store in Mal’s neighborhood.” His stomach rumbled at the thought of Mrs. Pak’s bulgogi. “There isn’t room for everyone, but I bet the owner would figure something out.”

Stella’s eyes crinkled as she poked his stomach.

“You two are ridiculously domestic, you know that? Who would have thought? Before you started seeing him, I think I saw more of you pretending to be happy than the real thing.” Reaching to take Danny’s hand, she squeezed before he could protest that.

“A real smile, real happiness, looks very different on you. I’ve started to realize that the few times I’ve seen that were always because of him.

I have to admit, I wasn’t okay with the thought of you two in the beginning. ”

“I wouldn’t have expected you to be. Any of you.”

“But that was before I saw how much he was willing to fight for you. The fact that this group of unlikely allies managed to pull together a plan this huge, working side by side in close quarters for days, proves that you and Malcolm finding happiness together is not the strangest thing we’ve dealt with.

If you want to work through the complications that might come up and just be happy with him, I believe you can do it, Danny.

I want you to do it. Not that you need my blessing… ”

Danny squeezed her hand, ready to tug her in for a hug, because no, he didn’t need her blessing, but that didn’t mean he didn’t appreciate it.

“Isn’t it Dad’s blessing you should be worried about?”

They shifted their attention in unison to see Joey having snuck up on them. He wasn’t looking on in disapproval, but Danny was stunned anyway. Joey had never called John ‘Dad’ in front of him without correcting himself.

“What she said,” Joey nodded at Stella. “Prometheus isn’t so bad. And if Dad hasn’t already, I’m sure he’ll give his approval when this is over. ”

“A month ago he would have cursed and hollered,” Danny snickered.

“Maybe,” Joey snickered with him, “but he definitely loves you, Danny. I’m sure Dad would rather have Prometheus watching your back than using it for target practice.”

“Me too,” Danny laughed harder.