I blinked twice and pressed my lips together. 揝ee? Maybe you should stay here.?
揨ero chance of that happening,?she said. 揑抦 going, and I抦 gonna apologize to you in advance because I抦 about to be real petty.?
I sighed. 揚lease just answer this one question梔id you seduce his grandpa??
Marie抯 eyebrows arched up and she puckered her lips.
揙h man,?I said. 揧ou did, didn抰 you??
揑n my defense,?she said. 揑抦 technically seventeen and so was his grandpa at the time. He wasn抰 anybody抯 pawpaw back then. We kissed maybe two or three times.?
I couldn抰 keep my face from twisting up.
She laughed. 揟hat was all we did, but to hear him tell it, I was obsessed. He spread all kinds of rumors about me to try and distract everybody from the fact that he was married, which was a thing back in the day. People got married really young sometimes.?She shrugged. 揑 didn抰 know. I left him alone when I found out, but he tried to make my life miserable.?
I grimaced. 揌e clearly didn抰 know who he was dealing with.?
揌e sure the hell didn抰。 I made a point to pop back up when he got older just to mess with him. I hadn抰 changed at all, and he was probably seventy the last time I saw him. He thought he was seeing a ghost and passed smooth out.?
I sighed. 揟his should be fun.?
She rubbed her hands together. 揧up.?
I ran inside to check on Mo, who had showered and changed her clothes. She sat on the end of my bed looking mostly refreshed, but nothing was washing away the dead tired look from her eyes.
揥e抮e going into town,?I said. 揥anna tag along??
揥here are y抋ll goin??
揕ou抯。 It抯 a funeral parlor.?
揥hy do you梱ou know what? I don抰 need to know. You taking some of the Avengers with you??
揓ust Marie and Circe,?I said.
揧抋ll go ahead. I抦 gonna stay here. Persephone said she has a few more things to patch up in the apothecary. She don抰 really need my help. She asked if I knew how to run a circular saw.?
The look of horror on my face must抳e been clear because Mo quickly put her hands up in front of her.
揕ove, you don抰 even have to worry. Persephone saw how confused the question made me. Now she got me handing her pieces of wood that she already cut. I think I can handle that.?
揙kay, good,?I said. 揃ecause I don抰 think anything I have in the garden or the apothecary can grow your hand back if you cut it off.?
揥hich is exactly why I抦 on assistant duty.?
I gave her a hug and went back down to join Marie and Circe in the entryway. Marie jingled the keys in front of Circe.
揑抦 driving.?
Circe tipped her head back and stared up at the ceiling. 揊ine. Let抯 just go.?
I slid into the front seat of the blacked-out sedan that Nyx usually drove us around in. Circe climbed into the back and slipped on her seat belt, yanking it back and forth. When she seemed satisfied it would hold, she made eye contact with Marie in the rearview mirror.
揗e and Briseis aren抰 immortal so please stick to the speed limit.?
I glanced at Marie, and her devilish grin made me smile, but I also touched the buckle of my seat belt.
Marie drove us across town. She stayed five miles under the limit the entire time but somewhere in Rhinebeck was a jogger recovering from a near-death experience due to her insistence on hugging the curb. When we parked in front of Lou抯 Funeral Parlor, Circe unfastened her seat belt and leaned through the partition, yanking the keys out of the ignition and stuffing them in her pocket.
She sat back and let out a long exasperated breath. 揑抣l drive us home.?
Marie shrugged. 揚robably a good idea.?
The funeral home stood quietly, set back from the road, its wide green lawn neatly trimmed.
揥hy are we here again??I asked.
Circe narrowed her eyes at the sleepy Victorian. 揕ou抯 family has been in Rhinebeck almost as long as ours. We have a long-standing agreement, but I have a sneaking suspicion he hasn抰 been holding up his end of the bargain the way he should.?
Marie sucked her teeth and gripped the steering wheel. 揑 take back what I said about not hurting him.?
揥ait,?I said. 揥hat isn抰 he doing? The deaths have been covered up pretty good. Everybody thinks you抮e dead. They think Selene died of an illness. He made it seem like everything was going the way he wanted it to.?
揟hat抯 true, but I have other questions.?Circe crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side 揌ow are so many of us being tracked here? How is Jason抯 line able to pinpoint our exact location here even after we抳e been so careful? Our families are linked. Medea had children with Jason, so we technically descend from him, too, but this other branch of our twisted family tree developed completely separate from us. What are the odds that they would know we抮e here, in this place, at this time??