“Danny, listen to me,” Mal gripped Danny’s hand. “You are nothing like Thanatos.”
“You don’t know what I’m like,” Danny sneered, trying to wrench his hand away.
“I think I do. Better than most.”
When Mal wouldn’t release him, after several more half-hearted tugs, Danny gave up, mouth turning sharply downward, face red and blotchy with imminent tears. He opened his mouth and looked at Mal as if there was something terribly important he had to tell him, but he gave up on that too.
“There’s one thing still bothering me,” Mal said.
“Only one?”
“Ludgate, what he said at the museum—that he owes you. What did he mean?”
“I don’t know,” Danny’s brow furrowed in frustration. “It all seems so personal but I don’t know why. I’ve never met him before. His real name is Cassius Dougal Junior. I don’t knowhimeither. It doesn’t make sense. I’m just sotired,” he said with a bone-deep heaviness. “Of everything. Of me.”
The defeat in those words shook Mal. There was a time when he wanted nothing more than to see this man brought low. But now he knew him. Even before he did, he never would have wantedthis.
Mal knew tired. And beaten down. He knew defeat as though the world would never let him win. He had made his own rules to conquer that a long time ago, but Danny made him break almost all of them.
“Then we’ll rest,” Mal said. “And we’ll sleep. And we’ll figure this out. I do have a diamond to reclaim, after all.”
Danny laughed, a sudden eruption that was sad and broken but grateful. “Whatever you say, Cho.”
Mal didn’t knowwhatto say, but he didn’t think more words would be enough, not now. Coaxing Danny to lean toward him,even though it strained his sore ribs, Mal arched up to meet the kid halfway for a soft kiss. His lip stung, but he didn’t care. “It’s Mal.”
“Right,” Danny puffed a breath. “Mal.”
Their loss tonight didn’t feel like a loss with Danny next to him.
Mal couldn’t have said when they fell asleep after that, right there on the sofa in the same positions they’d started in. He only knew that when he roused, it was to the sound of clattering and vibrations. He’d always been a light sleeper.
Blinking at his phone within reach on the coffee table, Mal quickly snatched it up and glared at the number. Unknown. Panic seized him as he wondered if it was Ludgate. His phone’s screen was reflective, wasn’t it? Did that matter? Did it have to be glass instead of plastic? Mal grimaced at the swirl of fear in his belly.
The call ended but immediately started up again.
Moving swiftly, Mal lifted his legs out of Danny’s hold. The kid frowned in his sleep and tried to turn toward him, so Mal guided Danny to lie down in his place when he stood.
“Who is this?” Mal answered sharply once he’d walked a safe distance across the room. At least nothing tilted around him, but his head still throbbed.
“Oh thankgod,” came the voice on the other end. It was Vaughn. “Dude, I know it’s the middle of the night, but I was going out of mymind. What took you so long?”
“How did you get this number?”
“Lucy.”
“Lucy—”
“It’s a long story, okay? She sounded pretty freaked when I told her about what happened. Or as much as I knew anyway.”
“Youtoldher…” If Mal had Ludgate’s powers in that moment, he would have reached through the phone to throttle the CSI.That was going to be a fun fallout, but at least Lucy hadn’t stormed right over to the apartment. “Zeus is safe and fine. Where things concern me, I’d prefer you stay out of it.”
“He’s finehowexactly?”
Mal pinched the bridge of his nose. “Physically fine. Just messed up over Ludgate.”
“What happened?”
“Not my place to say.”
