Page 124 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

The Beginning of a Quest

As I slipped past a sleeping Cerberus

since he ate the meat I gave him,

and treaded the stones over

the Stygian Marsh past the door,

my heart thudded with excitement.

A feeling of adventure

washed over me

as I walked past spirits

telling each other tales

of lives long gone.

I breathed in the comfort

of the cold mist

that I had come to know so well.

Asphodel felt like home,

where I had spent a strange childhood

surrounded by kind, ghostly

women who raised me

with their stories and

never questioned why

an immortal child visited them.

Now, as I reached

the cobalt mountain to the right,

I hesitated at the doorway to the unknown.

I knew once I crossed that threshold

there would be no turning back.

But I thought of the madness.

The promise I had made

that I would free my father.

All that I was seeking

that could not be found

in those palace walls.

My mind sharpened with

determination. Then

I laid my fingers on the ancient

mountain’s stone doors

and pushed.