揧ikes,?I said.
揥hen he completed the twelve labors he hopped on a ship and sailed the world. Want to guess what ship it was??
I already knew. If Jason had given the order it could only be one ship in particular. 揟he Argo.?
Persephone nodded. 揂nd who was on that ship accompanying her husband as he pursued the Golden Fleece??
I stared up at Persephone. 揗edea.?
揚recisely,?she said. 揌ercules had a front row seat to the chaos that ensued, and after everything was done and Absyrtus was dead in the ground, Jason asked him to do something more absurd than anything he抎 done before梥teal a piece of another demigod抯 body from its final resting place.?
I thought I was over being shocked by the history of this family, but I was wrong.
揂nd he did it??
揑抦 assuming he did,?Persephone said. 揑 don抰 know how. As for the other pieces, I抦 not sure how they came to be separated.?
揃ut you and Circe found two more of them.?
揑t took us years,?Persephone said. 揑t cost us more than we thought it would.?
I looked into her face and saw the same weariness I抎 seen in Circe, but magnified a dozen times over.
揟here抯 only one piece left now, right??I asked. 揂fter all this time, we only have one more piece to find.?
揟he Mother.?
揟he Mother? What抯 that??
揧our mom said you all run a flower shop??Persephone asked as she walked across the hall.
I tagged along behind her. 揧eah, we do.?
揇o you ever take cuttings from plants to seed others??
I thought for a moment. 揘ot really. I mean, I do that on my own sometimes. I can make another plant from any part of the original one.?
She nodded and walked back across the hall and scooped up the chaise. 揥hen Absyrtus went into the ground, his heart, his actual heart, still nestled in his chest, was the first to bloom and produce the heart-shaped plant. It seeded the other parts of his body with that magic, giving us the original six pieces. The Mother is the last and most powerful piece. You抳e seen what the piece we kept here could do. Imagine something a hundred times deadlier.?
I couldn抰。 I could not fathom that another plant existed that was deadlier than the piece of the Absyrtus Heart I had held in my own hands. Persephone set the chaise down in the next room.
I glanced down the hall. 揥here抯 Circe??
揝he抯 in the garden. She took the other pieces out there last night.?She reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial of Living Elixir. 揑 saw someone installed a safe in the turret. Was that you??
揘o,?I said. It had to have been Mrs. Redmond. 揃ut I know the combination. Do you want me to put that in there??
揑f you don抰 mind,?Persephone said. 揑t抯 already been transfigured, and it抯 so potent in this liquid form. Best to keep it locked up for now.?
She handed me the vial, and I went up to the little door at the end of the upstairs hallway. I climbed the stairs and turned on the single light in the center of the room, removed the painting of Medea to reveal the safe and turned the dial, 7-22-99. After I set the elixir inside I rehung the painting and took a minute to catch my breath. My family tree was intertwined with the fates of gods and demigods alike. It was a lot to take in.
Dust hung in the shafts of sunlight streaming through the window, illuminating the pages of the big book sitting on the pedestal in the middle of the cramped room. I flipped through its heavy pages to find the illustration of the Absyrtus Heart Selene had drawn in meticulous detail. The velvety black leaves, the pink lobes, the artery-like stalk. She抎 perfectly captured how strange and impossible the plant was, and still the drawing didn抰 do it justice. In the flesh, it was beautiful but equally terrifying.
I padded back down the stairs and peeked in on Mo. She was still asleep, and I didn抰 want to bother Persephone anymore while she was moving furniture around, so I went downstairs, grabbed my sneakers, and left out the front door.
I circled around the house and cut through the sloping, overgrown rear yard. As I approached the lush curtain of ivy and stinging nettle that guarded the path to the Poison Garden, it pulled back and I ducked onto the hidden path.
I trudged through the forest as the plants rippled along the ground on either side of me. They seemed hyperaware of my presence. Ever since I抎 called to them to help me wring the life from Mrs. Redmond as she threatened everyone I抎 ever loved or cared about, it was like I couldn抰 turn it off. I tried to push those thoughts aside and focus on what we had to do. The events of the days before were impossible to wrap my head around, and whatever was coming next felt equally unreal. I didn抰 know what I was supposed to do other than make it through the next hour, the next minute, the next second, and still that felt like I wasn抰 doing enough.