Lurching to get away, Danny tried once, twice, and finally on the third time his reflection released him and he tumbled back from the momentum. He expected to hit the mirror behind him, but when he fell, he toppled through it and kept falling. Blackness surrounded him, and he heard one last taunting phrase before he felt an impact.
“Be seeing you.”
“Danny!”
Pulling away from the hands that seized him, Danny fought with a wild swing that he knew would be feeble. He was so tired and hurting andsorry—
“Danny,” Cho’s voice cut through the rushing in his ears. He felt gentle hands close over his wrists where a moment before had been something harsh and cruel. Blinking past the blur of tears in his eyes, Danny saw that it was Mal,it was Mal.
He sobbed as he collapsed forward. They were on the ground together in the alley, Cho’s duster still around Danny’s shoulders, while so much of both of them was bruised and bloody and sore. But Danny would heal. He always healed.
“Danny, it’s okay. You’re okay. What did he do to you?”
Jerking upright, Danny saw the suit. Visible. Shimmering at him. He wanted to tear it into pieces, but he didn’t dare touch it.
“We have to turn it on,” Cho said.
“No.”
“Danny—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Danny huddled in Cho’s arms. “He won’t use it again, not tonight. He doesn’t want to kill me anymore. He wants to do worse.”
For a moment, as Cho held him, Danny wondered what Ludgate would do to the infamous Prometheus. But he already knew. Ludgate didn’t need to do anything. Danny was enough. Danny was a poison—a virus. He’d ruin Cho all on his own.
“Mal…what color are my eyes?”
“What?”
“My eyes…” Danny looked at him, into Cho’s brilliant blue, which were bright and beautiful even in the dark, even dazed and broken after such a long night.
Cho held one side of Danny’s face and brushed away his tears. “They’re yellow, Sparky. They’re always yellow.”
“And now?” Danny asked, summoning his powers, which made his heart stutter from overuse but also made him afraid that he was summoning something dark inside of him.
“Just brighter gold,” Cho said, marveling at what he saw. “Like your lightning.”
Releasing the breath he’d been holding, Danny fell forward against Cho as he let his power slacken. It was just a reflection. It was just a reflection…
“Danny, are you there?!”
A gasp left Danny at Andre’s voice sounding so close. It was coming from the suit.
“Danny, if you’re there,” Lynn spoke next, “stay where you are. We’ve almost tracked you.”
Before, Danny had worried about Ludgate trying to hurt his friends, had thought up so many terrifying scenarios for how the Elemental might torture and stalk them. Now he believed the man had different plans, but he still didn’t want Andre and Lynn to find him. He almost wished Cho wasn’t there either,witnessing him falling apart—again—but he didn’t want to let the thief go.
“You should answer them,” Cho said. “If you’re sure Ludgate won’t come after you tonight, you should—”
“No…” Danny shook his head. “Please. I just want to get out of here. I don’t want them to see me like this.”
“Danny, if they’re close, I’m not fast enough to get you out of here before they reach us. Can you jump one more time?”
“Yeah…I think so.”
“Then go home, kid. Just go home. I’ll—”
“No.” Danny pressed his hands to Cho’s chest and shook his head as fiercely as he could. But when his hands brushed Cho’s goggles hanging from his neck, he recoiled. The lenses. Ludgate couldn’t get to them through something so small, but he could hear them. He couldwatch.
