揑 know,?I said. 揑 figured all that out. Well, most of it. I didn抰 expect you to show up, that抯 for damn sure. I thought I was seeing a ghost.?
Mo squeezed her eyes shut. 揚lease, Lord, don抰 let her be a ghost.?
Circe pressed her lips together and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. 揇on抰 worry. I抦 not.?The way she said it wasn抰 like she didn抰 believe in ghosts, just that she wasn抰 one. I had to stop myself from thinking too deeply about what that meant. After everything I抎 seen, nothing was impossible. 揥hat did the letters say??she continued.
揟hey were instructions. Like a scavenger hunt.?I realized Mrs. Redmond really had no clue as to what I could or couldn抰 do. She assumed I抎 inherited my gifts from my birth mom, but she didn抰 know that for sure. Walking into the Poison Garden could have killed me if I wasn抰 immune, and she had treated it like it was a game. The thought made me hate her even more than I already did. I gripped my hands together in front of me until my knuckles ached. 揧ou桰 mean Mrs. Redmond梥aid there was a place on the grounds where I抎 find the answers I was looking for. I followed her instructions and found the garden and everything hidden inside it.?
Circe sat back and ran her hand over her mouth, then crossed and uncrossed her legs. She angled her head toward the apothecary. 揂nd did you find the answers you were looking for??
I hesitated. What I found was a place that made me feel like I wasn抰 alone梐 place to stretch, a purpose for these extraordinary gifts, and a little bit of stability for my moms. But I抎 also discovered a secret so profound that even the threat of its revelation had caused a living, breathing goddess to intervene.
揑 found the Heart.?I took out the vial of Living Elixir and held it up to the light. The viscous red liquid stuck to the inside of the glass like honey. Both Circe抯 and Persephone抯 expressions twisted into masks of complete and utter shock. Marie closed her eyes and shook her head.
Circe got up and came over to the couch, where she crouched in front of me. As she eyed the glass vial, I took in all the little details about her. She looked like she was only a little older than Mo, even though the date of birth on her gravestone would make her a full decade her senior. A set of matching smile lines framed her mouth, and a few of the coils of hair escaping her head wrap were a mix of black and gray. She had the look of someone who knew what it meant to be exhausted. I gently set the elixir in her outstretched hand.
揗rs. Redmond, Katrina Valek, whatever her name was, forced me at knife point to get the Heart.?Saying her name was like speaking a curse, like it might conjure her from the dead to hurt me and my family even more than she already had. 揝he cut open my hand and I bled on it. It started to beat.?I held up my bandaged hand. Blood had begun to ooze through the dressing. The physical sensation of what the Heart had done to me as Mrs. Redmond forced me to touch it with my bare hands lingered in my bones. It ached. 揑 brought it back here, transfigured it, and then she梥he killed my mom.?The words sounded like somebody else said them. They didn抰 feel real. I didn抰 want them to be.
Circe looked to Mo and then back to me. 揑桰 am so sorry.?She wept, wrapping her arms around her waist, rocking back and forth like she was trying to soothe herself. 揑t leaves nothing untouched梩he Heart. It affects everything and everyone it comes in contact with. It brings death but not always as a result of the poison pumping through it.?She wiped away her tears. 揑 can抰 count the number of deaths in this twisted family tree that were a result of other people trying to get their hands on the Heart. They are relentless in their pursuit of it.?
We sat for a moment as I tried to claw my way up from a descending spiral of pain and grief. I struggled to put into words what had happened after that, but I couldn抰 think straight. 揌ecate was here,?was all I managed to say. I hoped it made sense to her because it still didn抰 make sense to me.
Circe met my gaze, and I knew right away that while she might have been shocked, she believed me. Her wide brown eyes glinted in the dim light. She gently put her hand on my knee. 揝he revealed herself to you? You saw her??
Persephone leaned against the wall like she might fall over without its support.
I nodded. 揝he had a giant black dog with her. She told me she was Medea抯 mother, that we come from her. And she took my mom.?
Circe抯 fingertips pressed into my knee. 揥hat do you mean, she took her??
揑 asked Hecate if we could use the Living Elixir to bring my mom back, but she said that wouldn抰 work. She said she would keep my mom, and if we could find a way to do the thing that has never been done棓
Circe抯 lips parted just enough for her to whisper in a tone that was like the rustling of dead leaves in the wind. 揝he wants you to bring all the pieces of Absyrtus back together.?