Scented by thousands of blooms, the air within Aphrodite's gardens caressed all who wandered its paths, as palpable and sweet as that of a lover, and Hekate bent to lift a blossom to her face, breathing deeply. In the shade of a bush nearby, a black bitch lay on her back, paws curled to bat at branches stirred by the breeze and Gale, her fitch, had long since disappeared to explore the grounds, a shadow among shadows. It had been all too easy to lose track of time below, overseeing the punishments of those condemned, and Hekate felt drunk, ripe and flush with power, drowning in golden sunlight and surrounded by life.
A petal plucked and held to her lips, Hekate let the path draw her closer to the boy despoiling a marble representation of the very goddess who lay below, driven near mad with grief, amused by the tableau. His slender body scratched and bruised by his attempts at congress, Sebastian masturbated furiously, pursed lips latched to cold stone, nursing furiously at a nipple chiseled hard and tight, futilely clawing at the artistic drape that hid Aphrodite's sex in a show of false modesty. The work of Eros, she'd swear if asked, and amused, she found a perch nearby, sunlight filtering through the layers of silk draped over her shoulders, observing the young man.
The very human young man.
Even in his current engorged state, lost to all save the statue at which he threw himself like a wave against a beach, Hekate could feel the magic singing through every cell of the shell in which Himeros was imprisoned. Even as she watched, the sluggish pulse of it quickened and slowed, a dark sludge like that left behind by a slug, glimmering only when one blessed with magic and power sought its presence. Hundreds, thousands of trails twisted and twine to form the net in which Himeros was held fast; a web crafted with great skill and intent meant to mask the fat spider from which it had been born.
Freshly plump from a successful hunt, the fitch slipped around Hekate to crawl into the witch's lap, stretching to laze in the warm hollow formed by crossed legs, beady black eyes drooped to laze as Hekate began to work. Hands lifted, the powerful Titan plucked at the strands of the web, testing its strength. Some dissolved into nothing, some snapped and fell away, but others stung like the bite of poison nettles, and Hekate swore, hissing and sucking at scorched fingertips.
Intrigued rather than dissuaded, Hekate began again, drawing on the well of power Aphrodite's sacrifice filled to overflowing, her touch delicate and light. Wrapping the thickest strands with her power to dampen their pulse, she sought not to sever but to follow, interrupted only by the abrupt dissolution of Eros' spell. Returned to his own, fragile mind, Sebastian's confusion and terror radiated through the web and it twisted and writhed as if to wrap him into a cocoon, held for later feasting, and Hekate was given no choice but to leave off her exploration and stand, Gale plucked from her lap and dropped to find a new place to nap.
A thick spear of aloe snapped at its root, Hekate approached the boy, his age irrelevant in the face of her immortality. Her power proceeded her, threading through the earth under her feet to prevent hasty flight, and her dark eyes raked over his slender form. So fragile, so utterly and completely breakable. "Fascinating." Panic laced with the beginnings of true madness filled the fevered eyes that met her own and Hekate sighed, mentally correcting herself. Broken, then. A pity.
"Okay, we'll do this the hard way." A snap of her fingers and Sebastian crumpled to the earth like a marionette whose strings had been severed and Hekate walked over, crouching to smooth the stalk of aloe over his flaccid, abraded cock, leaving the oozing sap to sink in and tracing along a particularly nasty scrape with the barbed spike. "Come," she said to her companions, dropping a hand on the bitch's back as the fitch scampered up Sebastian's body to perch on his chest.
A brilliant flash of light blinded any who might wander nearby, but the theatrics were for show only. Hekate sought privacy, not secrecy, and Sebastian lay in the center of the bed he'd so longed to share. Lifting the fitch until their eyes were level, Hekate smiled, "Go fetch one of the daddies." Gale scampered away as soon as her paws hit the floor and Hekate walked the circumference of the bed, taking in the opulence of Aphrodite's personal chamber. Flicking a crystal hanging from a sconce that all but dripped with them, Hekate smiled as light shattered into colors than danced and swayed, twirling her fingers through the beams. "To be honest," she said, addressing the unconscious boy splayed across the bed, "I'd expected more pink."