“Iintendedto make you smile via delicious irony,” I quipped back. “But I will not deny that your knowledge would be a welcome bonus for my efforts.”
“You are too feisty by half. I suppose I shall acquiesce, then, for the sake of my own amusement.” He accepted the plate from me with a barely audible chuckle and examined its contents. “Well, then. Does anyone know that you took this?”
“Yes. But I’m a priestess. It’s my right to take of it.”
“I see. And no one knows that I am here?”
“Definitely not.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes,” I insisted. “I told you I would keep us a secret, didn’t I?”
“Indeed.” Thanatos smiled unevenly. “Well then, I believe we are safe to partake in a small act of sacrilege. As far as I am aware, other gods should not be alerted if not through someone’s prayer.”
I reflected his smile, basking in my minuscule victory. “Excellent! In that case, I will simply avoid calling down my own destruction, and we can continue.” I set my plate into my lap and raised my stack of bread, spread, and salted meat to my mouth. “I promise it’s quite good,” I encouraged before taking a bite.
After a final, cursory examination of his plate, Thanatos followed suit, chewing in silent contemplation. “It is tasty,” he admitted at last.
“You don’t seem especially convinced.”
“Give me a moment to warm up to it,” he suggested with a shrug. “Eating requires a particular mindset for me, since I do not feel the sensation of hunger.” He dutifully took another bite, closing his eyes this time, and an intrusive thought informed me that his long eyelashes looked strikingly picturesque. I distracted myself from it by munching my own food. As it melted in my mouth, I pondered instead the implications of what he’d just told me.
“I know well the pangs of hunger,” Thanatos added, breaking my train of thought. “I have felt them in the memories of countless souls. The sensation is foreign only to my own body.”
His perceptiveness surprised me. “How did you know what I was thinking about?”
“You were making a face.”
“Oh,” I grumbled. Of course I was. The corner of his mouth twitched upward.
“Do not worry, clever priestess,” Thanatos reassured me. “I find your inquisitiveness endearing, and I am glad to partake of your offering. You may count yourself among the few who have ever shared a meal with me.” He took another bite, as if to demonstrate renewed interest in the concept of eating. I followed suit, finishing my main course and moving on to the olives.
“Since you approve of my interest, perhaps you will entertain a new theory of mine?” I ventured.
“Oh? This should be good. Let’s hear it, then.”
“It concerns prayers. I think the gods need to be listening in order to hear them,” I postulated.
“Why do you say that?”
I fought to keep my expression neutral. “Well, I think you would have mentioned it by now if you had heardmelast night,” I said innocently.
My words garnered the reaction I’d hoped they would. It was probably best for his image that Thanatos rarely ate, because he didn’t look so menacing at all when gawking at me with a mouth full of food. “What?” he coughed out, swallowing his last bite awkwardly.
I released the giggle I’d been holding in. “I prayed to you in the temple,” I told him. “Incense and all.”
He picked up his napkin with an air of sudden caution, and dusted off his hands. “But why?” he pressed, sounding far more incredulous than I’d expected.
I shrugged. “Everyone else was calling to their patrons. I thought you deserved some reverence, too.”
“Is Apollo not your patron?”
“Technically, my life was dedicated to the Olympians as a whole from the day the temple claimed me,” I corrected. “I gave each of them their due as a part of our ceremony, Apollo included. Yet when the time came for private rites, I could not help but think of you.”
I had meant for this revelation to be lighthearted, but Thanatos pulled back from me, suddenly moody. “Why do you flatter me so?” he asked, his tone half aggressive and half broken. “I may like you, Cyrie, but I will not spare you. Youdounderstand this, yes?”
His words were harsh. Blunt. It pained me to hear his voice laced with suspicion. “I am under no delusion of such things,” I insisted. “The only thing I want from you is your company, Thanatos. I promise.”
