? ? ?
Hera cursed the moon.She moved through the night sky, unencumbered, but grew frustrated with the night that was as bright as day. There was no time to waste. If the Fates demanded a golden ram be sacrificed to win back her favor, then a golden ram they would get. All she needed to do was to find a god and curse him then lead him to her acolytes to finish the job properly.
She moved over all of Greece, beginning to send waves of power out through the ether to find flickers of divinity. Her power would respond to anyone who was immortal. As soon as her influence spread out into the night sky, Hera recoiled with a sharp hiss, as if she had been burned.
“Nyx,”Hera growled, futilely attempting to toss her strength around in the dark heavens, but it wasn’t her territory. “Stay out of this.”
“I’d love to take credit.”Nyx’s voice came flooding into Hera’s mind.“But that was Hecate. It’s her full moon tonight.”
To anyone watching from the mortal realm, it looked like two storm fronts rolling into one another in the sky—the odd flash of lightning or shooting star punctuating the clouds.
“I don’t care how you leeches get on—”Hera nearly yelped, her own power shooting traitorously up her arms and threatening to strangle her. She tried to choke out a scream but found herself spitting black smoke and sparks.
“That was me.”Nyx’s voice lowered.“Keep your ire on me, Hera, and understand the respect every woman owes Hecate. Even you.”
“You can’t—”
There was a heavy roll of thunder that caused even the earth to shake beneath it. If Hera had been in a corporeal form, she would’ve fallen over.
“She can, and she will,”Erebus’s voice boomed through the night sky, causing the moonlight to briefly go out.
“You creatures of the Underworld.”Hera’s voice oozed with a slick, patronizing tone.“One day you’ll have to answer for…”
“Out of my skies, Hera.”Nyx’s command was swift and her power absolute. Hera fell out of the sky like she had been dropped. She quickly regained her composure and landed on her own two feet, dropping into her human body just as she hit the ground. She only took a moment to gather her senses as she looked around, taking in her surroundings. She was standing on a beach, not too far away from a harbor and a market. Hera readjusted her peplos, muttering to herself.
“Crete, of all places.” She took a few steps and stopped, pausing to re-tie her hair into a braid. “Well, let’s give this a try.”
Now that she was out of the sky, Hera sent her power rippling over the ground, waiting for it to reveal the closest immortal. She relaxed as she felt it working, moving through houses and over sleeping mortals. It didn’t take long for her power to come bounding back to her like a lost dog, clueing her in to the location of a god—asleep nearby on an open roof.
“Terribly sorry.” Hera’s face lit up with a wicked grin as she began whispering, walking towards the unsuspecting deity. “But whoever you are… your time is up.”
4
In the end, Hecate had slipped away from the Underworld without much fanfare. There had been no reason to alarm anyone, and it was not like the gods couldn’t find one another when they wanted to. Hecate simply released her dogs, sealed up her kitchen with a wave of her hand, and set wards around her courtyard to prevent any of Hermes’s crash landings. It felt strange, walking out of the Underworld. She found herself fighting the urge to keep looking back over her shoulder, as if she was doing something illicit.
Maybe I have been in the Underworld for too long.Hecate shook her head, as if she could physically rid herself of her misplaced feeling, slipping into the mortal realm easily. It took her a few seconds to get used to the sunlight, which reflected off the sea like polished glass.
Hecate had materialized a few miles away from the edge of Heraklion, wanting to give herself some space to get used to the world as she walked into the busy town. The road there was well-maintained, but luckily not busy, and Hecate found herself inexplicably relaxing with each step that she took. She never would have dreamed that there would be comforts to be found outside of her precious Underworld, but something about the air loosened up the tightness in her chest.
A couple of travelers approached her on a cart, loaded with woven baskets, which they clearly intended to sell in Heraklion. Hecate tensed as she felt their presence coming up behind her, able to sense that it was two men—and they were already leering. Her magic began flickering between her fingers on instinct, nearlybeggingthe strangers to speak to her. Hecate knew that her mortal form was pleasing. She hadn’t been to the human world in a long time, but she hadn’t received any complaints from the few lovers she had once entertained. She had long, auburn hair that now looked much redder in the bright sun, and a figure like an amphora swathed in the purple folds of her himation.
The cart caught up to her quickly, sending up a cloud of dirt as it came to an abrupt stop. Hecate had to cover her mouth to keep from inhaling it too deeply, waving her other hand around her face to clear her vision. She blinked rapidly as the dust cleared, the two men nearly falling off the bench to grin at her.
“Do you want a ride to town?” one of them asked, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head as the left corner of his mouth tilted up into a vile smirk. Hecate felt her blood beginning to boil, thrumming underneath her skin. She didn’t need to read their minds to know what they were thinking about; it was written unabashedly on their faces. Hecate knew that she had the ability to take them both on, but mortal women didn’t.
Men never think about how carefree their lives are.Hecate’s thoughts morphed into something poisonous, something slithering in vengeance.
“Do you speak?” the second man asked, almost angrily, as if he was insulted that Hecate hadn’t tripped over herself to answer them fast enough. Hecate tampered her magic for just a moment, taking one step forward and plastering a coquettish smile on her face.
The countenance of the two merchants changed immediately, one of them standing and nearly tripping over his friend to jump down from the cart. He walked towards Hecate and stopped all too close to her, looking at her like he was appraising goods.
“Did you want that ride then?” His smile was full of charm, but there was something dangerous in his eyes, something that let Hecate know that he acted without fear of retribution. It was a look that said, ‘Play nice, and we’ll pretend like I wouldn’t be violent otherwise.’ The expression was one that Hecate had seen on the faces of men since the dawn of time, one that she had seen through the eyes of all her acolytes. It didn’t matter their age, their looks, their marital status…every woman knew that look.
It took all of Hecate’s strength to keep her anger bottled and keep smiling. She tilted her head to one side and batted her eyelashes, an unoriginal, but well-practiced maneuver that tripped men up every time.
“A ride?” Hecate repeated it back to him. She had learned a long time ago that the stupider you acted, the more these types of men would respond.
“You aren’t a quick one, are you?” The man laughed, flashing a look back to his companion. Something exchanged between them that they likely thought Hecate wouldn’t understand, but she did. They were finalizing amongst themselves how far they thought they could go with an unaccompanied, apparently dim-witted woman. He looked back to Hecate. “Yes, a ride. You look like a pot of honey, gorgeous. Something like you shouldn’t be walking to town all by yourself.”
