揧抋ll really think the gods are dead??I asked.
Dre抯 eyebrows arched up. I wondered if Karter had, perhaps, left out the most important part of what had gone down in Rhinebeck梩hat a literal goddess had shown herself and brought her wrath down on Katrina.
揥e know they are,?Viv said. 揔atrina tried to convince you otherwise, huh??She shook her head. 揝tupid. She was ridiculous.?She stood up on shaky legs. 揕et抯 go. It抯 early. We can get there in a few hours if we leave now.?
Early.
I looked up through the trees that stretched high above the ruins of the building. The sun hadn抰 been fading after Viv had sent me to sleep. It was rising. It抯 why I felt like I抎 been hit by a bus. I抎 been in a deep sleep on a stone floor for hours. I抎 lost an entire afternoon. A full night. It was morning and it was day twenty-eight. The last day to reach the Heart if I had any hope of getting my mom back. I struggled to stand up.
揑抣l help you,?I said as I got my feet under me. 揃ut we have to go now.?
Viv smiled. 揝ee, Dre? She just needed a little convincing.?She came over and shoved me with invisible hands out into the overgrown foliage. 揔eep it cute,?she repeated. 揑抣l have you in a coma if you try anything. Got it??
I nodded, but it took everything in me not to envision ropes of Devil抯 Pet wrapping her up. They抎 do it if I called to them and then she might put me back to sleep. I had to get to the center of the island, so I kept my head down as we began our journey.
CHAPTER 20
A tug in the pit of my stomach led me forward. It was the same feeling I抎 had just before I found the Poison Garden back home. A sense that something was calling out to me, beckoning me. I tripped along behind Viv. With each passing moment she looked sicker; her brown skin was almost gray as the flickering invisibility of her various parts began to subside. But the poison in the wolfsbane梩hat would not subside. That would usher her to her grave.
She cursed at me and threatened me every five minutes that she抎 put me to sleep if a single blade of grass so much as moved in her direction. I had to explain to her that there were some things I could control and some things I couldn抰。 I wasn抰 calling the plants, but they reacted to me nonetheless. Thick tendrils of Devil抯 Pet slithered along the ground on either side of us. The trees groaned as their boughs arched overhead. They were waiting for me to give a signal.
Behind me, Dre kept his arm around Calvin抯 waist as they shuffled along, trying to keep pace. Calvin抯 condition, like Viv抯， worsened as we moved toward the heart of the island. He struggled to keep his feet under him, and Dre kept yelling at him to get it together. I didn抰 know how somebody was supposed to just get it together after being poisoned by some toxic plant. These people were irrational, and that made them dangerous to me and to one another.
My throat burned with every breath I took. My lips were starting to crack, and I realized it was probably because I hadn抰 had anything to drink in hours.
I stopped. 揑 need water.?
揝hut up,?Viv said. She shoved me forward and I lost my balance, falling face-first into the dirt.
I was too exhausted to move, too wrecked to pay attention to the pain that bloomed in my cheek. As I lay there, a sprig of trumpet-shaped blooms stretched toward me. One of them tipped itself up and spilled a mouthful of dew across my lips. The water stung my chapped skin and brought with it an unexpected chill. Another bloom tipped over and gave me another little drink. My glasses were off again, but even then, I could make out the cream-colored blooms of the thornapple.
Viv grabbed me by the back of my T-shirt and yanked me up to my feet. 揘o cheating, sweetie.?She kicked at the flowers and some of them broke off under her shoe. A ripple of anger coursed through me as she laughed. 揙n second thought,?she said, 揑 am a little thirsty.?
She reached down and grabbed one of the other blooms that was still brimming with dew and put it to her lips. Dre leaped forward and smacked it out of her hand.
揑t抯 poisonous!?he shouted. 揂ngel抯 trumpet桰 think.?
I shook my head. 揥rong.?
揑t抯 not toxic, then??Viv asked.
I could see the desperation in her wide eyes and pinched mouth. She was dying of thirst.
Drink it, I thought. Every last drop. I overdramatically wet my lips. The poison in the thornapple was enough to kill her. Paired with the wolfsbane in the invisibility mixture, I was hoping it would be enough to finish her off.
揑t抯 poison,?Dre said, glowering at me. 揂nd you抳e had your fill of that already. Keep moving.?
Viv shoved me forward and we pressed on. I looked between the trees as we went, hoping to catch a glimpse of Marie or Persephone. I kept hoping Circe抯 voice would ring out in the encroaching dark, but there was nothing. They might still be sleeping. Viv could have put them so far under they抎 forgotten to breathe. Terrible thoughts invaded every corner of my mind until I found myself gasping for breath, sweating but not from the heat. I wrestled the panic into submission. A branch broke somewhere to my right. We all stopped midstep and Viv glared at me.