Page 206 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

A Visit From Hades

I had not seen him for an era.

Styx had warned me that he was no longer

the gentle boy-God he used to be

but a bitter, paranoid version of himself.

Some said it was the loneliness

of the Underworld that did this to him.

Others said it was because that power

untold, unchecked, had corrupted him.

Either way, his tall, brooding form

appeared in my palace uninvited.

This was a tacit insult. You do not

enter the threshold of another God’s domain

without permission. To add further

insult, he had walked into my sanctuary,

the apothecary Thanatos had built me,

while I was working on my poisons.

It was in my examining the brittleness

of old Hydra eggshell that I saw the shadow

in the doorway. I looked up and cold grey eyes

met mine. I asked, ‘And what brings the ruler

of this entire realm to my home?’

Hades did not speak. His face looked

chiselled out of old stone by a slightly

careless craftsman, all angles and oddities,

like his too-high eyebrows and too-soft lips.

Then he spoke slowly. ‘I am here with a warning.’