Page 60 of Patron of Mercy

Thanatos’s smile was pure, sweet indulgence as he leaned in and brushed his lips across Lach’s. “You’re kind of loud.”

Lach rolled his eyes, but what could he say to that? Hephaestus was so reclusive that he was one of the few gods that Lach hadn’t actually met. If Thanatos could get more intel from him on his own, then they should split up.

“Fine. You can go alone. I’ll see if Martina needs any help with her research.”

Thanatos grimaced.

“What?” Lach asked.

“Nothing. I just—maybe you should do some research on your own.”

“That’s ridiculous. Way more doors open for Martina Paget than they do for me. She gets thegoodprimary source material. I’ll be stuck trolling Wikipedia all day.”

“And while you’re with her, are you going to tell her all the secrets of the universe?” Thanatos asked.

“Do I know any?”

“You know a lot more than you think you do.”

Lach’s frown was deep. He’d shared his secrets with mortals before, and Thanatos was right—it’d bitten him in the ass. But this was different.

“She can’t do what we need her to if she doesn’t know what we’re after, Thanatos.”

“She knew too much. Way too fast. If I asked you to believe in the gods—our gods—for the first time ever, would you be able to pick it up like that? She was talking about Zeus like he’s real.”

“Heisreal.”

“She shouldn’t know that.”

Lach shrugged. “Martina’s smart. And we were talking in hypotheticals. This is probably some kind of thought exercise for her, and in the morning, she’ll have somebody lock me up for spouting nonsense.”

Thanatos continued to look skeptical, so Lach cupped his cheek. “It’s fine,” he mumbled, satisfied when Thanatos closed the distance between them.

If he’d had his way, Lach would’ve coaxed him back to their room and said they could work it out in the morning. But there was time for that after, when they’d found the scythe, fixed the crops, and had nothing left to worry about but getting to know each other again.

Thanatos’s hand carded through Lach’s hair, combing it back from his face. “Can you make it back to the hotel on your own?”

“I think I’ll manage. Ihavesurvived a few thousand years on my own,” Lach said. Maybe he should’ve been affronted, but after being shot and losing Mis, it was nice to have someone worry about him.

“I honestly don’t know how.” Thanatos kissed his cheek, and in a shiver of air, he was gone, and Lach was left to see what trouble he could stir up at a dig site before lunch.

Fathers and Sons

For all that it was a part of Hades, Hephaestus’s lair was loud and bright. It was to be expected of a blacksmith’s dwelling, perhaps, but it was always a little jarring to step from the silent halls of the underworld into Heph’s realm.

It was also arranged by a man who clearly didn’t want company: the brightest, loudest, hottest part of the smithy was right near the entrance. One had to really want to see the god of the forge to force themselves past it.

Hephaestus glanced up when he walked in. “Poseidon send you?”

“Poseidon?”

After meeting his eyes for a long, uncomfortable moment—as Hephaestus was wont to do—he shrugged and looked back to the object he was working on. “Not important. I’m just not going to make him anything unless he asks himself. What can I do for you?”

“I hate to be the sort of man who only visits in order to make demands,” Thanatos hedged. It wasn’t his style, though, beating around the bush, so he shrugged and laid it out. “I’ve been on Santorini. Thera. I’m not sure what they called it a few thousand years ago, but you evacuated it.”

Hephaestus sighed, and his shoulders slumped. “Don’t tell me you’re here for Zeus.” He set down his tools, along with whatever he’d been working on, and left the forge. His unusual gait was more pronounced, as it generally was when he was angry or agitated, and he ran his hands through his hair, stopping to rub the back of his skull as though he had a headache. “I’m not doing it again. It was bad enough for the whole damn world the first time. The caldera isn’t there to bow to his whims.”

Thanatos blinked and stared for a long time, watching Hephaestus look tired, old, and stressed. Then he shook his head and took a breath. “I’m not here for Zeus either. I may actually be here against him.”

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