Mo sucked in a big breath and simply nodded.
揥e have five pieces now,?Persephone said.
揃ut I drank the liquid Astraea gave me,?Marie said quietly. 揟hat piece is gone for good.?
Circe shook her head, cast me a melancholy glance, and then turned back to Marie. 揧ou are the piece now.?
Marie抯 perfectly arched right eyebrow shot up. 揥hat? How抯 that supposed to work??She whipped around to look at Persephone. 揧ou too??
揥e are living, breathing pieces of it now,?Persephone said flatly. 揅leary neither of us read the fine print.?
Marie抯 brows knitted together as she stared down at the floor.
揥e are working against the clock, literally,?Circe said. She touched a notebook stuffed to bursting with handwritten notes. 揥e found the other pieces by chasing down stories of people who lived unnaturally long lives: Flamel and her husband, Nicolas, St. Germaine, Merlin. Nicolas and St. Germaine turned out to be one and the same, and we now have that piece in our possession. Merlin抯 immortality came from another source, as does Nyx抯。？
I locked eyes with Nyx across the room.
揝o, you just weren抰 going to tell me??I knew Nyx was strong. She抎 folded a grown man up like a pretzel at the cemetery, but I didn抰 know she was immortal.
She shrugged and the corners of her mouth pulled up into a smile. 揑t抯 not even the biggest thing I抦 keeping from you at present.?
揢mmm. I don抰 like the way that sounds.?I couldn抰 imagine what would be a bigger secret than finding out she was immortal. 揂nd did y抋ll say Merlin? Like from King Arthur??
揟he same,?Persephone said. 揂rthur抯 legend was greatly exaggerated by Merlin himself. The table wasn抰 even round, and his name wasn抰 Merlin. It was Myrddin.?
揌old up,?I said. My mind raced as I thought through what she was implying. 揥hat are you saying to me right now? How do you know that??
揊ocus??Circe asked impatiently. 揚ersephone will tell you her life stories soon, I promise.?
I glanced at Mo, who had interlaced her fingers on top of her head and was slowly rocking side to side. She looked like she was about to implode.
揥e tracked the pieces down,?Circe said. 揂nd now we have one more to find. The Mother. Luckily for us, I have some idea of where it might be.?She ran her finger over the map and let it come to rest in the open waters of the Aegean Sea. 揟hese waters are where Jason and his Argonauts sailed. The land surrounding them is the site of Prometheus抯 eternal suffering, and somewhere in these waters is the island of Aeaea. It is the last place we knew Medea to be, in the company of the eponymous Circe from Homer抯 Odyssey. It has to be there梚n the place where Medea kept the original Poison Garden.?
I stared at the map. There were hundreds of islands of various sizes dotting the waters to the east of Greece. Some of them had been marked by little red dots. 揥hat are the dots for??
揟hose are the ones I抳e been to and have crossed off the list,?Circe said.
There must have been two hundred red marks. Circe hadn抰 been lying when she said she抎 been searching.
揂nd that抯 the issue,?Circe said. 揂eaea抯 true location has been lost to time, and there are so many possibilities. There are thousands of islands in these waters, but because we have no idea how big or small the island actually was, we have to look at them all. People have searched for it for thousands of years. Researchers have said its location is anywhere from Paxos to Cyprus. Most of them don抰 think it exists at all. But I think they抮e all wrong. It抯 still out there somewhere. I can feel it.?
揂nd we抮e supposed to find it in twenty-eight days when nobody has been able to find it all this time??The little bit of hope I抎 been holding on to fell away from me like leaves from the boughs of a tree in autumn.
揥e need to go back over the best potential candidates for Aeaea that we haven抰 already checked off,?Circe said. 揃ut I抎 like to touch base with Alec first.?She turned to Marie. 揑s he up for a visit??
Marie nodded, shaking herself out of her own thoughts. 揌e抯 always up for showing off. You should抳e seen him after Bri showed him that parchment. Did y抋ll know he came up here when he thought the place was empty? He tried to get into the garden.?
Circe抯 eyes grew wide. 揈xcuse me??Her tone was sharp. 揥hy would he do that??
揌e needed the comfrey,?I said.
揌e pulled a machete on Briseis,?Marie added.
Persephone shifted where she stood, and an entire length of Devil抯 Pet as thick around as my arm pressed itself against the living room window and to my utter shock, sprouted three appendage-like protrusions and lifted the unlocked window. It slithered in and coiled at Persephone抯 feet. I had the feeling that if Alec had been anywhere nearby, the vines would have had him in a choke hold.