Roaring at being denied his favorite plaything, more glass broke as Thanatos’s shadows exploded out of him, raining shards down upon the empty street. Lucy backed up closer against Mal with a tremble, but Oz didn’t abandon them to be discovered. He returned and one by one took each of them away—Dom, Lucy, and finally Mal himself.
Gasping at the sensation of suddenly being elsewhere, Mal saw that they were in another alley, but not near their getaway vehicle—that would have been too risky. Oz had brought them all the way back to Mal’s neighborhood, near a safe house, but not so close that Zeus would be tipped off to its location.
Because Zeus stood among them.
“Are you okay?” Oz asked, helping Zeus lean against the brick of the building.
Too beaten to reply, Zeus eventually huffed out a feeble, “Thanks.”
Mal didn’t know what to do in such odd mixed company. Banter seemed in poor taste after seeing that woman’s body.
“If this job…was just running afteryou…” Zeus panted and shook his head with a bitter laugh. He glanced dismissively at their bags of loot. “Buthe’sout there too. Hurting people. Killing people. Someone needs to pick up the pieces when innocents get caught in the middle. I don’t even know who that woman was.” He choked out another humorless laugh, not caring that all four Elemental Titans surrounded him. “Sorry if I don’t feel like playing tonight, Ice Man. Guess you get a free shot if you want it. Can’t take on all of you...”
Stepping forward to take Oz’s place in front of Zeus, Mal noted that the man didn’t even flinch. “Where’d the fun be in that, Sparky?” he said and gestured that Zeus was free to go. Dom and Lucy gave no complaints—they wouldn’t—but Oz stood tense, conflicted by what had happened.
Zeus picked up on it when he pushed from the wall and started to trudge out of the alley. “I understand them,” he said to Oz. “I know why they do this. But why do you? You were a medical student once, Percy.”
Oz still wore his mask, but Mal could tell his eyes widened. “How do you know that?”
Zeus wore his mask too. Mal didn’t know the man’s face yet, but he imagined he smiled. “I’m good at solving puzzles. Your father died with mountains of debt you couldn’t pay off. You were desperate, I get that. But these heists with Cho have made you enough to start over. We could use a few more good guys in this city.”
Any other night Mal would have spoken up to counter that, but tonight he couldn’t find the words.
“Thanks for the assist,” Zeus nodded at Oz, then at each of the others, and finally landed his attention on Mal, not knowing that Oz had acted alone. “Almost forgot we were enemies for a minute.”
Taking in a deep breath, Zeus summoned enough strength to lightning jump away and was gone in a shimmer of yellow.
Oz took his mask off right there in the alley and never put it on again.
ß
Now, Mal knew that the reason Danny was so good at solving puzzles was because he was a detective. He’d chosen to give Oz a pass despite having learned his identity. In this case, that gamble had paid off.
“I’ll go put that order in,” Carla said with a warm smile.
Mal watched her leave with fondness that he quickly covered up when Lucy grinned at him. Oz had introduced them to his nursing school friend when the trouble first started—or at least when Oz learned how bad things were.
He’d asked them to escort Carla and her son Michael to the abuse shelter in Mal’s neighborhood because her ex was on the rampage. Having Oz owe him and the chance to getHermesback in the field were enticing incentives on their own, but barely thirty seconds of the story and who it involved had won Mal over to the benefits of lending a hand.
“Does she know?” Mal turned serious as he looked to the others.
“That Sean was in the neighborhood the other day?” Oz said. “No. Why worry her?”
“She’s not supposed to get overly stressed,” Lucy said. “It’s bad for the baby.”
“Look who’s the expert all of a sudden.” Mal smirked at her.
Oz chuckled. There was no strain between them since he’d chosen to leave the Titans. “Wish I could join you, but I just stopped in to see Carla before class. You two take care.” He made to follow after Carla into the kitchen.
“You sure I can’t interest you in an upcoming business proposal?” Mal folded his hands on the tabletop. He knew what the answer would be, but he still had to ask.
“Maybe next time,” Oz grinned.
Lucy kicked Mal under the table once he’d walked away. “Stress isn’t good for anyone, Mickey. That’s just common sense. And Sean’s being bold.Stupid. At first he had other goons with him, but lately it’s just been him. Sure, we know his father wants him to wash his hands of Carla and back off so as not to piss offyou, but if you take the idiot out sometime in the near future, we’ll have a war on our hands no matter who shoots first.”
“I’m aware.” Mal took a sip of his coffee. Usually at Haven, it was sludge, but Carla had a knack for making do with what she had. “I’ll take care of it. Sean was lucky he didn’t run intome.”
“Mickey…”
