Page 73 of Lovesick Titan

“Didn’t ask for your opinion, Christopher,” Mal spread frost up Stantz’s shirt again, causing his mouth to snap shut. “I ask a question, you answer. That’s how this works. Got it?”

Stantz nodded frantically.

“Good. So…” he inclined his head.

“Right! O-Okay. He…he was obsessed! Cracked. Thought there was a wayinsidereflections. Always said he’d find some way to the ‘mirror world’, whatever that meant. That’s why he wanted a job at the glassworks. He was the best we ever had at making frames, fixing imperfections, but his real passion was in reflections themselves. He was obsessed with Elementals too. Said if he couldn’t jumpstart his Awakening, he’d harness power another way so everyone would see him. Always set things up in the back room after hours like some psycho fun house.”

“Did he ever mention any success with his experiments?” Mal asked.

“No. Never. Said that if he did succeed, he wouldn’t dare use that knowledge until he figured out a way to anchor himself. Said the mirror world would be impossible to navigate. That going in would be suicide because if he got lost, he wouldn’t know which reflection connected where or how to get home.”

“So, the night of the power station explosion—”

“That’s the last time I saw him!” Stantz cried.

Mal smiled, unamused. “I’m aware. Word has it he was at the circus that night, likely to go to the fun house to get a look at their mirrors, wouldn’t you agree?”

“P-Probably,” Stantz stammered, then seemed to put two and two together, and his eyes widened. “Wait…you don’t think he figured it out, do you? To get inside mirrors? Is that how he’s been doing all these robberies?” He glanced fearfully at the closed door beside him that led into what was obviously a horror show when a psycho who could travel through reflections was on the loose. “Oh god…”

Stepping away, Mal let his hand drop from being pressed to the wall beside Stantz’s head but kept his other hand forward. “Consider yourself lucky he’s moved onto bigger and better targets. Now…anything else you never shared with the police?”

Stantz continued to stare at the door. When he didn’t answer, Mal let the frost creep out to stress his impatience, and Stantz snapped to attention. “N-No…I swear. Everything else, the police know. It just didn’t seem important to mention the mirrors.”

“Well, that’s what OCPD gets for not divulging their new Elemental of the week’s power set to the public, isn’t it? Might have changed your tune if you’d heard the theories. Of course, Ludgate says his power isn’t to travelthroughmirrors, which means he did figure it out before the explosion. His powers are what ground him…” Mal let his words drift as he considered what that might mean.

Ludgate had said as much himself, told Danny his power was how he could survive in the mirror world, not how he got there, and now Mal knew how deeply Ludgate’s obsession with mirrors went—even if he didn’t knowwhy. What he needed to find out was what ‘grounding him’ entailed and how to disrupt it.

“Are you gonna k-kill me?” Stantz asked, bringing Mal back to the moment.

Looking the man up and down, Mal figured he might have a few skeletons hidden somewhere, but likely benign ones, so he held his gaze a moment, then pulled his hand back. “Much obliged for your time, Mr. Stantz,” he said, patting the man’s shoulder. “But…” he added as his friendly pat turned into an icy grip, “if I think of anything else or find out you were keeping something from me…”

Stantz gulped.

“…I’ll be back.”

R

Mal found Priestly at the computer when he returned to the safe house, with Dom and Lucy bookending him like sentinels over his shoulders.

“Oz, join us now,” Mal called over the comms. His voice made all of them turn, and their expressions were not favorable.

Oz popped in between Mal and the group at the computer.

“Problem?” Mal prompted them.

Oz seemed confused, but Lucy, Dom, and Priestly exchanged pinched expressions. They quickly reported that none of them had anything new to share about the Grant family or Rivers and Vaughn, though Priestly had a line on Danny’s location—currently eating lunch at a burger joint, which in and of itself wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

“When he’s off the grid—and this is Zeus we’re talking about, so he’s usually off—I’m guessing he’s at his hideout. When he’s out and about, he just seems to be…enjoying himself. And he was definitely enjoying himself last night.” Eyeing Mal meaningfully, Priestly turned back to the computer, which everyone gathered around.

He brought up surveillance footage from several businesses around Olympus City after closing time last night. Hanson’s Jewelers. A credit union. A goddamndollar store—which in all fairness did tend to house a lot of cash. All of them showed Zeus—caught clearly on each location’s camera just minutes apart even though they were blocks away from each other—stealingeverything he could get his leather-clad hands on.

The sight of it shook Mal; even though he’d already known something was seriously wrong with Danny, seeing him brought tothis—Ludgate was going to pay. He had to be controlling Danny somehow. At least he could have had Danny rob those places stealthily. Mal would be lying if he said he’d never envisioned what it might be like to have Danny on his side for a heist, but Ludgate wanted Danny caught on camera. Wanted him discredited. Ruined.

What could he possibly have done to get Danny to do all this? Had he really twisted his mind into that of his dark reflection?

“And these are just the three that recorded him, though they haven’t shared the footage with anyone other than the OCPD,” Priestly said. “Official reports state that none of the owners think it’s really Zeus, must be an imposter, but it’s only a matter of time before they realize it’s him and this hits the press, especially if he keeps at it tonight.”

“We don’t have enough to go on.” Mal stepped away, beginning a slow pace in front of the others. “Our powers can preoccupy Zeus, butif he’s unchecked, he could be out for blood. He’d be too dangerous to face head on.”

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