[This post is from Hecate’s point of view.]
“What do you think it is?”
Tala’s voice jarred her from her thoughts, so badly that Hecate nearly spilled coffee all over herself and Lin. She took one slow breath, then another, trying to reorient herself to where and more importantly to when she was.
Focus. Get it together. She squeezed her eyes shut and blew out a quiet breath.
Tala came around the fire toward her, casting a quick glance back toward her sleeping children to make sure that they were, in fact, still sleeping before she moved too far from them. Concern filled her voice and it made Hecate’s throat tighten a little. “Are you okay?”
She swallowed hard and nodded, steadying. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m okay. I was just—just somewhere else for a few minutes.” Somewhen, really. Powers that are and were and will be again, why was I thinking about that of all things? Why that moment?
There had to be a reason.
“You do that, too?” Tala watched her for a few seconds.
“Not really,” she admitted, setting down her mug and scrubbing a hand over her face. “I was just remembering something.”
Tala nodded knowingly. “That makes sense.”
“Does it?”
She nodded again. “You’ve had a long life, Hecate. There’s a lot of stuff that you’ve lived through that none of us could dream of—in our wildest dreams or most terrifying nightmares.”
Hecate choked on her laugh, squeezing her eyes shut again for a few seconds. “That is certainly one way to put it,” she managed. As her eyes blinked open again, she focused on her nephew, asleep in her arms. Her lips thinned for a few seconds. “You asked me who I thought it was, didn’t you?”
“You don’t have to—”
“It’s likely Leviathan,” she said. “That’s my best guess. He won’t stay away forever.”
And we still don’t know how we’re going to turn that tide when it comes.
