Page 210 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

Troy

It is a tale as old as Chaos herself. Jealousy.

Resentment. Power. Bloodlust and bloodthirst. A quenching so terrible that it leaves behind the scent of nightmares and thunder in its wake.

This war was different. A prophecy came to fruition, a visiting prince stole the wife of a Spartan king, said to be the most beautiful woman in the whole world.

The reaction was swift, brutal and led to a thousand ships sailing upon Troy and a ten-year war.

A decade is a long time to a mortal, but to us, it is over in the blink of an eye.

This amount of death, however, demanded all Gods of Death to work hard.

Whole families had been ripped apart. The jewel that was once the city of Troy lay in ruins.

It was the end of that story that Thanatos had brought me to.

I had noticed his hands shake with what he had seen at this war, even if he never spoke of it.

A battlefield bathed in twilight smelled of salt and iron.

Ground so crimson it was no longer the colour of dirt but rust-red with old blood.

Even Troy’s great palace, once so grand it was said that Zeus was envious, now lay in smouldering ashes.

I tried to ignore the feelings this stirred in me.

An old rage, a long-simmering fury threatened to erupt when I saw the crying women and children being loaded onto Greek ships.

I wanted to help them but Thanatos placed his hand on my wrist and looked into my eyes.

Not yet. So instead, I gritted my teeth and went about his work with him.

We walked from dying body to dying body and he offered release.

All I could do was watch. Watch as he collected soul after soul.

I was starting to wonder why he had brought me here when I saw her.

The figure of a woman running towards the cliff’s edge.

A cliff below which were sharp, brutal rocks and an even more merciless sea.