Chapter1
Danny stared at a bag of evidence with a tiny fiber inside of it. Work was work and had a sort of comforting monotony that made it hard to believe everything with Cassidy Ludgate—withHades—had happened only last night.
One of the drawbacks to being a detective by day and the superhero Zeus after sundown was that he already had a pile of evidence on his desk to go through from the museum heist—the heist he’d been present for. He’d initially worried that the fiber snagged from inside the Winterheart Diamond’s case would be from Malcolm Cho, his nemesis Prometheus and more recently his lover, but at a glance, the fiber appeared to be silver, from Ludgate’s suit instead.
Good. That was who needed to go down for the theft, even if Cho had originally been there to steal the diamond himself. Playing nice with Cho’s thieving ways to keep their affair going had been one thing, but now there was a bigger threat to focus on—Ludgate, like Thanatos all over again, a nightmare to terrorize the cityandDanny.
The thought of being pushed to the brink again, of becoming something he never wanted to be—a killer, amonster—made him tremble imagining the next time Ludgate might show his face.
R
After leaving Cho’s apartment, Danny had gone straight home. He’d plastered on a wary smile, prepared for the third degree from his father, only to find John nonchalantly pleased to see him.
“Hey, kiddo,” John said, rising from the breakfast table where Joey sat eating cereal in prep for school that day. “Sorry this whole Ludgate mess had to escalate with the death of that guard, but I’m glad you’re okay. Didn’t get much out of Andre other than you crashing at his place afterward.”
Andre was a good friend. Thebestfriend. He’d covered for Danny, only telling John that Ludgate was at fault and explaining Danny’s absence, but not giving the specifics that he’d spent the night with a supervillain.
Even though Danny’s accelerated healing meant he hardly had any bruises or cuts left from Ludgate’s beating in the mirror world, he felt the aches deep in his bones and moved slowly into the dining room. “Yeah, I’ll have to work double-time to pin it all on Ludgate the legal way, but we’ll get him. The last thing this city needs is another dangerous Elemental on the loose.”
Likehim, though he didn’t want to say that, he just thought it,feltit, especially as his eyes landed on Joey. He hadn’t really talked to him since his outburst the other night, revealing to the young boy that he was Zeus when he lightning jumped away in his anger over not being in the loop about his father adopting the young teen. Even though the initial apology was out of the way, work, late nights, and staying over with Cho had made it easy to avoid talking in depth. Seeing Joey and his hero-worshiping stare now was a splash of ice water down Danny’s back.
“Keep me in the loop, okay?” John said. “It’s my case too.”
“I will, Dad. I just need to take a shower before work. I’ll meet you there. Joey…” he knew he couldn’t ignore the boy, he just didn’t know what to say when he was hardly an inspiring role model right now, no matter what Joey might think, “…have a good day at school.”
Joey lit up at being addressed directly, like Danny was something worthy of amazement rather than the fear or discomfort he’d shown before now, all because Danny was supposed to be a hero, but lately, that was the last thing he felt like.
R
Shaking his head to clear away the recent memory, Danny tried to focus on the evidence. He couldn’t rely on his Elemental powers to catch Ludgate; being a detective had its place too, but his insides felt like a cavernous pit, causing him to glance down at his messenger bag by his feet where the pills Lynn had given him to help with his mood swings were pushed to the very bottom as if to hide them.
It all used to be so much easier when all that mattered was catching bad guys. When it was just Danny and Rick, two normal Lightning leaning cops. Even after Thanatos killed Rick, and Danny Awakened, it had been easier, because he had a goal, a routine of catching lesser criminals and hoping to one day end Thanatos’s reign for good. He never imagined back then that putting a stop to Thanatos would be its own nightmare and, in some ways, he’d ended up worse off.
Now, he still had to catch the bad guys and there was a new terror in town, but he felt like he had a handicap he couldn’t control wrapped up in those pills and his need of them, and he was dragging everyone down with him.
Even Cho.
Seeing Cho again would be difficult, though maybe not as difficult as facing Andre and Lynn had been.
R
The first words out of Danny’s mouth when he caught up with his team in the precinct’s old morgue had been an apology for disappearing after the heist and making them worry. He was fine. He was safe. Cho had taken care of him. Which of course led to Lynn frowning and furrowing her brow. Andre hadn’t told her anything, but now Danny had to.
“It was a dumb idea. I know that. I ran into Cho at Pronto a few weeks ago and overheard him and his sister talking about his crush on Zeus. Taking advantage of that to lose myself in something sounded better than staying miserable.” He left out that it had all been a lie for his own twisted pleasure to win Cho’s love only to crush him, but he stillfelt nauseous. The last thing he wanted was to see that disgust echoed in his friends. “After everything I’ve done, the things I’ve said, how I’ve acted, it’s no wonder I saw Thanatos’s eyes in Ludgate’s mirrors.”
“Dude, you are not like Thanatos just because you’ve been a little off lately,” Andre said. “You’re depressed, not psychotic.”
“Andre,” Lynn snapped, but Danny gave a broken laugh because he didn’t want to correct them and admit that sometimes he felt like he was both.
Holding up his hands to appease Lynn, Andre switched gears and confessed he’d known Danny was safe with Cho because he called the thief during the night. “He didn’t tell you?”
“I didn’t give him the chance to,” Danny said. “I can’t believe you talked to him. He wasn’t upset you got his number from Lucy?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Andre cringed, “but he didn’t swear vengeance on all my friends and family.He’snot Thanatos either.”
Bile polluted the taste in Danny’s mouth. How had he ever believed Cho could be like Thanatos?
“Danny…” Lynn said, ready with a lecture about sleeping with the enemy, no doubt, which was part of why Danny had hoped she’d never find out.
