Page 99 of Lovesick Titan

The others looked around with varied expressions of skepticism and excitement, but Danny would not be deterred. This was their best chance. It would work. It had to work.

“Let’s say all goes to plan,” Shan said. “We set the trap up out of town, lure Ludgate in, you—and I assume Drake and Cho?”

“If you’re willing,” Danny looked to Dom, who grunted like that was a stupid question. “But no one else,” he turned to the others.

“Excuse me?” Lucy said. “I know Mickey and Dom have the amplifiers, but my powers—”

“Aren’t going to do us any good in the mirror world,” Mal challenged her. “It’ll just add more fodder for Ludgate, more chances to screw up, when we need your powers here to make sure he stays put once we get him out. Oz won’t do us any good in there either. We can better control the situation between the three of us, while you two protect everybody else and wait for us to do our job.”

Lucy bristled, ready to argue, but Oz seemed perfectly content to be left out of the front lines. Instead of railing back, Lucy stood down with a tighter cross of her arms.

“Fine,” Shan said, “so what do the rest of us do?”

“Well—” Danny was cut off by the chime of his cell phone, which…who could be calling him when everyone was here? Everyone except…

Danny’s eyes darted around the room at those gathered, then at his phone as he pulled it from his pocket, heart jumping into his throat when he saw the name flashing on the screen.

“Dad!” he answered in a rush. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you weren’t here. Are you upstairs? We—”

“My, my, Zeus…” a voice interrupted that wasnotDanny’s father. “If I actually was Grant Senior, how’d I get a word in edgewise with the way you run your mouth?”

“Ludgate,” Danny snarled, a chill coursing through him as everyone’s eyes snapped his direction. “What have you done with my father?”

Chapter26

Ludgate’s laughter sounded over the line.

The shiver of cold Danny felt before burned hot as he clutched his cell phone tighter. “If you’ve doneanythingto him…”

“Calm down, Zeus. We’re just passing the time, real friendly like. See?”

“Danny?” came John’s voice, gruff and weak.

“Dad!”

“Don’t listen to him! Don’t fall for—” but he cut off abruptly, and Danny imagined Ludgate kicking him or striking him, which only made him angrier.

His eyes locked on Mal across the room. The similar coldness he found there, the firm set to Mal’s jaw, made him feel justified in that moment for wanting Ludgate’s head on a platter. “What do you want, Hades? I know what this is about. You think you have to hurt him to get back at me for killingyourfather. Isn’t that right?”

Ludgate huffed a laugh. “Finally figured it out, huh?”

“Enough markers prove you have to be related. Him being your father makes sense—Cassius DougalJunior. That’s why you hate being calledLudgate. Because your father never accepted you. Maybe because he was an Elemental and up until recently, you weren’t. What a disappointment you must have been.”

Ludgate roared, “And it’s because of you he’ll never see me at my true potential!”

“Your father caused that explosion, not me,” Danny fired back, “and you still blame me for your powers?”

“The explosion? I didn’t Awaken from the explosion. Oh, it trapped me inside the mirror world, pushed me in before I was ready, but I was stuck there, unable to get out, only capable of watching. And do you know what I saw? Your fight with my father.”

Danny’s stomach sank. Knowing he’d killed Thanatos was one thing, but Ludgatesawit?

“The closest reflections looked right out at you as you murdered him in cold blood.That’swhat sparked my Awakening. That’s why you’re to blame and who I have to thank. Sothank you, Zeus. I hope I can pay you back in full.”

A cry sounded from the line—Johnand whatever Ludgate was doing to him.

“Stop! If you hurt him…” Danny clutched the phone tighter.

“Let’s move on to negotiation, Zeus. You’re working on a plan? Probably to trap me or lock me out of the mirror world again? So, tell me, do you have some new reflective surfaces for me to invade?”

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