Seph and the Stranger (Queen of Hades Book 1) Read online

  Seph and the Stranger

  Queen of Hades: Book One

  By K Elise Hoffman

  Copyright © 2021 by K Elise Hoffman

  No part of this work may be reproduced in written, audio, or video form without the express, written consent of the author, with the exception of brief excerpts for the sake of a review.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Epilogue

  GLOSSARY:

  Afterward

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Demeter’s Dream

  She watched a young woman of striking beauty with red gold hair, wearing a crown of flowers atop her head. The girl was skipping through a field of wildflowers, singing and laughing. Demeter smiled, unable to stop herself from being pulled into the bright joy that exuded from the girl’s person.

  Without warning, unease swept through her as she continued to watch the girl. There was nothing overtly amiss. The young woman still skipped and giggled as though there were nothing but happiness in the world, and she could drink it all in. And yet…

  There! A shadow. Was it a shadow? It moved as if under its own power. It began small and wispy, looking as though it might blow away on a breeze. Then, it grew larger, stronger, until it seemed almost solid.

  The shadow filled Demeter with trepidation as it followed the young woman, who didn’t seem to know it was there. Finally, the shadow took the vague form of a man.

  He took the girl’s hand and spun her about increasing her laughter and highlighting the glow she seemed to possess.

  Why did this feel wrong? Why was she afraid for the young woman?

  As she followed the pair, concern tearing up her insides, the man led the woman away almost tenderly. At last, they stopped beneath a flowering tree. He cupped her bright, flushed cheeks and placed a single chaste kiss on her lips.

  Immediately the tree withered, the petals falling chaotically to the ground in a torrent. The grasses shriveled, and the woman’s crown of flowers wilted.

  With a start Demeter wrenched herself from her dream. Sweat coated her brow, and her hands trembled as she clutched at her chest trying to slow her racing nerves. Dreams were rare for her, and dreams like this had never occurred before.

  In a rush she dressed herself. Grabbing a heavy cloak from a peg on her wall she swirled it about her shoulders and went out the door of her modest cottage.

  Once outside in the fresh cool air of the night, she breathed deeply. Concentrating her thoughts, energy, and power, she calmed herself, and with a thought vanished from her home.

  She appeared many miles away, at the foot of a craggy and daunting mountain. She would have to climb. It wasn’t something she normally deigned to do, but a visit to the Fates would end badly if she simply showed up at their door. The three hags did not like intrusion, goddess or not.

  Slowly and steadily, she climbed the face of the mountain, following paths where she could, and finding hand or footholds where those old paths had worn and fallen away. The trek was arduous. Sweat beaded and dripped down her back and face. Dirt smudged her nose and cheeks, and her delicate fingernails broke with the effort.

  At last, she reached the entrance to the cave where the Fates dwelled in eerie seclusion. She could feel their power from the bottom of the mountain, and now it nearly made her dizzy. All along the walls of the cave were threads webbed around the rocks, sometimes forming intricate tapestries and others a chaotic mess. She could hear the distant rhythmic clacking of a loom.

  Swallowing her apprehension, she took a brave step inside the cave and announced her presence. “My Lady Fates, I have need of your wisdom.”

  The sound of the loom ceased as soon as she had stepped over their threshold. Silence assaulted her ears for several long seconds that felt more like days. The silence was like a presence that pressed and prodded, judging her worthiness.

  Finally, a strange and otherworldly creature appeared. The Fates were three in one, Past, Present, and Future, sisters that could see all, regardless of time. Separate and yet very much connected. Literally connected, in fact. To call them a creature was just. They shared one physical form, which was the twisted mutation of three different entities.

  The center of the naked body had the vague form of a human woman though twisted and strange. This sister had glaring red hair, which was soft and fine. Attached at the hip sprouted another human form where they shared a leg, but each had their own torso. Her hair was white like snow, glossy and shining. The third part of the grotesque triad was a head, neck, shoulder, and arm which speared from the back of the center figure. Her hair was black and thick. In the features of their faces, they were identical, only their hair differentiating them.

  The creature walked strangely, almost painfully on its three legs, having obvious, yet practiced, difficulty balancing their strange body.

  “What brings you here, Demeter, daughter of the Titans?” The central woman asked. Though her features were soft, nearly welcoming, her voice was harsh. Had the sisters not been connected as they were, they may have each been a certain kind of lovely. As it was, they were horrifying, and the voice emanating from the lovely face of the red head only highlighted the dichotomy.

  How could a being be so alluring and so repulsive?

  “Mind your thoughts!” snapped the auburn haired one.

  Demeter struggled to right her thoughts. “I am sorry, sister Fates. Please, I need your help. I have had a premonition.”

  The third part of the body, which had white hair, looked at her with interested, curious eyes. “A premonition? We did not send one to you, did we sisters?” She looked at the others sharing her body. The other two shook their heads, causing the creature to wobble dangerously.

  “It was a dream. I dreamt of a girl with red gold hair. She was joyful and laughing, skipping through fields of flowers. Then a shadow came to her, it seduced her, and everything around her died,” Demeter explained.

  The three sisters looked at one another from the corners of their strange, indistinguishable eyes.

  “You will follow us,” said the face with black hair, as the body awkwardly turned to go deeper into the cave.

  Demeter hesitated for a brief moment. She did not want to enter the cave. The power of the place was off putting, not to mention the sisters that lived inside it. She steeled her nerves when the ebony haired head turned and leered at her as though daring her to stay behind.


  As the Fates ambled forward, she followed behind at a respectful distance. At least, that’s what she told herself. She was definitely not staying as far from them as it was possible to be while still doing as she was asked-- no, told to do. The impertinence of the situation was not lost on her.

  Shortly, after wandering around and through the maze of golden thread, they arrived at a small, raised pool. The cavern they were in held the loom she had heard clacking away when she had arrived, a small area for cooking and concocting potions, and what she assumed was some kind of bed. But the center of the room was occupied by the pool.

  It was a wonder. It was as though the rocks had molded themselves into a large pedestal that housed the water, which dripped ever so slowly from a stalactite jutting down from the ceiling. As the drops landed, they created a single ripple over the surface of the pool, which didn’t rebound or otherwise shift its contents. The water was black as night and reflected… nothing. Even as Demeter curiously rounded the strange, natural pedestal, peering into it… she saw nothing. The effect was disconcerting.

  The red-haired fate drew a hand over the water in a wide sweeping motion as the black-haired sister leaned away to compensate for the movement. As she did, the water from the spike in the ceiling stopped dripping as though time had stopped. Then the body of the creature turned so that the black haired one could gaze into the unexpectedly roiling water.

  The water bubbled and churned as a sea caught in a storm. As the Fate looked into it, the other faces of the triad turned away. Her eyes flashed white, and a shudder ran through the creature’s body.

  So distracting was the display before her, Demeter didn’t notice the images that began to form on the surface of the water, which was still again. Using her single hand, the Fate swept Demeter’s ogling to the pool.

  With a gasp she leaned forward, her hands bracing the edge of the rock. The girl from her dreams looked back at her. But what she saw was strange and beguiling. She saw the girl as a babe swaddled and sleeping, a toddler learning to walk, a child eating sweets, a teenager climbing trees, and at last a woman with a crown of flowers atop her head.

  This wouldn’t have been strange if she had seen the images in succession; however, she saw them all at once, without separation, as though it had all melded together. She wasn’t seeing time or the change of it, but seeing it all overlapped yet distinct.

  “What is this? Who is she?” she breathed. She felt a strange pull to the girl, as though a part of her soul was contained in the image.

  “She is your daughter, oh goddess of the field,” the Fate replied, a coolness tinged her voice daring Demeter to contradict her.

  Demeter didn’t look away from the face in the water. “I don’t have a daughter,” she replied in a whisper.

  “Not yet,” replied the Fate cruelly. “I am the Fate of Future Things. I see what is ahead, in all its possibilities. There is no future where your daughter is not present. She is sure.”

  Demeter’s eyes finally left the pool and looked into the face of the Fate of Future Things. She wanted to contradict the woman, to tell her it was impossible, but she knew better. If the Fate had said it would be so, then it would be.

  The raven-haired sister looked back into the pool, and as Demeter glanced back herself, she saw images rush through the water as it bubbled up again. Each image was too brief for her to comprehend and muddled in the water. Yet the Fate seemed to see it clearly.

  “What is not sure, is what will become of her. I see many paths, some more likely than others. Many of them lead to the same place. I see a struggle and a balance. I see deep rooted love, heartbreaking sorrow and loss. I see consuming light and consuming dark. There is shadow in her future. There is certain to be sorrow in yours if events cannot be deterred.”

  “What does that mean?” Demeter demanded, forgetting her reverent tone from before.

  The Fate did not answer, but her sisters turned back to the pool, and time resumed with the loud plop of water dropping. Once again, the pool was otherwise still and black.

  “You know all you may know, Daughter of Titans,” said the snowy haired Fate.

  “I don’t accept that. Explain yourselves! Is she doomed? Will she die? Will the earth die?” Demeter’s voice raised.

  “We are the Fates, young goddess,” said the stern voice of the redheaded center. “What our sister shares is hers alone. It does not belong to you, nor to us, any more than my visions of the present do, or my sister’s visions of the past,” she nodded to the white-haired woman attached to her hip. “We are the keepers of Fate and are beholden to none.” Her tone was acid.

  Demeter’s temper flared, but she controlled herself. “You will give me no answers? Only questions to trouble my days and keep me from rest?”

  “You alone can determine how you will proceed,” said the Fate of Yesterday, her silvery white hair falling across her features. “You have always been strong and sure, wise in judgement. You alone can choose whether to let emotion or logic dictate your future. Our sister does not lie, and she keeps many things to herself to avoid altering Fate.”

  Demeter was shaking, trembling from head to toe. Fury and fear waged a silent battle in her mind for any kind of composure. She would have a daughter. A daughter with red gold hair and light that glowed from within her. She would be the embodiment of joy! And she was in danger. Even before her conception, she was in danger.

  Without another word, Demeter turned and left the cavern. If she were to bear a child, no harm would come to it. She would be sure of it, Fates be damned.

  Chapter One

  Hades stood with his back against a tree, basking in the sunlight as it peeked over the horizon bathing the sky in pinks and golds. He closed his eyes for just a moment to experience the way the bright light bled through the skin of his eyelids turning his vision a warm red. This never happened below. It couldn’t.

  Not wanting to miss another moment of the beauty being above the earth presented, he snapped his eyes open again and drank it in as a man dying of thirst.

  He surfaced so rarely. This brief glimpse at life was something to treasure and to take back with him after his investigation was complete. Gods forbid he should surface for longer than absolutely necessary… literally. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

  As his thoughts wandered and he listened to the burbling of a nearby stream, he heard a light, sweet voice tripping on the breeze.

  Turning his face toward the sound he shrouded himself in shadow. Technically he wasn’t supposed to be here. Being seen, then having some idiot report him to his brothers somehow, was the last thing he needed.

  Only one hundred feet or so away a young woman was crouched near the water humming to herself and, occasionally, saying something he couldn’t hear to someone he couldn’t see. She was having a conversation, though he couldn’t see with whom.

  Curiosity dragged him forward to get a closer look. He didn’t make a sound as he drifted closer until he was standing, hidden by shadows and power, only a few feet behind her.

  A light giggle tumbled from her as she threw her head back, merrily turning her face into the sunlight. Her red gold hair cascading down her back in incredibly perfect curls that shone as though the sun itself had nested there. He couldn’t see her face, and yet he knew her beauty was immeasurable. Just her laughter lit something inside him that had only ever been dark.

  “You silly thing!” She laughed. “Stop being so shy. Come see the sun. I know you want to.”

  With that she dipped her fingers gently into the soil at her feet where the barest glimpse of green poked through the surface. With gentle grace she coaxed it up watching with keen wonder as the stem lengthened… thickened… sprouted one leaf, then two… and finally a bloom budded and opened to morning rays caressing its brightly colored petals.

  “There! You see? A little adventure above ground pays off, doesn’t it?” she asked with a smile in her voice, praising the flower as though it were capable of talking b
ack to her. After a pause she said, “You're quite welcome. It was my pleasure.”

  After another pause, the flower bloomed again on an off-shooting stalk and seemed to lean toward her. “For me?” she asked, her hand flying to her heart with flattered surprise. “Thank you, my friend,” she said, inclining her head in reverence as she plucked the new bloom.

  It was then he noticed she had been making a crown of grass and flowers, which sat in her lap. With deft fingers she wove the bloom into the center of the crown making it the striking centerpiece of her creation. She placed it gently on her head and thanked the flower again. He could swear the flower responded in a surge of more vibrant color.

  Without warning the girl turned toward him, as though sensing his presence. Her spine stiffened.

  She looked behind her, right where he stood, a quizzical expression quirking her perfect brows. Her lips, though set in a hard line of suspicion, were lovely, supple, and invitingly full. Her cheeks held a stunning blush of youth and good health, and her hazel eyes were bright. Her dark skin was soft and striking against the color of her hair.

  “Who is there?” she asked, her voice carrying over the sound of the stream.

  Though she looked straight at him she couldn’t see him, of course. But now, all of a sudden, he desperately wanted her to. He no longer cared about the consequences.

  Then, she met his gaze. Shock ripped through him. It wasn’t possible! Surely, she couldn’t really be seeing him? But with the arch of one perfect brow in her glowing, curious face, he knew she could.

  With barely a flicker of thought, he pulled his power into himself and vanished.

  No, he thought sardonically, I ran. I just ran from a child in a meadow wearing a crown of foliage.

  Titan’s bones! What is wrong with me?

  Chapter Two

  Hades wasn’t sure why he was here… again. He just couldn’t seem to stay away. Here he was supposed to be investigating where souls destined for the Underworld were disappearing to, and he was too distracted by a pretty face to do his job.