He stepped forward and wrapped Aeëtes up in a hug, clapping him on the back soundly, which made Aeëtes’s eyes pop open a bit. Hecate bit her lip to keep from smirking at the exchange.
“Hi, Dad,” Aeëtes murmured sheepishly, running his hair through his hair as if he was now nervous about the situation. The king pulled back, squeezing Aeëtes’s shoulders as he looked him over.
“Tell me! What are you doing back so soon? Have you finally decided to take over for your old man?” Aeëtes opened his mouth to answer, but the king waved it off and kept speaking. “Ah, never mind. We can get into all of those details later.” He turned to Hecate, stopping suddenly as he realized that he was standing in front of an immortal. He bowed low at the waist, giving her a warm smile. “The gods be blessed! There must be some good news if Aeëtes has managed to come back with a goddess.”
Hecate gave him a warm smile, nodding her head in return but saying nothing. She had a sneaking suspicion that he didn’t know who she was, based on his ambiguous use of the wordgoddess. She filed it away, a blank yet polite expression covering her face. If Aeëtes noticed, he said nothing.
“Well,” the king clapped his hands together, which he seemed to do a lot, “Let’s get back to the palace. Ah! I’m being thick.” He turned to the litter, signaling for the attendants to pull the curtains back. “Goddess, I’d also be inclined to introduce my wife, the queen of Colchis, and Faidra, Aeëtes’s fiancée.”
Hecate’s world stopped.
Aeëtes felt his blood run cold.
No one breathed, except for the mass of people around them, reaching for them.
For a few seconds, he hoped that it wasn’t happening.
Then, everything happened too fast. An attendant had stepped forward and pulled back the curtains as instructed, revealing the bodies of his mother and fiancée. They had matching, exuberant smiles as they waved—which felt grotesque to Aeëtes, given the circumstances, but they couldn’t have known that. He felt like he was going to be sick. Aeëtes spun around and looked at his father, fury slowly etching on his face.
“What the hell?” he growled, low enough that only his father could hear him. “Why did you bring her here?” The king rolled his eyes, as if this was an argument that he was tired of hearing.
“I brought her here because she is your fiancée, and you’ve returned to Colchis. I’m not entirely sure which part of that equation surprises you.”
Aeëtes felt the cold sinking feeling in his gut turn to anger—a hot, heady frustration that sunk into his bones. He made a sound that was somewhat in between a growl and a shout, pivoting to Hecate.
“Hecate—” He turned to her, holding out a hand in her direction, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her eyes were glued straight ahead, waving gently in a polite manner to his mother and Faidra.
“Please,”he hissed, trying to get closer to her. She acted as though he didn’t exist, stepping forward as the litter was lowered to the ground. The women stood and embraced Hecate, obviously knowing who she was, and she settled down on the litter beside them. Aeëtes couldn’t breathe. The curtains were drawn, and the attendants stood, turning and beginning the walk back to the palace. He watched, slack-jawed, his entire body feeling a rush of anxiety and shame.
“How dare you!” Aeëtes snapped at his father. The attendants and soldiers began going back towards the palace, but he put his hand on his father’s arm, stopping him. “Father.” His voice was sharp, tinged with a cold, piercing tone. “What were you thinking? I told you I wasn’t going to marry Faidra!” Aeëtes’s chest was heaving as he tried to get enough air in his lungs. His entire universe was collapsing around him, and his nervous system was being unraveled inch by painstaking inch.
The king looked confused before he let out a soft, scoffing noise and began walking. “It’s not up to you, Aeëtes. You may be immortal, but you have no place in the pantheon. You are a crown prince, first.” He stopped, turning to look at Aeëtes with a dead look in his eyes. “And princes marry whoever they’re told to.”
Aeëtes didn’t move, his father leaving him behind. He promptly turned and walked over to the bushes alongside the side of the road and vomited.
? ? ?
Hecate’sentire field of vision had been reduced to a pinprick. She could only hear the king’s voice and those two words.
Aeëte’s fiancée.
Aeëte’s fiancée.
Aeëte’s fiancée.
She stopped breathing, and the only thing that saved her was the fact that she was frozen in place. That placated, friendly smile was stuck on her face. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t emote. Everything in her body was a mix of contradictions—hot and cold, dry and sweaty, gasping for air and taking deep breaths. It was like her entire system had shut down and was restarting from the inside out. The earth trembled underneath her feet, her power stirring within her. It would bend to her will, and she debated letting it open up and swallow her whole, pulling her right back down into the Underworld. The tremor of magic must have been stronger than she thought because there was a soft voice in her head a moment later.
“Do you want to come home, Hecate?”It was Hades.
Hecate’s face was flushed red with heat and embarrassment while a sick, cold feeling began building at the base of her spine. It was a dread feeling of shame and anxiety that began escalating, slowly creeping up her spine. She fought the urge to claw at her back to get it to stop. It felt like death. Someone beside her was trying to get her attention. It might have been Aeëtes.
“No.”She tried to swallow but couldn’t get a single muscle to move. Her hands were trembling, and once she was able to stop hearing the wordfiancéein her mind, it was replaced with one word.
Foolish. Foolish. Foolish.
Hecate could feel her hands shaking. Thousands of years and she hadn’t learned a single lesson. How would she ever face herself ever again? How would she look at a single acolyte without being embarrassed?
You’re a fraud.Her thoughts began ripping her apart.
