Page 76 of Patron of Mercy

Lach grinned like a kid at a carnival. “Let’s go, then. A visit with Mom, Dad, and Philon, and home in time for a nice lunch of ambrosia.” He turned to Gaia. “What does ambrosia even taste like?”

Gaia shrugged, and touched her fingers to her lips. “It has been long since I experienced such a thing. I have no need of it. We shall learn it together.”

“But, um,” Lach said, turning back to her. “Martina is okay, right? She wanted this? She doesn’t want, um”—he coughed—“she doesn’t want you to go back?”

Thanatos’s heart melted even more. He was never going to have Lach’s love of the archaeologist, but Lach’s loyalty was a wonder.

“You are the best friend any being could wish for,” Gaia whispered to him, in a voice slightly closer to Martina’s. “And yes. The part of us that is Martina chose this. When the danger passed, we discussed the situation over ‘fish and chips,’ and decided to remain together. We have much to teach each other. Her mind has opened so much to Gaia that we never thought possible. We are going to change everything. No more reliance on Demeter, fear of Cronus, or need for the scythe. We will make our own fate.”

“Whoa,” Lach said, taking a deep breath and rubbing at his eyes. “Well, I’m glad you two like each other so much. I’ve always been a fan of you both.” He threw his arms around them in a tight hug, and after a second of surprise, they returned the gesture.

The moment was so intimate Thanatos almost wanted to look away. Except that Lach looked so happy, he had to watch. He had to commit that expression to memory and make it return as often as possible, for as long as he had Lach.

Finally, they separated, and Lach pulled away. “Okay then. We’re off to Elysium. What a trip. Be back in time for lunch, you two. Can’t wait!”

Thanatos sighed but took his hand and inclined his head to Gaia before reaching out to the underworld and pulling.

Elysium Waits

To travel to the underworld, Thanatos didn’t need any votives, prayers, or haplessly dead. He took Lach’s hand, and in a shiver, they moved through the realms.

Hades—the place, not the god—was nothing like he was anticipating. Didn’t matter that Thanatos had told him what to expect—there was still that animal sense in his gut that said that dying meant losing. For a long time, he hadn’t had much to lose; now, he had everything.

As Lach looked around at the twilight—a diffused glow that touched everything but came from no discernible point above—he sucked in his cheeks. “Is this it? I dunno, Thanatos. Everything is kind of gray. Not a lot to recommend the place.”

Thanatos rolled his eyes. And that was it—in this whole place, his eyes sparkled like amber, brighter than anything else.

“This isn’t where I belong,” Lach said.

“You’re not getting out of this that easily, Lach,” Thanatos chided. “I want you to see everything.”

There wasn’t time enough foreverything, but Thanatos didn’t mean it literally. Lach chewed the insides of his cheeks. As flippant as he could be about seeing his family again, it’d been millennia. He’d done his best to take care of his father and brother after his mother died. In some ways, he’d succeeded, but only if you allowed for cheating, stealing, pissing off gods, and running away. Count all that against him, and he must’ve been an enormous disappointment.

But that cow of Helios’s that he’d killed, he’d killed because his family was starving. His family had been able to eat, but the titan had thrown him into the sea, and Lach had washed up on shore hours later. It was the first time he’d met Thanatos, who’d stood over him with a furrowed brow and said he should’ve died.

He didn’t understand until later that Poseidon had saved him, not out of mercy, but because it amused the sea god to annoy Helios. Once Lach had won his favor, the fish around the island were plentiful. Rains came more often. They didn’t go hungry again.

He also hadn’t realized until later that he was immortal. A change like that should’ve registered, but immortality wasn’t the kind of thing he could recognize without experiencing. It had taken years for him to understand. By the time he had, Philon was larger than he was. His little brother’s face had born more wrinkles than his own, and the villagers had begun to whisper about witchcraft and demigods.

He’d fled then, leaving behind his village, his family, everything he’d ever known. And Thanatos.

He felt the smile on his face flinch as he plastered it in place. “Right. Obviously.”

“If we’re going to find them, you’ll have to think about them,” Thanatos said gently. “I’m not connected to Markos, Alexia, and Philon as you are.”

Lach closed his eyes, gave his shoulders a little shake. When his breath jumped, Thanatos brushed his thumb across his knuckles. “You can stay with them,” he offered.

“What, are you gonna murder me?” Lach asked, peeking one eye open.

Thanatos only looked distressed. Best to get this over with before he started getting the wrong idea about Lach’s nerves.

He let himself think about the crinkles at the corners of his father’s eyes, his gentle hands, the way Philon had clung to his hand when he was little and clapped his shoulder with the full force of Zeus’s might when he’d started to tower over him. He thought about the last time he’d seen his mother. He’d been little when she died, and he didn’t remember much, but he remembered her round belly when she’d been pregnant with Philon. Her soft laugh and the way her hand rested on the swell. He felt another pull. They moved, and he kept his eyes shut until he heard the crash of waves.

Underfoot, the sand was warm and loose. The water was bluer than Thrinacia’s had been all those years ago, and as he stared into it, a small hand tapped his leg.

He turned around to see a girl no higher than his hip with bright blue eyes and hair dark as an oil slick. “Who are you?” she asked in Greek, the same as he’d heard it while he was her size.

“Lach—” He flinched. That name was no good here, to people who’d never heard it. “Glaukos,” he corrected, leaning into the hard sounds he’d abandoned when Rome rose. “Who are you?”

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