A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone 1)

“Shall we begin?” Hecate asked.

She was quick to get down to business. The goddess directed Persephone to sit on the floor. Persephone hesitated, but after encouragement from Hecate to see if her touch still took life, she knelt to the ground.

When she pressed her hands to the grass, nothing happened.

“Amazing,” Persephone whispered.

Hecate spent the next half hour leading her throug

h a meditation that was supposed to help her visualize and use her power.

“You must practice calling to your magic,” Hecate said.

“How do I do that?”

“Magic is malleable,” she said. “As you call for it, imagine it as clay—mold it into what you desire and then...give it life.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Persephone said, shaking her head.

“It is easy,” Hecate said. “All it takes is belief.”

Persephone wasn’t sure about that, but she tried to do as Hecate instructed. She imagined the life she felt in the wisteria above her as something she could shape and willed the plants to grow larger and more vibrant, but when she opened her eyes, nothing had changed.

Hecate must have noticed her disappointment because she placed a hand on Persephone’s shoulder. “It will take time, but you will master this.”

Persephone smiled at the goddess but felt wilted on the inside. She had no choice but to master this if was going to fulfill her contract with Hades, because, as much as she liked the King of the Underworld, she had no desire to be a prisoner of the Underworld.

Persephone was so lost in thought, she didn’t hear Hecate when she started to talk and had to ask her to repeat herself.

“Thinking of our King?” Hecate asked.

She blushed. “Everyone knows, don’t they?”

“Well, he did carry you through the palace to his bedroom.”

She stared at the grass. She had not intended to have this conversation. Though it pained her to speak the words, she said, “I’m not sure it should have happened.”

“Why ever not?”

“For so many reasons, Hecate.”

The goddess waited.

“The contract for one,” Persephone explained. “And my mother will never let me out of her sight again if she finds out.” Persephone paused. “What if she can see it when she looks at me? What if she knows I’m not the virginal goddess she’s always wanted?”

Hecate chuckled. “No god has the power to determine if you are a virgin.”

“Not a god, but a mother.”

Hecate frowned. “Do you regret sleeping with Hades? Forget your mother and the contract—do you regret it?”

“No,” Persephone answered. “I could never regret him.”

“My dear, you are at war with yourself. It has created darkness within you.”

“Darkness?”

“Anger, fear, resentment,” Hecate said. “If you do not free yourself first, no one else can.”