Page 13 of The Death God
“Hades is the god of the dead.”
Frowning, Gregory leaned back in the chair. He knew that. “So…you’re the same?”
“No. Thanatos is a minor player in Greek mythology. He’s the personification of peaceful death, not the death god.”
“Not the death god?” Gregory was pretty sure he was a god who dealt with death.
“His twin brother is Hypnos—”
Gregory went cold. “Oh fuck, please don’t tell me you have a twin.” Had they left Thanatos’ twin in the convoy of vans they’d attacked when they went to get Jaki back?
Thanatos stilled. “No. I don’t—” He scrunched his nose, looking way cuter than any man as exhausted as he should be able to. “I don’t remember a twin. I was older than many of the others when I came to the house of horrors. I have some memories of the outside world, but I don’t remember siblings. And Hypnos had many siblings.”
For some reason, it didn’t calm Gregory. Not at all. They could’ve given away the baby when he was born, there could’ve been siblings born before Thanatos he’d never known about. The warden might have skipped the whole blood-related thing. Maybe there was someone who looked a lot like Thanatos he’d named Hypnos. “Fuck.”
“I think he picked names connected to our skills, not exactly what the mythology says.”
“What did Hypnos do?”
“He’s the god of sleep. Son of Nyx and twin of Thanatos.”
“Nyx as in?”
“Goddess and personification of the night.” Thanatos tilted his head to the side. “Don’t you already know all of this? You were most likely alive when they were created.”
“Cheeky bastard. I wish I’d been around then.”
Thanatos made a face. “I’m not sure if I would have wanted to.”
Gregory shrugged and studied Thanatos. “Is there a chance, or risk, depending on how we see it, you have siblings in the house of horrors? Blood-related, I mean.”
“I doubt my mother would agree to give away more than one child. I could be wrong, of course. I wouldn’t put too much stock into our names, though. Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom. Prophecy isn’t a god at all. I’m sure there is some girl named Sybil, and what are the fates named? Clotho and what are the other two? I think he picked names to amuse himself.”
Gregory nodded. “Okay, thank you for the mythology lesson, now go to sleep.”
Thanatos’ eyes turned into slits. “I’m gonna bake.”
“Honey, listen to me. You need to sleep.”
He turned around and grabbed a mixing bowl from one of the cupboards. “I can’t sleep. As soon as I close my eyes, I dream.”
“Want me to stay with you?”
The bowl clattered at the counter. “No! Gods, it would be ten times worse.”
“Why?”
“I can’t have a…” He gestured wildly at the counter, and Gregory would’ve laughed if he hadn’t sounded so exasperated. “…man in my bed.”
“I don’t have to be in your bed.” Though if they were gonna sell a relationship in four days, Thanatos needed to smell of him.
Thanatos shook his head, and Gregory gave up. For now. He had to be sneakier about getting Thanatos to take some rest.
* * * *
Thanatos mashed two bananas and mixed them with eggs, oatmeal, flour, baking soda, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. According to the recipe, there should be chocolate chips too, but Thanatos skipped them. Whoever had posted the recipe claimed it was a breakfast cake, but he didn’t think chocolate chips should be part of breakfast.
To compensate, he added a little more vanilla. You couldn’t go wrong with vanilla. They never got vanilla in the house of horrors, and to Thanatos it was the taste of freedom. Along with most other flavors.
