“Careful.” Nyx’s tone was foreboding. “They’re the Fates, Erebus. In some way or another, we all answer to them.”
“Which is why I’m not lying.” He turned to her and raised an eyebrow, his smirk widening. Nyx rolled his eyes but couldn’t completely hide the corresponding laugh on her face.
“Erebus. Hades is brash and cocky, but one thing he isn’t… is stupid. He’s smart enough to know that you and Nyx are primordial. If he is pressing this issue on you, there’s a reason. Something else is afoot.”
Hecate looked at him, the whites of her eyes beginning to expand and glow. Nyx sat up a little straighter, and Erebus met Hecate’s gaze. Power, an ancient one, filled with the wills of witchcraft and the essence of Gaia far beneath them, began to seep into the room. It started pouring from the walls in a red mist, slowly filling up the room, as pots, bowls, and containers that filled Hecate’s apothecary also started to overflow with it. The dogs sat up straight, staring back at their master with the same blank expression.
“What’s happening?” Erebus turned to Nyx, whispering as he looked around the room. The cauldron hanging in the fireplace started to boil over inexplicably and smell of cinnamon.
“She’s channeling.” Nyx nodded, a soft smile coming over her face. “You forget that Hecate is not simply some diviner of potions, my love.”
Hecate’s voice began to slip in and out of its echo, as the heads of the crone and maiden appeared on her shoulders.
“Listen now,God of darkness, Goddess of night.
Be careful to dissuade yourselves from Zeus’s plight—
If what we caution is what comes to pass,
The night Nyx fights will be her last.”
The kitchen descended into chaos.Hecate’s trance was broken, and the physical manifestations of her power receded back through the walls, into cups, under lids. The dogs immediately laid down and began to whine; only the boiling cauldron remained. Hecate blinked twice as her vision cleared, as she grabbed her head and the maiden and crone disappeared. Erebus jumped to his feet with a shout, his brow furrowing as he panicked over the ominous prediction.
“What does that mean? Where does it come from?” He crossed the kitchen in two bounds while his gaze went wild and roamed over Hecate as if she was hiding the answers on her person. He was frightened, not angry, and as Hecate came to, she saw the terror in his eyes. Nyx remained painfully stoic at the table.
“I know not where it comes from, Darkness,” she said quietly, shrugging, her voice tired. “Sometimes straight from Gaia. Other times… a bigger presence.”
“What’s bigger than Gaia?” Erebus’s eyes went wide, dumbfounded.
“The conscience of women.” Nyx spoke up from the table. “Every womb, every breast, every female spirit in existence. Past, present, and future.Thatis what Hecate channels, and it includes Gaia. It is not even only her.”
“What does it mean?” Erebus stepped back over to Nyx, his hands going to her cheeks. “I… I can’t… I can’t imagine it…” He felt his chest beginning to separate as he dwelled on the thought of an existence without Nyx in it.
“It doesn’t matter,” Nyx cut him off, turning her head slightly to kiss his palm. “I won’t fight. Besides… I don’t fight in the night, Erebus. Iamthe night.”
13
Nyx and Erebus remained with Hecate a little while longer as they waited for the atmosphere in the kitchen to settle. Hecate busied herself with making a strong pot of tea—“Something I always drink when I have visions”—as her dogs headed outside. Erebus could hear them moving in circles around the house. He heard a rumor that they were the souls of men and a god that were cursed; the dogs would show up at Hecate’s door and would stay with her, until one day they walked off into Asphodel and never returned. The goddess of dogs was one of her many titles, so Hecate never noticed anything surreal about an ever-rotating roster of canine companions.
Erebus watched Nyx’s expression as she stared once more into the flames, watching them as they curled around the cauldron in Hecate’s hearth. He nudged her gently, letting a shadow slip free and curl underneath the table, around her ankle—out of sight. Or so he thought.
“I can see that, too,” Hecate chuckled as though she were a mother who was supervising teenagers. Nyx chuckled softly, her eyes not leaving the flames.
“Let’s go,” she murmured quietly, breaking her gaze to look at Erebus. He nodded, turning and giving Hecate a respectful nod.
“We appreciate it, as always.” His voice was somber as he studied the expression on Nyx’s face. There was something that hadn’t been there before Hecate’s prophecy. She hadn’t reacted as strongly as Erebus did, but it was obvious that she was affected.
“Don’t think too much on it,” Hecate read both of their minds as she raised an eyebrow in their direction. “You know as well as I do those prophecies always mean something very different when they come to pass.”
“It’s more the‘come to pass’part that I’m worried about.” Erebus couldn’t help but let a little frustration slip into his voice, even though he knew it wasn’t Hecate’s fault.
“It doesn’t matter.” Nyx looked between her husband and her friend. “We aren’t getting involved.” Her eyes flickered to Erebus, where she studied the look in his eyes. There was nothing there but sincerity, yet she found that she still questioned his motives when it came to the matter at hand. He was searching for something, searching for glory—Nyx had too much experience with men whose appetites had been whetted for power.
“We aren’t.” Erebus’s tone, however, was resolute. “It would cause too much chaos to the mortal realm as you illustrated.”
Hecate watched as Erebus’s eyes and tone seemed to be playing games with one another. Whatever synchronicity these two had found before coming into her home, the prophecy was threatening to shatter it. If it hadn’t already.
“Let the humans and men fight in the light.” Nyx sighed and looked out the small window in the kitchen. “When they close their eyes to greet rest and darkness—it will always be us, Erebus. I don’t know why that isn’t enough for you.”
