“I have to protect a human. She told me to use any help I could find.”
“Why would they keep one human alive? And what could threaten a human that would take more than a god or even a hero to handle?” Hypnos asked.
Thanatos didn’t have the answers, so he pushed on. “I told her I would not prevent or delay the human’s death if her time had come.”
Athena had accepted his condition. She insisted it wasn’t the girl’s time. If a curse had already taken others before their fated end, he should have known. Had Athena been misinformed, or had his absence let something slip through unnoticed?
It troubled him that the gods, long distanced from mortals, were watching a girl with no divine blood or prophesied fate.
“This is concerning, Hyp. One of the Twelve is intervening in a mortal’s life, and they believe I am not enough to protect her.”
His twin said nothing.
He moved his attention to the city. Tucson’s skyline lay before him, a simple collection of structures that barely breached the horizon, framed by the rich colors of the desert sunset.
The streets were active but not crowded, people moving between restaurants and shops, but no one stood out.
He expanded his senses, searching for anything unnatural. A presence that didn’t belong.
Nothing. Only the steady hum of mortal life. A few deaths neared, souls that he would guide soon, but none of them troubled him.
They weren’t hers.
As he waited for his brother’s response, Thanatos focused on the girl. Through the walls, he could hear her speaking. Not to herself, but to her deceased mother. The one-sided conversation was soft and filled with grief. “I know you want me to be strong, but it’s just so hard without you.”
Was she hallucinating, or comforting herself by talking to the dead?
“You know I’ll help, but what if it takes more than the two of us? Did Athena give you any actual information? Any hint of what kind of danger the human is facing?”
Thanatos tensed. “Nothing.”
Hypnos had barely escaped retribution once before, and Athena knew it. Of course she did. And she was using that information to protect a human girl. That alone told him that this task was far more significant and dangerous than she’d let on.
“I think it will take more than the two of us,” Thanatos admitted. “Do you have any idea who would bother to help?”
“Ani?” Hypnos suggested, bringing up their mutual friend.
“Not a bad idea,” he agreed. “I will track him down and ask when I get back.”
Thanatos glanced toward the girl’s window. She’d moved into another room. A few moments later, her soft, even breaths told him she was asleep. Good. That would make things easier. He’d wait until dark, then take her somewhere safer than an apartment building among humans.
“I will stay in touch when I have the girl.”
He severed the connection with Hypnos and stretched, shifting his weight on the metal structure. He flexed his wings, letting the wind stir his feathers. To pass the time, he checked in on his responsibilities. He monitored the collection of souls and ensured the dead reached their proper destination. Everything was in order. It always was.
As the sun disappeared, movement from the human’s apartment caught his attention. A figure moved in front of the window, and his jaw tensed as the moment passed.
So much for taking her while she slept. Now he’d have to change the way he approached her. He would stay alert. Gather information. Adapt.
The front door of her apartment opened, but didn’t close. That was odd. He focused on her footsteps as she moved down the hallway. To the stairs. She wasn’t heading downstairs. He tilted his head. No, she was going up.
His frown deepened. Perhaps she was visiting someone on the upper floor. The lack of hesitation nagged at him. She wasn’t stopping, and she was going higher.
Thanatos landed on the rooftop, wings folding against his back. As he scanned the roof, he noted the swinging chairs and potted foliage sway slightly in the breeze. He was alone.
His focus snapped to the opening door.
The human steppedthrough slowly, her movements jerky, as though something was guiding her. The exhaustion on her face was gone. Now, her eyes were empty.
