‘I’m the goddess of life.’
‘Yes.’
‘And I’m the queen of Hell.’
‘Yes.’
I nod, slowly, because I can’t find anything else to say and breathing is difficult enough right now. I did this. I turned them all. And it was so easy. All this time searching for ways to make it possible, late nights with Hades poring over texts by candlelight, and I could simply do it all along.
‘I want to create an afterlife,’ I say. ‘I have plans, blueprints and all the rest of it.’
‘Do it. Then dream bigger.’
I am tired of her lectures. I am tired of being told I could bemore – I just restored thousands of souls. I am clearly enough. ‘What is it you want?’
She takes a breath. ‘I want power.’
‘That’s it? You don’t need me for that.’
‘Yes, I do. And I need your mother too.’
‘What?’
‘There’s something about three goddesses together. Some ancient power. Three Fates. Three Graces. Three Graeae. We’re more powerful together, and they can’t stand it. That’s why they try to tear us apart. You are powerful but you are weak – distracted by things like mortals and friendships and that boy of yours. There’s a place called Eleusis that calls to me. It will take centuries, aeons maybe, but we could create something beautiful. Remove ourselves, grow greater than the Olympians, become something other.’
‘No,’ I say instantly. ‘They aren’t distractions, they’reit.’
She bares her teeth then shuts her eyes, shaking her head. ‘Small steps. We have all the time in the world. But when you are ready to seek all that you could be, to discover who you are without all this, find me.’
She disappears and I stare at the mortals. She’s wrong. This is important. It’s essential.
Why wouldn’t you try to minimize the pain in this world?
Mother told me to focus on the small things, the things I might stand a chance at controlling. Hecate wants me to focus on things so large they eclipse me.
But it’s all important. It all matters.
The power humming through me, the certainty in who I am for the first time in my life – I’ve never felt so sure of anything. I’m right in this.
I can do what I set out to do. I could do it right now.
I turn instead and run back to the palace.
Hades is in one of his libraries, glaring at a document.
‘Oh, hi.’ He stumbles up from his seat when he sees me. He looks tired, with lines under his eyes, and he pushes his shoulders back like it’s the first time he’s straightened his spine in days. He blinks at me nervously while fumbling the quill in his fingers and staining his hands with ink.
‘Hi.’ I shut the door behind me.
‘Is everything okay? Are you all right?’
My heart squeezes. Urgh, these stupid feelings shouldn’t make me yearn for him through my anger. I was right to be annoyed. I should be annoyed still. The nymphs used to joke about how long I could hold a grudge for.
And yet …
‘I’m the goddess of life,’ I say. Without the thrum of power still echoing inside me it’s a little harder to assert with any kind of authority.
His eyes widen and he just stares at me. ‘I beg your pardon.’
