Page 46 of Lovesick Titan

Pushing into a run, Mal spotted Danny darting around trees, avoiding Dom’s furious blasts that weren’t held back like Mal had ordered.

“I know you won’t believe me, Mal!” Danny called, hoping Mal would hear him but not seeing him, not realizing Mal was almost upon him. While he huffed as he leaned against a tree, Mal took aim. “And that’s okay! That’s okay… I just needed you to hear me say it.”

Mal stood in wait as Danny rolled to the side when another of Dom’s blasts hit the tree. The kid sprang to his feet, and Dom had aclear shot. Danny saw it coming, had all the time in the world to jump out of the way, so Mal readied himself to head him off with a blast of ice whichever direction he darted.

Only Danny didn’t. He saw Dom start to blast forward with an arc of flames, but he just stood there, waiting for the fire to consume him.

And closed his eyes.

“Danny!”

Chapter11

The flames arced toward Danny, and everything stilled into awful, agonizing slow motion as Mal realized what he was doing.

“Danny!”

As Mal blasted forward with his ice just when the first tongues of flame reached Danny’s face, the overlapping temperatures nullified each other almost instantly. But Mal had crossed powers with Dom before and knew the feedback was dangerous, risking a backlash that would send both of them reeling.

Timing his reaction as perfectly as he could, he released his powers before the eruption could happen, and instead of a shockwave, a slight push from the fizzle of fire and ice was all that reached him, making him stumble as the bright light of their abilities disappeared and left the woods that much darker.

“Hey!” Dom roared, unsure what had happened. She and Mal were still on their feet, but Danny had crumbled to his knees. He’d been hit—point blank, however briefly—before Mal could intervene.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Mal stormed across the space that separated them.

Danny shifted to face him, shaking, one hand hovering near the side of his cheek that—shit—looked like mincemeat along his jawline where his mask had been burned away. He’d heal, but that had to sting and could have been so much worse if Mal hadn’t stepped in to save him.

Mal hadn’t meant the worst of his threats. He’d just wanted to push Danny, to watch him snap, to see his true face again, he didn’t…he’d never imagined…

Tearing his gaze from Mal to stare at the ground, Danny shook from the pain but was unable to do anything about it. He dropped both hands like an exhale. “I’m done,” he said. “I’mdone. Do whatever you want to me.”

“Fine by me,” Dom growled as she stalked forward.

“Dom.” Mal’s tone allowed no argument, a clear threat. “Get out of here. Now. Wait by the car.”

Dom rose up taller, the spark for a fight between them easily kindled, but she wasn’t angry at Mal. She was angry on hisbehalf, which only made her more dangerous. Mal didn’t feed into the fight. He shook his head, letting a hint of pleading enter his gaze through the stern warning.

Releasing a howl of frustration, Dom made Danny flinch in expectation of another blast of fire, but he didn’t make any attempt to move from where he knelt. She stomped off despite her fury, right toward Mal to head to the car. As she passed by, she didn’t say anything, merely pushed up her mask to frown at Mal and gave him a pointed look.

Fool me once…

Mal knew that, but none of this had turned out the way he planned.

Slowly, all tense nerves and anger but with concern flowing through him that he hadn’t expected, Mal circled closer to Danny. As Dom headed away, Danny glanced after her, and seeing that he and Mal were alone, he pulled the cowl from his face with a grimace at the skin that tore, burnt to the mask from the blast. It was only the left side that had been hit, beneath his cheekbone, along his jaw, and slightly down his neck, but it wasn’t pretty.

Danny sat back on his heels and looked up at Mal with all the fight drained out of him. “I can’t do this anymore,” he said, tears in his eyes from the pain or maybe from the emotions choking him.

Mal’s hands were still iced over as he approached, and Danny closed his eyes like he was waiting for Mal to…

Never before had Mal loathed having powers like his father more than he did now. The rage he’d expected to find in Danny,countedon finding, surged up in him instead, and for one brief moment he wanted to snatch Danny up by the front of his suit and slam him into the tree behind him.

But Danny’s eyes opened and looked at Mal again, his burnt face blistered and terrible, yellow eyes glimmering, and Mal knew he was never going to see what he’d been waiting for.

“Get up,” he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “Getup!” he called louder when Danny didn’t move.

The blank expression on Danny’s face was too pitiable, so when he still wouldn’t move, Mal lurched forward to grab Danny’s arm and force him to his feet. He gripped Danny’s chin with a chilled but no longer icy hand, his thumb careful around the burnt flesh as he turned Danny’s face aside to assess the damage.

“Do you think this is what I want?” he said, before drawing his hand away because he couldn’t stomach Danny cringing at his touch.

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