“So what now?” Iliana asked.
Thanatos looked at Anubis, then back at her. “We would like you to reconsider telling us about the prophecy.” He kept his voice even, but there was urgency in it. “Especially now, with the Kabeiroi watching, with the curse getting stronger—”
“The curse is getting stronger?” she asked shakily.
All eyes fell on Hypnos. He ignored the others and answered her question. “Yes. It is getting harder to keep you asleep. To hold it back.”
Her hands tensed where they rested on the table. “How much time do I have?”
He wanted to lie. To comfort her. But she deserved the truth. “I don’t know. It could be weeks or months. It isn’t steady enough for me to predict.”
Iliana retreated into herself. “Can I think about it for a couple of days? I haven’t had time to think about it myself, much less know if I should share it with you all.”
“Days we might not have,” Hypnos said, trying to get her to come to her senses. “The curse is accelerating. The Kabeiroi are watching. Someone tried to attack you tonight—”
“And I need to think!” she interrupted. Softening her tone, she continued, “Please. Just give me two days. If it gets worse, if something changes, I’ll tell you everything. But right now, I need time to figure out what telling you will cost.”
Hypnos held his tongue even as frustration made every part of his body ache. Instead of pretending he wasn’t angry, he left.
Iliana was exhausted and had little time to process what the Fates had told her. Hypnos felt tempted to pressure her, but he didn’t want to be the reason she refused to share the prophecy with them. He didn’t want a repeat of what had happened when she first came to him. Her trust was slow—for good reason.
Despite the threats she faced, he wouldn’t push her. Not yet.Not tonight.
“We should get you to bed, little one.”
“I know, but it doesn’t seem late enough to sleep,” Iliana answered Anubis.
“You need to listen to your body. If it says sleep, then you sleep.”
“If I listened to my body, I’d have died already.”
Hypnos felt like someone had squeezed his heart.The image of her bleeding on the floor—paired with the peaceful expression in her dream, the acceptancein her eyes—had been imprinted into his mind. He preferred to see the fight in her eyes rather than defeat, and a smile curved his lips.
If provoking her kept her fighting, so be it.
He appeared behind her without a sound. “Quit fighting it,” he said in her ear, placing his hands on her shoulders. She jumped but didn’t pull away. “You’re exhausted. Besides, those dark circles under your eyes will not fix themselves.”
Without waiting for an answer, he teleported them to the bedroom.
She landed on the bed with a startled yelp. “What the fuck!”
“You were resisting sleep. I’m helping.”
She moved from the bed and into his space, jabbing a finger into his chest. “You can’t keep playing the sleep police!”
He smirked. “Watch me.”
She threw up her hands and stalked to the bathroom, flipping him off as the door slammed behind her.
Hypnos bit his cheek to keep from laughing just as Thanatos appeared in the doorway.
“Do you have to be so antagonistic?”
“Absolutely,” he responded, shrugging.
Thanatos shook his head. “You are impossible.”
“She needs sleep,” Hypnos argued, stretching out on the bed. “She won’t admit it, but she enjoys fighting with me.”
