Page 95 of Hekate: The Witch (Goddesses of the Underworld #1)

Styx Visited More Often Now

The halls of my palace on her riverbanks

were no longer as empty as they once were.

Since that day in Tartarus,

something had changed.

Ever since then, Styx took her evening

nectar and ambrosia with me.

She would ask me about my day,

and tell me about the souls she ate.

This used to scare me, but I understood

the rules of godhood better now.

I still did not know my gifts precisely.

But one day I walked

to the mouth of the cave the river

came through and found violet flowers.

I put them inside a pot in the kitchen

and carefully stole a thimbleful of Styx’s water.

When I added it to the flowers,

I watched as they turned a vibrant blue,

then a violent yellow and then the whole pot

melted into a mess of yellow metal.

And my halls smelled for days

of a strange fragrance I could not name.

If Styx noticed, she did not say anything.

But Pallas, my uncle, on one of his visits

commented upon it. ‘Have you been burning

Krokos in here? I keep smelling saffron.’

Krokos. That was the name of the first

of many, many flowers I would one day know.

It was also the first time this dark palace

began to feel familiar, like the home

I had once known.