Page 50 of Patron of Mercy

“Don’t know. He disappeared. He was with some Black guy in Santorini. Maybe he’s a mage.”

“Or maybe you fucking drowned him!” Marty hissed. A little girl, holding her mother’s hand in line and waiting to get on the plane, stared at her with enormous eyes. Marty forced a smile. The girl pressed her face against her mother’s thigh.

With a groan, Marty rolled her eyes. “Sure, whatever. I’ll call him and let you know if you murdered our only good lead.” She hung up. “Fucking asshole.”

With quick thumbs, she dialed Lach. The phone rang three times, a chill creeping further up her back with every shrill tone. Finally, he picked up.

“’Sup, ’Tina?”

Martina exhaled slowly. Lach sounded groggy, but at least he’d picked up.

Of course, she couldn’t let on that she knew anything was the matter. “If you ever call me that again, Lach,” she snipped, “I’ll cut your tongue out.”

“Apologies, Martin-ha.” He snickered. “What can I help you with?”

“Just wanted to let you know I’m about to get on a plane,” she said. “Are you okay? You sound kind of off.”

“I’m good. I’mgood. I got shot.”

“You got shot?” she echoed. Sure, they were going to pluck him out of the water. No problem. No reason to leave the guns at home.

“’S okay. Hermes is here to patch me up.”

“Shut up, you dink,” another voice snapped in the back. “Stay still.”

He hissed into the receiver, his breath the sound of a shell pressed to her ear. She jerked the phone away.

“You gonna go get me some trousers, aye?” Lach demanded, putting on a deep brogue that Martina hadn’t heard before. “You gonna find me some pantaloons, Hermes? Don’t wantcha to getinmy pants, just get me some pants. Don’t get any ideas. I’ve got aboyfriend.”

“Are you drunk?” Martina asked.

“Are you sober?” Lach challenged. He laughed again and ended on a long sigh like he was lounging back in a sun chair. “My fella talked to me like Morgan Freeman and now I feelreallygood.”

Martina pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t want to know what you mean by that.”

“Ariadne thinks Morgan Freeman’s voice is sexy.”

In the background, she heard a muffled, “Ariadne thinks everything is sexy.”

“Okay, so you got shot. How’d that happen?” Martina asked. “Are you in trouble with someone?”

He was. The Fidelis Filii wanted his immortal body as a vessel for their master. The whole thing sounded shady, sure, but they were trying to make a better world. And Lach had had a long time to enjoy the current one. That was what Marty told herself when she thought about throwing potato chips off the side of his boat or the rush she got after narrowly escaping danger with him. She was his friend, but the world had gone off track, and it needed their master more than it needed Lach at the moment. But there was no reason for him to know that, and if he did, they were in deep shit.

Logical as she was trying to be, her heart clenched when he made a small, broken sound. She’d never heard Lachhurtbefore.

“It’ll be okay, Lach,” someone said on the other end. This wasn’t the same voice as before, but a steady, deep, empathetic one. There was a rustle—apparently the sound of Lach passing off the phone and possibly the muffled sound of a sob—and then, “Hello? This is Thanatos.”

Fear of the Unknown

Thanatos set the phone down on the bedside table with a sharp plastic clack. Lach’s friend the archaeologist had seemed nice enough, and quite concerned for his wellbeing, but he’d hardly wanted to chat with her while Hermes sewed Lach’s shoulder closed and Lach’s lips trembled. While Hermes wasn’t the ideal choice for the job, he was the one god Thanatos knew had experience helping injured mortals who didn’t hate Lach on principle.

Well, and if Lach were to be believed, he was also friendly with Poseidon, but Thanatos hadn’t been willing to gamble his life on that.

Hermes was faster anyway.

“There ya go,” Hermes said, ruffling Lach’s hair as he stood. Lach was barely awake and gave a soft whine as Hermes wandered over to where Thanatos stood. “He’s gonna be fine. But what about, uh... he said he has a boyfriend. Just now. He said that.”

Thanatos rolled his eyes and huffed a sigh. “I suppose he did.”

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