91. ‘Hekate. It’s Time to Go’
‘Hekate. It’s Time to Go’
When I heard Styx’s voice calling to me,
I did not turn around.
‘I’m not leaving you,’
I said to him, my hands balled in fists of rage.
My father smiled at me,
‘You cannot help me, child.’
It felt like a blow to my chest,
like my heart itself was crushed.
‘Please, there has to be a way.’
I looked desperately around him,
but all I saw were other tired immortals
who had given up just like him.
‘Dear one.’ He touched my cheek
and I felt the slick ichor left on my skin.
‘This is my fate now.
Among my brothers.
I am no coward.
I will not run from this.
I, too, would not have been kind
to the Olympians had they lost.’
There was a coldness to these words
that sent a shiver through me.
‘Still,’ I pleaded, ‘No one deserves
an eternity of this.’
But he was already gone,
far away in his pain-filled dream,
his eyes in a distant place.
I took a deep, shaky breath,
and with blood-soaked feet,
felt myself returned to the floor.
I backed away from my father,
feeling sick with anguish.
Styx took my hand as I reached her and Hades.
We were silent on the journey back.
I promise , I whispered to myself,
One day, I will free him.
I will free them all.