Page 58 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

“Just be careful, alright? I know you always are, but don’t let Ludgate get to you. This family keeps getting bigger.” Joey fidgeted and looked down at his feet. “I kinda like that.”

Danny understood what he meant—he didn’t want their family to get any smaller .

He wanted to hug his brother like he’d felt the need to hug Stella, but he held back.

This wasn’t goodbye; he shouldn’t be saying goodbye.

That would only make this harder. It was just a fight, just a villain he had to face like many others before him.

This was Danny’s job, and he wasn’t doing it alone.

“Danny?” Mal called before he could think of anything to say.

Joey and Stella parted, and there he stood, gear on, duster and all, including the new goggles Priestly had tweaked. He nodded once to Joey and Stella, no smirk in place, just assurance in the task ahead. Then his eyes fell on Danny.

“Ready?”

R

The hour was almost up. Only a few minutes remaining. They couldn’t risk making Ludgate wait. With Priestly and Andre on comms and Captain Shan listening in for when it was safe to send in reinforcements, the others hung back while Mal, Danny, and Dom entered the mirror trap.

Once Danny gave the signal, Mal looked at the Miasma Field through his goggles and slowly began to bring the radius in closer until it only struck the mirrors nearest them, then he turned it off completely.

‘Fun house’ was definitely a close approximation of their surroundings once the frosted look disappeared and the mirrors around them shimmered with renewed reflections.

Dozens of copies of them looked back—more than dozens, since the placement of the mirrors multiplied the reflections infinitely into the distance.

Mal sensed Danny fidgeting at his side, being on his left with Dom at his right.

Danny was always antsy, always ready to move, but these nerves were different.

Despite standing tall, Danny was afraid down to his core because of what Ludgate had done to him.

It didn’t matter if they needed Ludgate to get out of the mirror world once they were in it; if Mal found an opportune moment to kill the man, he doubted he could stop himself from taking it.

Like he’d told Danny, sometimes people got what they had coming.

At least that was what he wanted to believe.

Taking in all the many Dannys he could see reflected in the mirrors, standing between him and Dom as a unified front against a common enemy, the thrill and adrenaline Mal loved about the best laid plans of a successful heist surged through him like never before.

Side by side with Danny Grant , he could admit he didn’t want to let him down.

“Such a lovely gift you’ve brought me,” Ludgate’s voice echoed through the chamber, causing the hair on Mal’s arms to prickle. One by one, the images of him, Danny, and Dom flickered out, replaced by the visage of Ludgate in his silver suit.

Mal side-eyed the exit, just to see the glimmer of light to remind him there was a way out, they weren’t trapped, this was a trap for Ludgate. Still, he couldn’t help thinking, why’d they have to build it with a ceiling?

“So nice of you to invite me,” Ludgate went on, grinning within his cowl. “But just the three of you? What are the others up to, I wonder?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Ludgate ,” Mal said, smirking when the man twitched at the use of his name instead of his moniker. “Busy schedule this morning. So why don’t you hand over Detective Grant, and we’ll be on our way.”

Ludgate tossed his head back with a laugh. “Always did love your sense of humor, Prometheus.”

The reflections shimmered and shorted out like a faulty connection, and when Ludgate’s image returned, it was focused further back, showing off his entire body, with John Grant tied to a chair in front of him.

“Dad!” Danny cried, flinching forward but managing to hold himself back .

John did not look well. His face was bruised, lip bleeding, teal eyes tired like he’d been interrogated all night, beaten for information he couldn’t offer. Again, Mal wanted to give Ludgate what he had coming, but however this ended, they had to be smart, careful, patient.

“I’m alright, kiddo,” John said between labored breaths. “Whatever he wants, don’t give in. Don’t worry about me. Don’t—”

“So noble,” Ludgate spoke over him, and with a flourish, John was obscured by a stretch of fabric that covered his head and shoulders. It was Danny’s jacket from the night at the hospital. “But we wouldn’t want any distractions now, would we? We have so much to talk about.”

“Cut the bullshit and get on with it,” Dom growled.

“Prometheus,” Andre spoke over the comms, “turn on the cold field. We need him on the defensive. Time to make him mad.”

Mal complied without saying a word, just a subtle shift and tap at his wrist that Ludgate wouldn’t notice as anything but nervous tension.

He spread out the cold field to fill the space, meaning he had to stay in tight quarters with Danny and Dom, but if Ludgate poked even a finger outside a mirror, he’d get a taste of frostbite.

Mal’s new goggles didn’t merely display the radius of the fields, they also transmitted everything he saw back to Andre and Priestly. Dom’s mask was the same. Ludgate had them surrounded with different versions of himself to watch every move they made, but they had extra eyes too.

“What do you want, Ludgate?” Danny demanded, emotion making his voice catch. “My father has nothing to do with this.”

“I beg to differ.” The mirrors flickered again, and John’s image disappeared.

“You see, you took everything from me, Zeus, but you gave my father exactly what he wanted. To ruin you. His little project that blossomed right before his eyes. I knew that if only I could Awaken as you had, he’d finally see me too.

Then you killed him , but in doing so you gave me the opportunity I needed to carry on his good work.

You, Zeus, are nothing but a shadow,” he boomed from inside the mirrors, “created by my father. An echo of him. The people of this city don’t see that yet, but they will. ”

Mal nudged Danny’s arm to make sure he didn’t teeter too close to the edge Ludgate was pushing him toward. After a subtle nod from Danny, the three of them moved as a group, pivoting slowly while Ludgate monologued .

“There’s been no real press about me and my exploits. All my heists have been small, even the diamond was barely headline news at six o’clock. ‘Prometheus, at it again’,” he mimicked in an announcer voice, “had more coverage after your foreplay the other night than how I had you both on the run.”

“The OCPD knows you’re worth bringing in,” Danny said, scanning the mirrors around them section by section.

“‘Course the rest of the Joe Schmoes out there recognize a chump when they see one,” Dom added.

“Now, now, Dom, be fair,” Mal jumped in. “‘Chump’ implies someone else is duping Ludgate. But he’s only duping himself. More of an amateur with delusions of grandeur. Don’t beat yourself up about it,” he grinned at one of Ludgate’s many reflections. “We all have to start somewhere.”

“Ah!” Ludgate yelped, and Mal and the others spun to where the sound had come from.

Wasting no time, Mal shot a burst of ice at one of the mirrors, but if Ludgate had been there reaching out, he’d already retreated. One mirror was useless now, coated in ice.

“Coward,” Mal said with a lofty grin. “Afraid I’ll nip at your nose? Maybe we should make things easier on you.”

“Switch to the heat field,” Priestly agreed. “When he tries again, he’ll get further out before he realizes something’s different.”

Mal turned his field off. A moment later, he saw the red ring of Dom’s field fill the space where his blue had been. Even inside the eye of safety, Mal felt the edge of stifling heat creep into his limbs and shorten his breath.

“Give him some bait to try again,” Andre said.

“Guess ya are a coward. Just ask ol’ Spark Plug here!” Dom called. “Ya think we ever ran scared facing him down?”

Mal and Dom followed Danny’s lead, moving together as best they could to back toward a mirror. Whenever Mal was too far out of the eye of the field, he felt it, the sudden suffocating heat, and shifted accordingly.

This time, Ludgate’s yelp of surprise came out as a gasp and gulp for air, and it was Dom’s turn to fire at the mirror nearest them. The arc of flames singed part of Ludgate’s arm, but he got away with only a few scorches .

“You think these tricks will save your father?!” Ludgate roared.

“Don’t hurt him!” Danny cried. “Please. Just let him go and we’ll give you the fight you want. You can broadcast it to the whole city for all I care!”

“Oh…” Ludgate said in a low, menacing tone, “I already am.”

For a moment the mirrors displayed their own reflections again, and Mal imagined that same view being seen by thousands of people throughout the city—Prometheus and Helios bookending Zeus against a greater threat.

“He’s right,” Shan’s voice came over the comms. “I got reports coming in from all over about a livestream of the fight. Good thing is it didn’t start ‘til after your father’s head was covered. Uniforms are on standby ‘til you give the order, but be careful. You got an audience now.”

Shit. That was one thing they hadn’t planned for.

Mal could see on Danny’s face that he wanted to respond, to express his alarm, but they couldn’t risk Ludgate or the watching public learning too much.

“Heat field off. Give him a window,” Priestly said.

And Andre added, “Keep him running from mirror to mirror just a little longer.”

The circle of red disappeared, and Mal relaxed into the cooler air that followed. They had to make Ludgate think they didn’t have a better plan. Too long and he’d start to get suspicious, but they couldn’t act too quickly either.