Page 167 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

The Goddess of the Night

It was as though a black river had attached itself to every pore of my skin.

It was unforgiving and hot and I hated it as I struggled to breathe through it.

Fortunately the feeling did not last long as I was left on a smooth, cool floor, gasping in the musty air.

Like a sentient being rather than fog, the black river seeped away as if it had been dismissed.

As my eyes cleared from the dark abyss, I saw where I was.

This room was shaped like a dome. Around it a hundred altars smoked with prayers from distant mortals far away.

It seemed like there were no windows here at first glance, but I realized that the giant arched windows did exist as the glitter of thousands of stars gleamed through them.

A throne made from a million diamonds shone from the centre of the room.

And on this throne, her head adorned with a coronet carved from the glowing heart of a dying star, sat the Goddess of the Night, Nyx.

Her face was youthful but her eyes were ancient, a glinting pair of onyxes the colour of her skin.

It did not take a second glance to determine what I already knew.

She was furious . Perhaps the rumours were just rumours.

Perhaps Goddesses were as unwelcome as Gods were here.

And I was not even a Goddess. Just the child of two forgotten Gods.