“Still acing every exam,” Carla said. “That man’s gonna have his RN license before you know it.”
“Hey now,” a new voice interrupted them, “you’d have me beat in no time if you didn’t have to pull back for maternity leave.”
Oswald “Oz” Percy, or as the public had once known him,Hermes, walked over from the entrance toward Mal and Lucy’s table. As an Air Elemental capable of teleporting anywhere in the blink of an eye, he’d been one of the few people who could give Zeus a run for his money. Zeus either needed to see where he was going or to have been to a location before in order to jump there. He also got exhausted from overusing that part of his powers. Teleporters like Oz could get worn out as well but only after far more extended use.
Stopping at Carla’s side, Oz offered her a kiss on the cheek. He’d been a down-on-his-luck first-time offender when Mal stumbled upon him, an Elemental in hiding who’d been pushed to reveal himself with petty thefts just to make ends meet. Now he was only a few night classes away from being a registered nurse—and the onlyformermember of the Titans.
Oz’s green eyes stood out against his dark skin, darker than Carla’s, with closely cropped hair and neatly trimmed scruff on his face. He was tall and might have been imposing, but his bright, toothy smile often negated that, which was maybe why he hadn’t worked out as a thief. He’d never wanted to play supervillain. Mal had made a concerted effort to change his mind, but in the end, Zeus had been more persuasive.
Though Thanatos had played his part too.
ß
Months ago, on what ended up being Oz’s last night with the Titans, Mal had decided to aim for a different sort of target, a little of Olympus City’s high life, and steal some of the prizedjewelry from the CEO of the Opera House. She kept her most valuable pieces in a safe behind her desk at work.
The Opera House had no security guards and very few alarms to thwart. A moment of concentration from Lucy and the touch of her hand to a wall was all it took to grow vines up through the foundation and into the walls, shorting out the security system. But even with minimal challenge, the payoff was big enough to make the evening worthwhile once Mal cracked the safe. His ice and a swift kick handled that. He might not have even needed the rest of his team, but he knew Lucy would want her pick of the jewelry before he found buyers, and Dom wanted something to torch. The CEO’s office once they had the goods was fine by Mal. Easily contained, with no one in the building to worry about casualties.
Only Dom didn’t get the chance. Oz blinked into existence first. He was their lookout, a perfectly suited position for someone who could be on the street corner one second and two feet away from Mal the next.
“Something’s coming,” he announced when he appeared. His Hermes costume was all black with yellow trim like the antithesis of Zeus. He was also the only Titan who wore a mask.
“Police?” Mal asked while Dom and Lucy loaded up the bags with jewelry.
“Something else.”
The fear in Oz’s voice was apparent; Mal didn’t need further explanation to know that whatever was coming involved another Elemental. “Let’s go.”
Dom shot out a parting flicker of flames to set the papers on the desk ablaze, but that was all they had time for. As a group, they quickly made for the exit. Oz could only teleport one person at a time; it wasn’t practical to make a getaway like that unless there was no other choice.
The quiet seemed to ease Oz as they reached the street. “Maybe I was wrong. Thought I felt something,” he said with an exhale. “Whatever it was must have detoured.”
Mal glanced around the empty streets to be sure. Their getaway vehicle was in an alley a few blocks down and they’d be home free. A heist wasn’t as fun anymore without Zeus dropping in, but the night had still been productive.
“Relax, Hermes,” Lucy said as they hurried down the street. “You’re a little tightly wound for someone who’s supposed to be a breeze.”
Oz laughed, but Mal couldn’t latch onto the humor with the others. It was too easy walking the streets like this with no one around. Almost eerie. “What can I say, Gaia? Sometimes I think I’m meant for more than committing felonies.”
Mal’s senses were buzzing, distracting him from moving as swiftly as he would have preferred in the midst of a heist. Detoured or not, somethingwascoming.
“Don’t ya have fun with us, Houdini?” Dom asked, in good spirits despite not getting to burn the office fully.
Chuckling once more at the common nickname, Oz remained oblivious to the remaining danger while Mal was on high alert. Just as Oz started to answer Dom’s question, Mal looked behind them and finally caught sight of the presence he’d been feeling—the encroaching darkness of a growing shadow as though from a building that didn’t exist.
“Cover! Now!”
Grabbing onto Lucy, closest in front of him, Mal dragged her toward the nearest alley. They were still one block from the alley they needed. There wasn’t time. Dom was right on their heels, but she turned back to grab Oz when he froze in place on the sidewalk. They made it to safety just as the fight spilled onto the street in front of them.
Zeus came first with a crack of lightning and bright glowing tumble of white and gold until he rolled to a stop like he’d been thrown. Then the shadows caught up to him, toeverywhere, as tendrils of something blacker than the void appeared to herald Thanatos’s arrival.
He hovered as though flying, though whether his shadows buoyed him or the tendrils acted like spider legs to hold him up, Mal could never be sure. He was truly godlike in his sleek black and purple suit, face covered with only his eyes visible. His presence made Zeus seem small and fragile by comparison.
Struggling to get to his feet as Thanatos approached, Zeus was clearly hurt, weakened and limping, with tears in his suit. He should be retreating, but he stood his ground. Mal soon saw why.
Several tendrils snaked out of the darkness that trailed behind Thanatos like a backdrop of starless sky. They coiled around the body of a woman and unrolled slowly until she dropped from their clutches, limp like a ragdoll. It was awful how purple she looked, dead from his shadows choking her like so many people before her.
Thanatos stretched out his tendrils of darkness and raked them through the buildings on either side of the street, cutting the glass like blades. The civilian was dead. Zeus had no reason to stay. Watching him flicker as he tried to lightning jump to safety, Mal saw his nemesis falter, fail, and fall to his knees in exhaustion. He’d waited too long to make an escape.
Hesitant to do something that might gain Thanatos’s attention, Mal shook his head at Lucy and Dom when they turned to him for guidance, but Oz was the one at the mouth of the alley. He looked at the woman’s body, at Zeus vulnerable and at Thanatos’s mercy, and before Mal could tell him to stop,it wasn’t worth it, Oz was gone. He teleported to Zeus and fled with him in the blink of an eye.
