Chapter 7 – Hecate
HECATE
Andros stands at attention by the door, his back to me.
I sit on a stone slab, waiting for the doctor to come back.
He’d poked me, prodded me, huffed, drew blood, and left.
But the nice thing is the typical masochist doctor is gone, and my favorite doctor is down for one of his rare visits.
I have no idea if something’s wrong with me or what it could be, but this doctor is the best..
.at anything magical or human in nature.
If there is something wrong with my magic, he’ll figure it out.
Which scares me to my core.
“You’re going to be okay,” Andros says, his voice soft.
“And what if I’m not? What if being away from the earth and my magic for so long means I can’t connect to it anymore? Then, then I don’t have a use here…”
“We just have to hold on a little longer.” But there’s a note to his voice that sounds like he’s barely holding it together himself.
I curl my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. “Yeah, just a little longer.”
The truth is, I don’t know what to say. I’m not that woman who needs rescuing.
I’m the first witch, the most powerful witch in existence.
I had used my powers to protect innocents.
I had stood toe-to-toe with gods and challenged them to their faces.
And as powerful as they were, they knew I was capable of incredible things. I was feared and loved by many.
And then Hades took me.
So now, after failed attempt after failed attempt at escape, I’ve put all my eggs in one basket.
I’m trying to believe, despite all logic, that Andros’s mysterious brother will somehow make it to the Underworld and save us both.
Even though it’s completely irrational. Andros has been dead for years.
If his brother was going to save him, wouldn’t he have done it by now? And yet, it seems that’s our last hope.
I hear the sound of a door opening and look up to see Asclepius.
He’s a god. He looks permanently young, like all the others.
His hair is a soft brown color, and he has a beard of the same shade.
Around his neck is a chain that looks like a snake, and at his throat is the snake’s face, with two gems standing as his eyes.
My stomach clenches at the sight of him.
Asclepius spends most of his time on the surface world, but comes down here to help Hades on occasion.
He has a gentle heart, as the father of medicine, but has only been allowed in the Underworld on several conditions, conditions he can’t break, like by freeing me.
He was the person who helped me when I became pregnant with the demon’s baby, and he was the one who brought my daughter safely into the world.
Looking at him brings so many memories screaming back to me.
Asclepius pulls up a chair to the table. “Hecate, I’ve gone over all of your results.”
I fight the tears that sting my eyes and stiffen my back. “Just say it.”
“Listen, there are so many--”
“Just say it.”
He sighs. “You have no idea how much I hate Hades sometimes.”
I stare at him, my eyes blurred by tears. My magic is gone. That has to be it. And Hades will cast me into that dark eternal prison with the titans. And the titans will do horrible, terrible things to me.
“I’m so, so sorry, Hecate, but you’re pregnant again.”
The world rushes at me. Andros slowly turns around, his eyes wide, the slight green pallor to his skin growing paler.
“But we know more about demon pregnancies this time. We’ll make sure you survive this, as will your child. Unless...unless that’s not what you want.” Asclepius’s words come to me as if from far away.
All I can see is Andros. My daughter, Em, was a blessing that came from something awful, but my love for her washes away the horror of what I’d been through.
Yet this time, I’m having a child with the man I love.
And it also means I’ll no longer be able to call up my prophesies at will.
Just like the last time, the prophecies will seem to come at random, and I will have no control over them.
It’s strange. It makes sense. Even though I never considered that I could be pregnant. Gargoyle pregnancies are so damn rare, and Andros is...well, not a ghost, not an undead. I’m not sure what he is.
“I’ll do whatever you wish,” Asclepius tells me, then reaches out and takes my hand.
I look into the good doctor’s eyes for the first time. “I’m keeping the baby. But does Hades have to know?”
He frowns. “Eventually, before you start showing, he’ll have to know. For now, I’ll tell him that to connect with your magic you need more exercise, time out of your cell, and low stress.”
I feel a tear roll down my cheek. “Thank you, doctor.”
He pats my hand and lets it go. “I only wish I could do more.”
“I know,” I tell him. “I understand.”
He sighs and stands. “And listen, you’re really early in your pregnancy, I’d guess four to six weeks, so take it easy.”
I touch my stomach. Four to six weeks? A smile spreads my lips that I can’t hold back. There is a little child, Andros’s and mine, already growing in my belly.
The doctor reassures me that he’ll be back frequently to check on my pregnancy and that he’ll inform Hades of my new needs.
Then Andros leads me back out of the room, and we move through Hades’s castle as if in a dream, or maybe even a nightmare.
My daughter, Em, had brought so much joy and so much happiness to my life.
The thought of another child, it’s such a blessing. But to have that child here?
I’m not sure how to feel.
My steps falter, and I remember looking at my daughter’s face and knowing that I couldn’t let her grow up to be a prisoner.
I’d started planning, planning how to get her free before she got old enough for Hades to use her the way he’d me.
And because I used myself as a distraction, she had escaped this place, to go to the surface.
..alone. I think of her each and every day.
Will that be the fate of this child too?
“He’s coming for us,” Andros says without looking back at me.
I say nothing, because I want that to be true so badly. If his brother just saves us, all these problems will go away. Unfortunately, that’s not the way life usually works.
We return to my cell, and he follows me inside. Instantly, his arms wrap around me, holding me closely, and I can feel the tension and pain within him, swelling his chest. He kisses my face, over and over again, then lightly presses a hand to my stomach.
“I always wanted a child,” he whispers in my ear, his voice filled with heartache.
Yes, he wanted a child. On the surface. With his brother Orion. Not in the Underworld with his imprisoned lover. This is something beautiful in a world full of ugly, and I want him to see it that way, if only for a moment.
“It’s a blessing,” I tell him.
He drops his hand and holds me tighter. And neither of us say what we’re both thinking: that if we can’t find a way out, our child will be a prisoner too,
At just the thought, the cell feels cooler, and I shiver in Andros’s arms.