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44. Stillborn

last update Last Updated: 2023-05-24 10:23:02

"I don't understand," I whisper, my voice barely audible amidst the weighty silence that hangs in the air.

Mother speaks, words laced with severity. "Upon Hekate's death, the Goddess expressed her wrath, and to the utmost surprise of our predecessors, she did not take our side." Wrapping my hair in a towel, she says behind me in a commanding tone, "Rise."

I stretch to my full length and step out of the cauldron. I grab a towel from the hanger and drape it around myself. "So...she brought him back? Don't they say the Goddess forbids manipulating the states between life and death?"

Inching out the door, my mother throws over her shoulder, "She was angry enough to keep his soul from crossing into the ether, seeing as he'd cursed every generation yet to be born, condemning all but the humans to death. It didn't make it any better that the curse had taken on a form of its own."

Observing her as she raises a diaphanous blue gown and a red garment so deep it verg
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