I scrambled to my feet, but the roots of the Heart had risen out of the ground and wriggled on the surface like serpents. I tried to find a path through to Marie, but they cut me off at each turn. I frantically searched for her in the dark and found her standing rigid next to the Mother. Curling, nearly transparent vines had sprouted from the upper chambers of the Heart and attached themselves to Marie抯 arms and legs. She didn抰 fight them. She just stood there, her eyes wide and black. The tendrils penetrated her skin like needles, and something flowed away from her through the tubelike structures. Something viscous and crimson梑lood. The Heart was draining Marie and Persephone.
I kicked aside a tangle of writhing roots and pushed my way up the side of the mound. The ripple of heartbeats shook the soil loose beneath me and my feet sank into the nearly liquified dirt. I fought my way through and reached Marie just as her legs gave out. She fell into my arms and we both tumbled to the ground. Cradling her as best I could I pulled her to my chest. Her eyes were open but she wasn抰 looking at me or anything else. Her breaths came in ragged tears. I put my face in her hair, breathed her in. Her fingers twitched at her sides as the life drained out of her.
I pressed my lips to the cool skin of her forehead. She sighed.
And then she was still.
The vampiric vines detached themselves from her and from Persephone, who lay lifeless in Circe抯 lap. Circe had managed to make her way up the opposite side of the mound and into the same state of shock and sadness that I was in.
The tendrils retreated, and the Heart itself began to sink into the top of the mound, like it was being pulled inside by an unseen hand. I scrambled back, pulling Marie抯 lifeless body along with me.
As the Heart disappeared in the dirt, the beating became muffled and distant, but the shock of each pulse still rippled through the ground. The mound collapsed in on itself, and then suddenly, everything went eerily still. The beating stopped. The network of roots retreated beneath the ground, and the other plants settled until the only noise I could hear was Circe抯 gasping sobs and my own heart, not just beating, but breaking.
I gazed around the garden in a state of hazy grief. Circe rocked back and forth, cradling Persephone in her arms. The moon had risen high above us and its dappled silvery light now flooded the enclosure.
Marie was gone.
Persephone was gone.
And I didn抰 have my mom back.
I抎 failed everyone I loved, and I didn抰 know how I was going to face Mo when I went home. I promised her I was going to bring Mom back, and I hadn抰 been able to do it. And I抎 have to tell Alec and Nyx I couldn抰 save Marie. I抎 have to live with that, myself.
揥hat did we do wrong??I sobbed.
Circe turned to me. 揑桰 don抰 know.?
I rested my hand on Marie抯 chest and stared down at her face. She looked like she was sleeping. I leaned down, buried my face in her hair, and cried until there were no tears left.
揃riseis.?Circe抯 voice cut through the night and reached me in the depths of my unbearable sadness.
Something was wrong.
I looked up to see movement in the dark. The roots of the Heart had retreated below the surface of the soil and went still, but something was still moving under the dirt. The ground bubbled up like it was being displaced from somewhere below. It took me only a second longer to realize that something was rising from beneath the place where the mound had been.
Suddenly, the beating of the Heart picked up, strong and steady. I gripped Marie抯 shirt and held my breath.
A hand梒overed in tattered, broken flesh梒lawed its way out of the dirt.
I opened my mouth to call to Circe but no sound came out. Fear had stolen any rational thoughts I might have had in that moment. All I could do was watch as the hand, connected to an arm, attached to a torso, emerged from the earth.
I抎 backed up as far as I could. Unable to carry Marie with me any farther and unable to leave her, I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn抰 going to be able to get away from whatever this creature was that was slowly pulling itself from the ground.
In the pitch-black night, with only the moon and the bioluminescent glow of foxfire lighting the space around us, I watched in a state of utter shock as a broad-shouldered man emerged from the remnants of the mound and pulled himself up to a standing position.
His bones were visible through swaths of ragged skin that knitted themselves together at his shoulders, hips, and neck. The man抯 chest heaved as his body mended itself. He tipped his head back, breathed deep, then leveled his eyes and stared directly at me.
揥here am I??he asked.
My hands flew to my ears, an involuntary reflex in response to the sound of his voice. It was like Hecate抯， a chorus of voices all in one, wrapped in an echo and impossibly loud.