Page 71 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

A Realization

‘Hades chose to live here?’

I asked Styx, in confusion.

It was a realm more difficult

than skies or sea could ever be.

‘He did not want Olympus,’

Styx told me softly,

‘and he wanted nothing

to do with his brothers after the war.’

I looked at Styx now,

but she was staring

at the frame of the young God

as he walked surefooted ahead.

‘Did he fight?’ I asked.

She turned to me sharply now.

‘Hekate, not all of us had a choice. Hades had to

fight. But he regretted it deeply.

I remember his feet soaked in

the golden blood of all his loved ones.

I think it was then he decided

to work only with the dead.’

I stared at the shape before us,

silently making his way into the inferno.

He was so unafraid,

but there was an ancient sadness there.

Something told me clearly

that the Titanomachy stole from Hades,

just like it had stolen

something irreplaceable from me.