Hecate's Spell (Monsters and Gargoyles #7) - Lacey Carter Andersen Page 0,17

his back. We exchange a glance, then dart into the sky. I guess we need to choose which entrance to the Underworld we’ll use, pack enough food and supplies for a long time, and then save his brother.

Easy. Right?

I shudder. At least there shouldn’t be any reptiles in the Underworld.

7

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