Page 185 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

‘The Answer You Seek Is Not Here’

It was like every wound

I ever had opened up

inside my chest and I wanted to weep.

It was like seeing my home crumble

and losing my mother all over again.

Like someone I trusted shoved a knife

into my belly, and although my divinity

would not let me die, I felt as close to

death as I had ever been.

My voice was high and shaking

as I said to her, ‘Please, I have

travelled such a long way here.’

You must give me something.

The unspoken words suspended between us,

soft and pleading and desperate.

The crone simply smiled,

every wrinkle on her face creasing.

‘And that journey was not in vain,

child. Even in barren ground

there are flowers that find a way

to grow. But this is not the place

in which you will find what you seek.’