Page 87 of Lovesick Titan

“Down?”

“Captain Shan closed off more of the basement,” Stella said, “so we could use part of the garage to make the trap.”

“We have tons of space down there,” Joey jumped in. “And actually…I was gonna…” He gestured down the hallway with a hopeful bite of his lip.

“Go,” Carla called, easily overhearing as she rocked Mai. “I got this. Feeding time anyway. Thanks for showing us around, Joey.”

“My pleasure. See you soon, big man!” he called to Michael.

“You’re not going too, are you, Zeus?” Michael pouted as he came forward with his Prometheus doll in one hand and a similar yarn replica of Zeus in the other.

“I can stay,” Danny said, nodding for Joey and Stella to go on without him.

“Michael, I’m sure Danny has places to be,” Carla said, sitting in a cushy chair and positioning Mai to feed her.

“It’s okay. I can play for a few minutes.”

There was something very surreal about playing with a doll of himself while his young companion played with a figure of Danny’s…well, nemesis no longer seemed adequate to sum up what they were to each other. Danny thought of what Lucy had said—maybeboyfriendswouldn’t be so bad.

Danny gave Michael twenty minutes of undivided attention and even got to hold Mai for a bit after she’d been fed and was contentedly sleepy. She didn’t have her brother’s big blue eyes, but green—like Oz. Then Danny said farewell—“Just for now, I promise”—and continued his mission to find Mal.

He found Lynn first.

“Hey!” he called, lightning jumping forward to steady the box she’d been about to drop, far too large to attempt to carry with only one arm. She’d almost made it to the elevator leading to the garage by balancing it on her hip but lost it when she reached for the down button.

“Just trying to be useful,” she said with pursed lips as Danny took the box and set it on the floor. “Something Andre said he needed for what they’re working on downstairs. A broken arm is not enough to take me out of commission, thank you.”

Danny felt suddenly nauseous for how she’d been taking care of him all morning—and last night—but no one was taking care of her.

“I’m fine,” she said softly, coaxing him to look at her instead of the space between them. “Really. Almost went thirty-five years without breaking a bone. I was overdue.”

Danny’s eyes felt hot. Here she was again, the girl who never smiled, offering a smile to him and trying to cheer him up when she was hurting too.

He moved toward Lynn’s body rather than retreat into the dark, lonely places inside of him and gently, careful of her arm in the cast, pulled her against him for a hug. “I’m sorry he did this to you. And that he did it pretending he was me. It must have been so scary. He made me watch all of it, and I…I heard youscream…”

“Danny.” She hugged back as best she could. “I know it’s hard to think of it this way now, when it’s all still so fresh, but I hope you realize how much this proves you are nothing like him or like Thanatos. Ludgate tried to personify everything you were afraid of becoming, but you never fell to that yourself. You were angry. And sad. And you did things you regret. But you fought to be better because…that’s just the way you are. Against all odds, you always do everything you can to help others. There aren’t many people like that.”

Squeezing him tighter, she said, “I’m sorry that, for a moment, I believed he was you. But we never believed you’d become that willingly. We thought he’d brainwashed you. We knew the real you would never act like that. And Cho, he…he didn’t doubt you for a moment. When the details didn’t add up, he knew it wasn’t you.”

Danny smiled against her shoulder before pulling away. “Wouldn’t be a worthy nemesis if he wasn’t clever,” he said, not trying to hide his sorrows, just striving to push past them.

Lynn gave a light chuckle, but her eyes darted past Danny and she startled. Leaning toward him with her eyes trained over his shoulder, she whispered, “Did you know you have a shadow?”

“Huh?” Danny spun around, assuming it was Michael having followed him, which definitely made it more jarring when he caught the outline ofDominique Drake. Dom ducked out of view at having been spotted, but Danny wasn’t fooled.

“What’s with the tail?” he called.

Grudgingly, Dom stepped into the open and continued toward them. Despite Danny being certain she didn’t mean them any harm, shealways projected a sense of menace with her large stature and prominent scowl, which could be even scarier when accompanied by a grin.

“Wait,” Danny turned to stand parallel with Lynn, “were you actually following me? For how long? Why?”

“Don’t get trigger happy, Spark Plug, Doc. No ulterior motives. Mal’s just an idiot,” Dom grumbled. “Wanted space, he said, but didn’t like the idea of leavin’ you alone.”

“He…” He’d asked Dom to follow Danny to make sure he was safe?

Dom didn’t wait for Danny to find his tongue but bent to pick up the neglected box. “Ya goin’ down or what?” she said and pushed the button for the elevator.

“Thank you, Ms. Drake,” Lynn said.

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