Page 11 of Lovesick Gods

Danny and Lynn both laughed.

Cho had taken up the title of Prometheus and dubbed his team the Titans years ago, fitting in a city called Olympus, but they had still been under the radar for the most part as thieves that rarely got caught. It was Thanatos’s appearance that gave the citizens something to fear, which was why Andre had suggested the name Zeus for Danny, to remind people that someone just as powerful as the monsters was on their side.

“Do you know how annoying it is to say ‘Camouflage’ over and over again?” Danny said. “Camo just came more naturally to my internal monologue.”

“Well your internal monologue don’t get a say over my naming convention,” Andre turned back to him.

“Who’s the hero here again?” Danny held a mocking hand to his chest.

“And whose suit you wearing and tech you using, Miss Thang,” Andre snapped his fingers in a Z formation. To be fair, a very high-end 3D printer had made the Zeus suit and most of their tech, but Andre had been instrumental in the designs.

Laughing once more, this time it came out easier, freer, especially when Lynn and Andre joined him. “Okay, guys, sleep,” Danny said, offering both of them a quick half-hug in gratitude. “Tonight I’m going to sleep. I’ll keep you posted on anything else, I promise. Scrounging up some vacation days sounds like just what I need.”

ß

Danny resisted the urge to hurl his phone at the far wall of the Pronto coffee shop. He didn’t have any vacation days. Every time he thought he was getting better, feeling better, and maybe on the upswing out of whatever was wrong with him, somethinganywhere from the very small and mundane to admittedly tragic would rear its head and pull him right back down into the muck.

The barista had already gotten his order wrong once, and now his calendar betrayed that he had used up his last sick day and vacation day ages ago and wouldn’t accrue more for weeks.

“Danny!” the girl filling orders declared as she slid his drink onto the pickup counter. At least it was the right size and in one of those cups with a lightning bolt across it.

The thing about being a superhero was everyone tried to benefit from the brand, and Zeussold. Danny’s favorite triple espresso drink had been renamedLiquid Lightningmonths ago.

He snatched up the drink without even a mild thank you and took a quick pull to feel some semblance of a caffeine rush but nearly spat his first sip onto the floor. One of the girls in the back was new. She’d burnt the espresso. It tasted terrible, but Danny didn’t have time to get back in line. Pronto was always jam-packed this time of morning.

Shouldering his way through the crowd of people to the condiments station by the exit, he needed to add as much cream and sugar as he could to save his morning coffee fix. A girl he’d seen at Pronto before, another morning coffee frequenter, flashed him a smile as he passed her and may have even added a greeting or good morning, but he ignored her and pressed on toward the sugar. He knew he was being snippy, but he wasnothaving a good morning. He wasn’t having a good anything. All of Andre and Lynn’s supportive words and gestures the night before seemed stale now as Danny plummeted right back down to rock bottom.

He wanted to chuck his coffee at the window like he’d almost chucked his phone, smash the napkin case in his fist, take the extra coffee cup lids and crush them under his—

“Come on, Mickey, you can’t tell me you wouldn’t love the taste oflightningon your tongue.”

Danny’s own lid went flying to the floor as he fumbled to keep his very full coffee from spilling over his hands.

“Your euphemisms are not as funny as you think they are, sis. Coffee, black, is fine by me.”

Cho. And his sister Lucy. In Pronto.Shit.

Danny knew those voices, and Lucy always referred to her brother as ‘Mickey’.

“Right—coffee, black. With enough sugar to kill a diabetic,” she said, so close that Danny was certain they were standing right behind him, but when he dared to look, he saw that the pair had passed him unaware and now stood in line about two feet back. “And what, likeyourpuns are so hilarious?”

“Clearly.”

Danny turned forward again so they wouldn’t catch sight of his face if they glanced back and tried to nonchalantly add cream and sugar to his coffee as planned. It had been months since he’d seen Cho. He hadn’t dared track the man down when he first broke out of prison. He’d been too busy waiting for his name to plaster all over the news—Prometheus reveals Zeus’s identity.

When that didn’t happen, Danny had expected another heist. He had to wonder if Cho’s lacking presence meant he was planning something bigger. But why did Danny have to run into him now, after the interview with Liu yesterday and the disaster with Camo, when all of his hatred toward his nemesis was rekindled hotter than ever?

“He’s not so bad, you know, your little…Sparky,” Lucy said in a whisper that would have gone unnoticed by anyone else, since most people were buried in their phones. “Just protective of his city, like someone else I know. Be honest,” she practically purred. “You wanna bend that boy in half.”

Danny tore his second sugar packet in two, showering granules all over the countertop. They were talking about him.

Cho and Lucy’s voices grew fainter as they moved further up the line. Backing up a few steps while he stirred his drink, Danny kept within hearing distance.

“Don’t you have a man to see about ajob, sis, or you gonna pester me the whole way to getting my morning coffee?”

“I know you know his identity, Mickey. You know his haunts, his routine. The way you cased this place before we came in, I bet you chose this particular coffee shop on the off chance of seeing him again.”

Danny’s gut twisted like he’d been punched. He was lucky Cho hadn’t spotted him. He also realized that Lucy didn’t know his identity; Cho hadn’t told her. But her teasing wasn’t merely empty jokes. Cho’s reactions made it clear that she knew exactly what buttons she was pressing.

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