Page 65 of Lovesick Gods

“Keeps Arty happy?” Mal leaned forward on the worktable like he was all atwitter for gossip. He knew the expectant look would annoy Priestly, and it did in spades.

Sighing, the kid set his tools and the hearing aid aside. “Careful, boss. Start in on my love life, and I might start in on yours.”

Mal pulled back with a grimace.

“Heh,” Dom chortled. “You know too, huh?”

“About his hickey-happy lover and how much Gaia wants to find out the guy’s identity?” Priestly said. “Oh yes.”

Dom glanced at Mal like she knew a dirty little secret, which of course shedid. “Does he know who—?”

“No,” Mal cut her off firmly.

“Wait, you know who it is?” Priestly perked up, turning to lean across the table toward Dom as if Mal was no longer present.

A wide grin formed as she opened her mouth.

“No,” Mal said again, giving Dom his best warning glare that there would be serious consequences if she defied him on this. He could see on her face that she was debating telling Priestly anyway. Hardening his eyes further at his old friend, Mal shook his head. Having Dom know was one thing, but any more than that and it could all unravel.

After fifteen solid seconds of making Mal sweat, Dom rolled her eyes and gave Priestly an apologetic shrug. “Guess I don’t know shit. Sorry, Spock.”

Offering his own melodramatic eye-roll, Priestly didn’t try to hide his disappointment when Mal stared back at him unwilling to budge. “Fine. Better get to the main event, then, if I don’t get any pre-show. Follow me.”

He stood from his chair and led them further into the back past another curtain. Mal had never been so deep into the shop before. He’d always assumed the last hidden area was reserved for more volatile equipment. He wasn’t wrong. Two black cuffslike the one he’d seen Priestly working on earlier sat on a table waiting for them, as well as—surprisingly enough—a vase of flowers. But in the corner was what looked to be…well. Mal couldn’t help himself, because the only thing that sprang to mind was—

“If you’re expecting me to say ‘Beam me up, Scotty’, I’m sorry to say I’m a little attached to my molecules staying where they are.”

Priestly shot Mal a look between aggravated and impressed, which tended to be the kid’s default expression when it came to him. Mal didn’t mind, as long as the impressed part remained true. “Not a transporter,Captain. Or something out of the Goldblum version ofThe Fly. It just looks like that because I had to build something that would be insulated against both heat and cold. Kind of difficult to test out intense waves of temperature without ruining something in the shop unless I have a containment field.

“Keep your cuff on and you’ll stay safe in the eye of the storm; stay put in the containment box and I won’t have to worry about freezer burn. So.” He looked between them. “Who wants to go first?”

“Me,” Mal said before Dom could offer. Snatching up one of the cuffs from the table, he entered the containment box. “You mentioned it wasn’t necessary to bring eyewear.”

“I have new sets for both of you for the occasion. Nothing else should be needed since the field projects away from you.”

“Should?”

Priestly handed Mal a pair of goggles from a hook on the side of the box that looked nearly identical to his current ones. “Notice the lack of a door,” he said indicating the narrow slit Mal had used to slip inside, then knocked on the clear containment wall. “Electromagnetic waves are more effective than plastic. This is just backup.”

“Aren’t electromagnetic waves part of Zeus’s powers?” Mal tilted his head after securing the goggles over his eyes.

“Technically, but that would only interfere if he used his lightning to project his own field. Trust me, he willnotsee this coming. Button on the inside of the wrist when you’re ready,” Priestly nodded, then pressed a button of his own on the side of the box, surrounding Mal with a quiet hum.

Gently feeling along the interior of the cuff, Mal detected a small switch. At a glance, Zeus wouldn’t notice anything amiss until he felt the first blast of the cold field. Mal flipped the device on.

Instantly, he felt the change in his hands as if the cuff was causing his powers to manifest, but no sign of ice started to coat his skin. The subtle chill through his palms and up his arms was familiar, but while Mal didn’t feel cold anywhere else on his body, he couldseethe effects.

Through the new goggles, he saw a projection like a computer-generated overlay, ice blue and swirling like mist. Reaching only as far as the edges of the containment box, it surrounded him in a perfect circle.

Mal reached out slowly toward the ring of cold, stopping when he felt a definite drop in temperature. Pulling his hand back, he grinned at Priestly through the glass.

“Just you wait,” Priestly said as he strode over to the table with the other cuff and pulled a long-stemmed violet-colored flower from the vase.

“I can’t see shit,” Dom complained.

“I can,” Mal said, touching his free hand to the goggles. “Augmented reality?”

“For now it’ll only show you the radius of the cold field. And the weather report if you adjust the right lens.”

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