“Please,” he grabbed her hands, “Please, why would you do this, Hecate? Just tell me. Talk to me.” Aeëtes gave her hands a soft squeeze, his own eyes wet, and his tone was full of longing. “I don’t care what’s happened. Is this about Hera? I’ll fight the rest of the gods with you, my little witch. I don’t care!”
Hecate lifted her head from her knees, staring at him as she shook her head back and forth. “You need to forget me, Aeëtes. You need to forgetthis.You need to forget.”
“Never!” Aeëtes growled at her. It was the harshest tone that he had ever taken with her, and she shivered. “How could you ask that of me?” Hecate stood to her feet and grabbed Aeëtes’s chiton, her face twisting in one of shame and anger, and she pulled him a few feet to the river’s shore. She tossed him towards the water, the movement surprising Aeëtes enough that he stumbled and fell into its shallows. He sat there for a minute on his hands and knees in the shallow water, listening as Hecate buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
“Drink it!” she snapped. “Forget me, forget this, forget that it ever happened!”
Aeëtes pushed up to his knees and slapped at the water’s surface, splashing both of them. He stood up and looked at Hecate, shaking his head as he gritted his teeth.
“Do you know what you would condemn me to if I drank?” His tone was deadly quiet. Hecate had never heard him speak this way. She shook her head, sniffling with the tears that she was trying to contain from him. He had seen her cry too often.
“I would forget your face,” Aeëtes growled at her. “I would forget your name and my own. I wouldn’t know you if you called out to me in the street and my own memories would cease to exist. But I would never forgetyou.”Hecate sucked in a sharp gasp, and Aeëtes stepped closer to her. “I would spend the rest of my days as a ghost of a man, as a shade, with an ache in my heart that would never be filled. They would tell stories of the man who ate without fulfilling his hunger and drank but always felt thirst. I would go mad with longing for you, not knowing who you were, and you would condemn me to a life of madness and suffering that no immortal man could fathom!” Aeëtes’s hand was ripping through his hair as he tore at his own clothes. “I would forget your face but not even the waters of Lethe would make me forget how I feel about you, Hecate! I would search forever for you, not knowing what I was looking for.” He shouted at her, his breath ragged. His shoulders shook as his face changed from rage to a cruel laugh, bewildered. “You would condemn me to this?”
Hecate couldn’t breathe. She stared at him, trying to process everything that he was offering. The strength of his love and the passion in his admission—she had never expected it from anyone, not even when he said he loved her. Aeëtes laughed, a crazed, sardonic sound, and shrugged.
“Then I’ll drink.” He turned around and fell to his knees in the water, preparing to dip his head beneath the surface and surrender himself to madness. As soon as he bent down, Hecate crashed into his side, knocking them both onto the shore.
“No!” she screamed at him. Aeëtes was lying on the sand with his legs in the water, and Hecate found herself scrambling to get on top of him. Their wet clothes were weighing them down, a tangle of soaking cotton and limbs. She managed to straddle his waist, cupping his face and shaking her head back and forth as she tried to choke out the words. Aeëtes was panting, trying to catch his breath, but he put a hand on her hip to steady her.
“Why?” he almost whimpered.
Hecate closed her eyes and wiped at them, her face full of shame. “You saw me.” Her voice was weak. “You saw me. I couldn’t bear to see the look of disgust in your eyes when you remembered.”
“What?” Aeëtes sat up a little bit more until they were face to face, sitting on the banks of Lethe. “You thought I would be disgusted when I saw you as…the necromancer?” He filled in the gaps. Hecate nodded.
“Only Thanatos can look upon me when I’m like that. Not even Nyx has seen it. It serves its purpose, but it is a heavy weight to bear.”
“You were magnificent!” Aeëtes nearly shouted it, looking stunned, as though he was shocked that anyone could see her like that and not think the same thing. “It was glorious, terrifying, and stunning, my love.”
Hecate hiccupped and fought to keep another sob from clawing free from her chest. She had never, ever known this kind of acceptance in her life, and she felt like her body might rip in half to let her spirit out in joy. Aeëtes kissed her softly and continued. “If the other gods knew what it meant…” Aeëtes eyes got wider when he thought about the implications, but Hecate only shrugged.
“They know. They haven’t seen it, but they know. It’s similar to Nyx. She could gobble up the world tomorrow, but she doesn’t.”
“Like how you could command an army of every person, immortal, and monster that has ever lived and died, but you don’t?” Aeëtes poked her cheek gently in jest, and a small smile cracked through Hecate’s distraught features.
“Yes, like that. We don’t do it because…”
“Because you care.” Aeëtes kissed her forehead. “You keep the balance, and you don’t want the world to end.” Hecate nodded. “Did you kill Hera?” Aeëtes asked her gently, needing to know. Hecate said nothing, and that was enough of a confirmation for Aeëtes. They would figure all of that out later.
“At least we know that killing Hera didn’t mean her curse would kill me.” Aeëtes paused for a second, his thumb making soothing circles on Hecate’s thigh. “Do you think I am still cursed?”
“You are,” Hecate sighed, looking tired. “I can sense it on you and Circe’s magic. We’ll have to see, once we get you out of the Underworld, how the curse reacts. Magic works a little bit different down here.”
Aeëtes was quiet for a moment, and he looked up at Hecate. “Tell me we’re done with this. Please tell me that you’re done with the doubts and the evasions. If you don’t want to be with me, then I’ll accept that, but if you love me…love me, Hecate.” His tone was pleading, and his hands tightened their grip on her ever so slightly. Hecate’s eyes found his as she stared at him, overcome with her own emotions.
She closed the gap between them and kissed him, her hands tangling up in his hair. Aeëtes left his eyes fall shut as he groaned into her mouth, Hecate taking the opportunity to deepen the embrace between them. Her hand moved and tore at the fastening at his shoulder, letting his chiton fall until he was bare-chested underneath her. She ran her hands across his chest, feeling his strong body beneath hers, and felt intoxicated after a few simple touches. Everything in her body was singing for him now, wanting to drive away the last of their separation with touches.
Hecate undulated her hips on top of Aeëtes, feeling his growing hardness beneath her. It sent a fresh wave of arousal through her, the ache between her legs intensifying.
“Oh gods,” Aeëtes moaned, his head falling back as his hands gripped her thighs. “You do that too much, and this is going to be over before it’s started.”
Hecate giggled, a breathless sound, and shook her head as she rocked her hips against him.
“You love me too much to let that happen.” Her tone was full of mischief now, and Aeëtes opened his eyes, arching a brow at her.
“Is that so?”
“Mmhmm,” Hecate replied smugly, working herself up as she kept up her pacing, driving Aeëtes insane with the pressure and friction of her hips against him. His hand reached up and pulled her peplos down, exposing her breasts to him. Aeëtes leaned forward and sucked one into his mouth, pressing a sharp bite to her nipple that made Hecate gasp. He lapped his tongue over it to soothe the sting, and Hecate felt her eyes nearly roll back into her head at the sensation. He knew how to mix the right amount of pain with her pleasure, and it made her body go wild. She was nearly working herself into a frenzy by practically dry-humping him, and she yelped as his free hand slid underneath the bunched-up fabric at her waist.
