Amanda Meuwissen

Heroes aren't meant to act like their villains -- or fall in love with them. The elements touch everyone on Earth -- Fire, Water, even Light -- but every so often someone becomes more attuned to their elemental leaning and develops true power. When an evil Elemental known as Thanatos arrived in Olympus City, it saw the rise of its first hero -- Zeus. But the death toll caused by defeating Thanatos changed Zeus, who by day is young detective Danny Grant. It's been six months since Thanatos terrorized the city at the start of Lovesick Gods. Danny should be used to his duty behind the mask, but the recent past haunts him. His girlfriend left him, he snaps at the barest provocation, his life feels empty -- he needs an outlet, any outlet to pull him out of his depression. Enter notorious thief Malcolm Cho, the Ice Elemental Prometheus. There was a time when Danny welcomed a fight with Cho, filled with colorful banter and casual flirtations that were a relief compared to Thanatos. Even as a criminal, Cho had recognized the threat Thanatos posed and promised to help Danny stop him, but the day Danny needed Cho, he never showed. Cho was the reason so many people died that day -- including Danny's mother. Danny decides to teach the man a lesson and fan the fire of their attraction into something more. At worst, he'll get some no-strings-attached sex out of the deal and finally blow off steam; at best, he'll get Cho to fall in love with him and then break his heart to spite him. Danny doesn't expect to fall for Cho in the process, and he certainly can't predict the much darker threat on the horizon.

Lovesick Gods

Mal huffed. “He can’t reach through something that small, even if he can still watch us.” He realized then that if they’d left one mirror whole, it might have given them the chance to force Ludgate out of it, but this was better. They needed time to regroup. 


I’m not like him, I’m not like him, I’m not like—


Ludgate’s laughter chilled Danny to the bone, worse than being caught in Cho’s cold field. He tried to shake off the image from the mirror, but those black eyes had hit too close to home. Especially after he’d tumbled into madness so easily again, attacking Cho without proof other than hearsay. Because it made him angry. Because he was angry.


Now he felt numb and hollowed out again, and he just wanted it to go away so he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. 


“Danny…” Cho’s voice cut through Ludgate’s laughter, not by volume, but by the sheer terror in his tone. Cho never sounded like that.


Chapter 96