Page 189 of Hekate: The Witch
My Home, the Underworld, Was in Danger
Thoughts were moving so fast
within my mind that I could barely
hold onto a single thread.
Was I really going to help them?
After everything they had
put my parents through?
Each thought gave way to the next
until finally I felt and saw it.
It was a dangerous idea.
It had a thousand ways
of going very, very wrong.
But itwasa way.
So I turned to Hermes
and said carefully,
‘We must go to the Realm of Night.’
Hermes was about to protest.
He feared Nyx as all Gods do.
‘We are not going to see Nyx,surely.’
I shook my head,
‘Indeed we are not.
We are going to see Thanatos.’
Thanatos’ Home
This time I knew to avoid Kronos’ cave. I knew which path to take. I knew how to light a torch to keep the creatures that lived in those caves at bay. Everything here had sharp fangs and a taste for ichor and iron equally. I led Hermes through the caves to the open realm of darkness. The fog was thick around the entrance to Night, another of Nyx’s tests. I used some of Styx’s waters on my torch, causing the flames to turn an emerald green, which quickly chased the fog away. Hermes was not speaking, something I had thought impossible. He followed at my heels with an obedience I had only seen from my hound since I had found her in the Elysian Fields. It made me quicken my pace. This was a dangerous moment in the history of the Gods; one misstep could lead to another ten-thousand-year war. Thanatos’ palace was made from the finest pieces of both nightmares and dreams. Impossible stones that glowed both onyx and iridescent. A garden of a kind with black grass, crimson crystal roses emerging from the skeletal remains of a perfectly formed large dragon. High towers surrounded by storm clouds that should not exist down here. I had once asked what the doors were made of, assuming they were ivory. Thanatos had smiled and told me that they were made from his favourite kind of jewel. Human bone.
‘What Are You Doing Here?’
His voice carried to us
and we turned. He had been standing
at the head of his dragon,
preparing to plant more roses.
A rose for every mortal that died.
