The rest, Danny knew, he wouldn’t have much control over, but he could at least control how Cho found out.
R
Zeus wasn’t easy to track. He moved too fast, especially when he was alone. Finding the right reflections to watch him through proved difficult. The old morgue at the downtown precinct, where Hades had initially had a lot of luck, was a bore-fest now, as Zeus’s CSI and Medical Examiner friends took to messaging each other digitally rather than speaking out loud if anything important needed to be discussed.
Zeus’s home was a bust as well. Hades could watch, listen in, but he learned nothing useful. He needed Zeus broken and isolated. Needed to escalate things with Prometheus before Zeus had the chance to tell him the truth about their charade of an affair. That was the linchpin to the entire plan to get vengeance for the death of his father—Thanatos.
Days went by and Zeus still hadn’t met up with Prometheus. He was stalling, hoping to stumble upon something with his tiny fiber of evidence and his team at the precinct, but nothing came of their researching and tests.
Prometheus, on the other hand, grew anxious. Messaged Zeus more frequently. Became more desperate to see him. Which was good, but that meant Zeus would cave soon, and if he had the chance to explain himself to Prometheus, it could ruin everything Hades had planned since the night of the heist.
Finally, an opportunity to delay Zeus’s confession presented itself.
Hades had seen Sean Dunkirk around Prometheus’s neighborhood several times. Everyone in the underworld knew Dunkirk had it out for Prometheus for keeping his wife and son away from him. Lately, Hades had caught him lurking about in some shoddy excuse for a disguise, but he wasn’t looking for his ex. No. He was waiting. Watching. When Hades next spotted Dunkirk, he followed him.
It was Friday. Prometheus had ducked out of his apartment to hit the corner store. Now he headed home, and Dunkirk tailed him. Grinning maliciously, Dunkirk watched Prometheus enter his building. All he needed now was the apartment number.
Wearing his normal street clothes, Hades smoothly stepped out of a reflection behind Dunkirk in the alley he was hiding in.
“Need a hand, friend?”
Dunkirk whirled around and reached inside his jacket, but Hades held up his hands to show they were empty.
“Relax. We both want the same thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“Prometheus, six feet under.”
Slowly, Dunkirk removed his hand from his jacket.
“I can tell you which apartment is his.”
“Yeah?” Dunkirk scowled from beneath the brim of the hat he’d pulled low to conceal his face. “And what do you want in return?”
With a grin, Hades dropped his hands to his sides. “Absolutely nothing.”
Chapter3
Danny woke up Wednesday to another text from Cho. Simple at first.
At least let me know Ludgate hasn’t snatched you up again. Would kinda put a damper on being the premier supervillain in this city if someone steals my nemesis.
Danny chuckled, and then ached for how caring Cho could be when he didn’t let his pride or bravado get in the way, however veiled by humor.I’m fine. Just busy. I’ll keep you posted.
But when Danny failed to update Cho again, because there wasn’t anything to update himon, another message came in.
If we leave the planning to you and your team, we’ll never catch Ludgate. Let me help.
Give me more time.
Be faster if we did it together.
Danny groaned. He knew what Cho was doing, but he wasn’t ready to see him. Not yet.Soon. I promise.
By the end of the day, however, Danny was still stalling. The fiber was another dead end. There was something special about it, which should have made it easier to trace, but there was no one in Olympus City who sold it and no indication that Ludgate had traveled prior to Thanatos’s defeat or any idea where he’d been since then. Danny had hoped the fiber would tell him something about the man’s whereabouts when not in the mirror world or where he’d been when he Awakened, but the fabric could have come from anywhere.
Captain Shan was no help either. Danny had John tell him on behalf of Zeus that Ludgate could travel through reflections, that he’d fought Ludgate at the museum—hewas the culprit. Danny should have expected the captain’s response.
