Hekate’s Bride

My brows knit together in a perplexed frown as an unexpected torrent of sunlight floods the room, rudely rupturing my dreamless slumber. Grumbling, I instinctively clutch my pillow, seeking reprieve from the sun’s intense glare by burying my face beneath its soft embrace.

But my reprieve is short-lived, as a loud clatter and startled gasp pierces the air. Jerking the pillow away from my face, I swiftly rise from the bed and my eyes that are weary from crying struggle to adjust to the sudden intrusion.

There are maids everywhere, their hands bearing an assortment of attire, shoes, opulent jewelry, and even tiaras, rendering the room an impromptu dressing chamber.

“What is this?” I mutter, rubbing my eyes with the back of my palm. “I didn’t order for a wardrobe change.”

“Prepare the bath,” my mother’s command resonates from the threshold and my mind comes awake in her presence. Behind her, more maids pour in, bearing vessels brimming with liquids that have an intoxicating scent of milk and turmeric. A symphony of oils and perfumes fills the air, wrapping me in a sensory embrace.

Stepping away from my bed, I walk towards my mother, wrapping my hands around my chest.

I peer into my bathroom, catching sight of her regal form as she dips a finger into… a fucking cauldron? Whatever happened to my shower heads?

She straightens, orchestrating the maids and dictating the precise temperature my bathing water should be at.

“Mom,” I say, stepping around her. “What is happening?”

Mother claps, her doll-like features pulled into a tight frown. “Out. The lot of you,” she orders.

The maids scram out the door and I find my breath held when my mother’s eyes find mine. “Your father and I have decided that it is best we find you a mate. Before the shift takes more from you.”

My entire being goes still and I say, “By that, you mean…”

“You will marry and consummate your marriage with a chosen mate. That is the only way to save you–”

“I do not need saving–”

“From him,” my mother finishes, turning away from me to dunk more flowers into the cauldron.

It takes a moment for her words to sink in, but when they do, my heart strains. “You knew.”

“Take off your robe.”

I back away from her as several emotions run through me. Disbelief. Confusion. Betrayal. “You knew about Rune.”

Her head cranes in my direction and her eyes turn stormy. “You do not understand a thing. The shift cannot be completed. We will not have you return to the same place with him, without your marriage finalized. Without his mark on you nullified. Take off your robe, now, or I will do it myself. You reek of Lycan. I must wash it off before the Mate Selection.”

But her words are do not reach me. Not as I take another step back, away from the bathroom door. “What else do you know about? What else have you kept from me?”

Mother moves, and I shriek in fear when she suddenly appears in front of me, gripping both my shoulders and staring into my eyes with crazed blue ones. “Enough to understand that you are in danger!”

I jerk from her grasp. “I am not–”

“He is Hekate. He will kill you, like he killed Lorna!”

“He didn’t kill her! He loved her!” I yell in turn without thinking.

Mother pauses and she masters her shock swiftly as she straightens, masking it with a picture of calm. “Where did you hear that?”

My hand shoots up to cover my mouth and I laugh hysterically. I know my mother, and her tells. There should be disbelief or bewilderment in her gaze by my words. There should be incredulity.

But there is none. She is not in the least surprised by my claim. Bile rushes to my throat and I think I’m gonna be sick. “You knew about that too.”

Silence invades the space between us, an affirmation of my suspicions, and a stifled gasp escapes my lips. Lies. The foundation of it all… everything is a lie.

Witnessing the truth with my own eyes yesterday, I had already come to accept Hekate’s story. I had been confused about it, but I wasn’t so naive as to discard the truth that had been shown to me.

Yet, to hear these words from the very woman who had meticulously guided my journey into our lineage, every morsel of knowledge now revealed as a web of deceit.

Her eyes slide to mine, dull and exhausted. “We planned on telling you the moment you were done with the Academy. It is a secret passed down from heir to heir, so we may never forget what the void really is. A curse.”

She jerks her chin at the cauldron in a silent order and I obey, pulling off my pink robe as I walk toward the steaming water.

My chemise comes off next, pooling at my feet and I resist the urge to hide my nakedness from my mother. It has been years since she bathed me. I do not recall the last time very much, but I may have enjoyed it very much.

A sharp sigh escapes me when my foot touches the water and I let myself fall in, sink in.

“Hekate was a despicable man,” mother says behind me and my body goes rigid when her fingers graze my neck. “But he did change. For his love.”

My lips part to ask questions, but I am silenced when a jar of milk is emptied on my head. I shiver as the thick liquid pours down my hair, neck and back, turning the water beneath me murky.

“But his change did nothing to pacify or heal the pain he had caused. Many lives had been lost. Many were in mourning, because of his cruelty. His madness.

“Blinded by rage and anger, we acted, driving both our races to peril. Loving Lorna created a weakness that had never existed before, rendering him vulnerable. A woman who could bring the king to his knees was valuable.”

I hold my breath at the discord of scents that assaults my nostrils as my mother washed my hair and neck. “What was left of the council concocted a plan, involving Lorna into it. They planned to overthrow Hekate, make an example of him in the worst way possible. Blood for blood, tear for tear, they would execute him and leave his head on a spike for as long as it pleased the people.”

My blood runs cold and I swallow, gruesome images assaulting me all at once. “And what happened after?”

“Lorna wanted no part of this plan, and th council soon understood why when whispers of Hekate’s travels reached their lips. Cravings, they had wondered. It didn’t take much to uncover Lorna’s pregnancy. Her betrayal. Her love for the enemy. And they sought to punish her for it. Punish them both.”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Though, I knew where the story leads, where it would end, I say nothing, letting her fill my head with the horrors the truth brought. That our need to exert revenge has brought the Void upon us. That our sense of justice is as perverse as Hekate’s.

At least, he had been born ill.

What excuse did my ancestors have for torturing a woman heavy with child near death, and taking her life before the man who had grovelled for her, given his crown, his throne for her? A man who had pleaded for his life to be taken instead?

Most of all, what excuse had they for killing the child in the catacombs before Hekate could get to him?

Perhaps they should have listened and killed him instead.

“Lorna’s death birthed the Void. Hekate’s gift to us all, before he died.”

That has me stirring from where I sit, letting my mother scrub the skin of my neck raw. To hide the evidence from the world. That I am a marked wolf. Scented oils, flowers, perfumed tumeric, milk. All to wash off the scent of Rune from me.

He really would feel flattered, were he here.

“Hekate met his end?”

“Indeed. He roamed the lands for days, consumed by unyielding rage, but the relentless illness from which he was born drove him to his death. With the last of his sanity, he cursed us. That our offspring will suffer the same fate. Their lives will be taken in the same darkness that his had been taken, and we shall know no peace for as long as we live for. And on the eve of the Blood Moon, there will be naught left of both races. He took the same dagger Lorna had been killed with to his heart.”

A shudder wracks through my body as the weight of her words settle upon my consciousness. Fear coils around my heart, its icy tendrils gripping me with an unrelenting hold. “How then is Rune… Hekate?”

Mother laughs and her fingers thread heavily in my hair. “I would not presume to understand the way the Goddess thinks, but the priestess says it is a small mercy. Our way out of the impending doom that awaits us.”