Page 61 of Lovesick Titan (Lovesick #2)

Danny gasped at the jolt of returning from the mirror world, nearly losing his careful hold on Dom before he caught his bearings.

They’d come out the same mirror they entered, the very last one leading to the exit of the trap.

Pulling Dom into the light of day, Danny passed her to a concerned Lucy and an attentive Lynn, while everyone started peppering him with questions.

“Where’s Mickey?”

“What happened?”

“We only had Helios’s feed after Prometheus’s goggles broke.”

“The live footage cut out too.”

“What—”

“He’s coming ,” Danny said, only taking the time to meet Lucy’s eyes amidst the others. “He’s just getting my dad. He’s right behind me.”

Danny turned around to face the entrance into the trap. He could see the mirror, the doorway they’d used, but Mal wasn’t coming through it. Rushing up to the glass, still mostly outside the fun house, Danny reached inside the reflection and his hand sunk into it.

“It’s still open,” he frowned.

“That means Ludgate wants you to go back,” Stella said, close behind him. “Danny…you can’t .”

Counting the seconds, Danny couldn’t answer her, still staring at the surface that rippled and then stilled when he pulled his hand away. It shouldn’t be taking this long. Mal should be back by now. Glancing forlornly over his shoulder at those gathered with him, he shook his head .

“I have to go back. Mal and Dad need me.”

“Give him more time,” Lucy said, helping Lynn lower Dom into a sitting position inside the van. “Mickey can do this.”

Nodding despite his misgivings, Danny knew he had to trust that Mal could make it out. But what if they were wrong and being in contact with Mal wasn’t enough for John to come out the same way? What if he needed the mirror he’d been brought through? What if they couldn’t get back?

“The feed’s on again!” Andre called.

“What do you see?” Danny lightning jumped to his side.

Andre turned the tablet toward Danny. The local news displayed the familiar scene of mirror after mirror, a few of which were nothing but debris after the fight, but there was nothing else in view.

“It’s just the landscape,” Andre said quietly.

But Mal had to be there. Somewhere. Danny’s father had to be there .

Yet they weren’t.

Jumping back to the edge of the trap, Danny was followed by a cavalcade of voices.

“Danny!”

“You can’t!”

“It’s what he wants!”

Even Captain Shan came over the comms, “Damn it, Grant, don’t do anything stupid!”

But Danny had to. He had to. Looking back at his friends, at his extended family—at Dom, Lucy, and Priestly too—he steeled his nerves. “I’ll bring them home. I promise,” he said and dove back into the lion’s den.

R

The first thing Danny noticed when he surfaced on the other side of the mirror was the quiet.

Had it always been like this inside the mirror world when Ludgate wasn’t taunting him?

Reminding himself that he was being watched, he envisioned the whole city with its eyes on him, but not even that would slow him down .

“Ludgate!” he screamed into the open blackness covered in sparkling mirrors and the occasional jagged edge of broken glass. They’d limited the playing field, but there were countless mirrors spanning into the distance. Danny had to stop Ludgate once and for all, or this would never end.

Nothing moved in the stillness. Ludgate was baiting him, but Danny couldn’t give in.

He had to stay calm, had to think like Mal.

Smart. Careful. Patient. Keeping his distance from any single mirror, he turned back to get his bearings on the mirror framed in ice, then he fanned out, moving slowly, taking his time as he searched for some sign of where Ludgate might be hiding.

Glass crunched beneath his boots as he crossed the open area they’d decimated.

He saw a chair, and in front of it, an unmoving figure that looked to be covered in black. Danny approached it with equal caution, this still form almost like a man, but no…it was something else. When Danny finally reached it, he understood.

The black Zeus suit, The Invisible Man, covered a mannequin sans its head, and Danny’s jacket lay on the ground beside it.

Ludgate had mimicked John. He could fake his face, his voice, but to be physical and solid outside the illusions, he’d needed more the black suit without a mask and had to use Danny’s jacket to hide the lie. John might not even be here.

The sprinkle of red on the glass around the chair made Danny falter. He hoped and prayed that the stains were from Ludgate.

“Mal!” he cried. He couldn’t take Ludgate by surprise, but he could avoid being taken by surprise in turn. “Where are they?! Ludgate! If you hurt Mal or my father…”

A gurgling cough answered Danny, and he whirled around. Behind a mirror not too far away, he saw movement near the ground. His instincts were to jump forward, but he made himself take his time to maneuver around the mirrors with a wide berth.

The sounds the figure made were terrible, pitiful and weak, and Danny’s blood ran cold as he drew closer—to see the navy blue of a familiar duster. Mal , alone, coughing into the nonexistent ground beneath him.

A harsh breath caught in Danny’s throat as he cleared a set of mirrors to a fuller view of Mal rolling onto his back, sputtering blood as he stared upwards unseeing, choking— dying —because of a shard of glass plunged into his chest.

Danny trembled, watching Mal convulse, spasm, and start to still…

“No…”

It isn’t real, it isn’t real—

“It isn’t real ,” Danny finished aloud, moving cautiously closer to the figure on the ground, whose head lolled to the side and eyes stared up at him unblinking.

It was a trick. It had to be a trick. “It isn’t real!

” he screamed, and as the glass around him shook from his bellow, the vision of Mal faded like the mirage it was, projected from the perfect formation of mirrors around it.

“Getting smarter, Zeus?” Ludgate’s winded but cruel voice spoke from behind him.

Danny spun, ready for any deception, only to come face to face with another mirror, but it wasn’t Ludgate within, it was John. Beaten and tied to a chair, like Danny had last seen him, but with his head uncovered as he sat in the midst of the ruins of the power plant Thanatos destroyed.

Most of the wreckage had been cleared away over the months, but nothing had been rebuilt there.

The city had rerouted power through other stations, other sources outside Olympus.

All that remained was concrete and a few remnants of metal girders in a large open space not far from where Danny’s team was now.

In fact, if not for one final standing concrete wall, Danny’s friends likely would have been able to see John in the distance.

As well as the explosives positioned all around the perimeter.

“Dad!” Danny screamed, seeing the picture like looking in on video footage.

He knew it was foolish to reach out, but he couldn’t quell the compulsion.

Moving to touch the glass, he found that his hand disappeared into it.

It was a trap, it had to be, but he didn’t know where Mal was, and his father was right there , in danger, waiting to be rescued.

Danny took the bait and dove forward.

Gulping for air as he always did when passing from the mirror world into the real one, he turned back, not trusting himself, and saw a perfect standing mirror erected in the lot of the power plant that Ludgate must have set up just for him .

This was the spot where everything changed.

More than the night Rick died and Danny was so devastated he Awakened.

That loss had been terrible. It wasn’t that the loss of his mother was worse than losing his best friend, but the loss of himself afterward was, leaving him desperate and furious and so tired.

He’d done the unthinkable that night and become the monster he’d tried so hard to stop.

“Danny!” his father cried, and as Danny spun around, he was reminded how far he’d come since then.

He was stronger now. He wasn’t alone like he’d felt all those months ago.

He hadn’t been alone then, not truly. He never was.

He had so many reasons to keep fighting, so many people who had believed in him until he was ready to believe in himself.

He hadn’t been able to save his mother, but here, right now, was someone he could save, a reason to keep moving forward.

Any concern that this too was being broadcast and that his identity might be in jeopardy fell away in the relief he felt at seeing his father real and whole and safe only a few feet away.

Now that he was inside the wreckage, he could better see the explosives, several dozen positioned all around them, but there didn’t appear to be a timer or any sort of triggering device. Ludgate had to have it on him.

Danny untied his father quickly and hugged him close the moment he had him free. John’s face was bruised and bloody but not as bad as his mirror image had appeared. He was okay. He’d be okay.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” John said, as though Danny was the one being rescued.

“It’s not over yet. Here.” He pulled up his mask enough to remove the communication device from inside, then handed it to his father before fitting his mask into place again.

John’s hair was mussed and damp with sweat, his shirt crumpled and his face worn. Looking down at the small earpiece and microphone, he stared like he didn’t understand what he was holding.

“Take it,” Danny said. “Hermes can get you out of here in seconds, Dad, and bring you somewhere safe. I have to go back in to look for Mal.” He turned to the mirror and walked toward it resolutely, but as he reached the glass, his father’s hand came down on his shoulder to spin him around.

“He’s toying with you, getting you to do exactly what he wants. You can’t give in. ”

“I know. I won’t.”

“Danny, please—”