Page 196 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

I Began to Understand

Styx refusing to allow me to talk

to the dead or other immortals.

Pallas forbidding Thanatos

from speaking to me.

The way the boy’s dog

rose to life at my touch.

Why I loved the mortal dead

in the Asphodel Fields with their stories.

Pallas was speaking softly now,

his voice distant in my haze.

‘The capacity to bring the dead

back to life is something even Hades

does not possess, and neither does

Thanatos, who is death itself.

If Zeus found out…’

He did not finish his sentence.

‘This is why we had to keep it,

and you, a secret,’ said Styx softly.

She reached for me but I stepped back.

They had lied to me.

I stared at them.

‘Is there more?’

They exchanged a look

and hesitated.

‘There is,’ I breathed.

‘You will tell me now,’ I demanded.