揑 did, though. I had my parents. Maybe they didn抰 fully understand it, but they embraced it from the jump.?
揑 can see that,?she said. She took a deep breath. 揑 see so much in you that I don抰 have. You have a life ahead of you that can be filled with learning and practice. You can build yourself up and know that you抳e made peace with this gift.?
揧ou don抰 have that??
揘o,?she said bluntly. 揂 long time ago, maybe. But when you live a life as long as mine you do all there is to do.?There was sadness in her voice and behind her eyes. 揝o you抣l leave me to it later tonight??She changed the subject and masked the pain in her face with a wide smile.
I nodded and she hopped up and dusted herself off. 揓ust for tonight.?She strode out of the garden, and I disentangled myself from the hellebore and made my way back to the house.
Circe was in the front room and waved me over as I came in. 揗arie and Nyx took Mo to get some groceries.?
揙h, okay. Did Persephone come back yet? She left the garden right before me.?
揥e probably won抰 be seeing too much of her. It抯 a dark moon tonight.?
I palmed the little moon clock in my pocket. 揑s that important??
Circe looked up from her notebook. 揥ill you come sit with me? We can have a little lesson.?
I went over and sat on a folding chair by the table. She opened a journal to a blank page and sketched out several circles. 揟he moon goes through various stages. You抳e obviously heard of the full moon, maybe even the waxing and waning phases, right??
揜ight,?I said.
揙pposite the full moon is the new moon. But the phase that occurs the night before the new moon is called the dark moon. The moon is essentially invisible in the night sky, and it抯 typically when we put out offerings for Hecate. Persephone never misses the chance to offer up something to Hecate梕ggs, garlic, tea cakes, black flowers.?
揅row抯 feet??I asked. 揟hat抯 what I saw on the altar in the back room.?
Circe nodded. 揃ack in the day there were ritual slaughters of hundreds of black animals on the dark moon. I don抰 know that Hecate required those things, but the people who followed her thought she did. We don抰 do that anymore. Those crow抯 feet were harvested from birds that died in the Poison Garden.?
揚ersephone asked me to give her some time alone out there tonight,?I said. 揧ou think that抯 what she抯 doing? Preparing some kind of offering??
揝ounds about right,?Circe said. 揝he didn抰 say anything to me about it. I don抰 like her pushing you out of a space that seems to have given you some comfort in the past few days.?
揘o, it抯 okay,?I said. 揗aybe I抳e been spending too much time out there.?
揘ot possible,?Circe said. 揑 used to do the same thing. It really is a special place. Selene used to give me a hard time about staying out there so long and coming home all dusty and disheveled with bracelets of flowers. So you know what I started doing??
揥hat??
揑 brought the outside, in.?She went to the window and opened it. A breeze wafted through the room. 揇o you have a favorite flower, Briseis? Something nonlethal because we抮e not tryna put Mo in the hospital.?
I smiled. 揚eonies are梬ere my mom抯 favorite.?An ache gripped my chest. I hated talking about Mom in the past tense, like we weren抰 going to get her back. That possibility kept pushing its way to the front of my head, and I beat it back every time.
Circe touched my shoulder, then disappeared down the hall, returning a few seconds later with the onyx peony I抎 grown for Mom. It was still supple, its vibrant red center still bright even though the water had evaporated from the glass it was in.
揧ou grew this for her??Circe asked.
I nodded.
揑 don抰 know if you抳e noticed yet, but when you grow something for someone out of love, there is a very good possibility that it will never die.?She eyed the flower. 揑 don抰 have a solid answer for why that is. It抯 some other aspect of this power that doesn抰 have any kind of rational explanation. I just know that when you put your whole heart into growing something for someone you care for, it changes the nature of the plant itself.?She smiled. 揑 grew a dozen Middlemist camellia from a petrified seed for Dr. Grant twenty years ago. She still has them and they look like they were collected yesterday.?
揗iddlemist red??I asked, stunned.
揟he very same,?Circe said.
揟hat抯 the rarest flower on the planet. There抯 only, like, two actually still alive.?
揂nd a dozen more in Khadijah抯 living room, but, hey, who抯 counting??She gently plucked a petal from the peony and held it in her hand. She took a few deep breaths and as she concentrated, little arms of ivy stretched through the open window. Two onyx peonies sprouted from the petal in her palm, and as she gently set their exposed roots onto a tendril of the ivy, a half-dozen black blooms with red centers sprouted along its length. 揧ou can create a hybrid of almost any kind. I liked combining roses with ivy so that they could snake into the house and I wouldn抰 have to keep them in pots or planters.?