This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(23)

Mo hung her head. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I just—”

“Don’t apologize,” Circe said. “I know that you’re going through it right now and I wish you weren’t. I can’t stop you from following us out the door when it’s time. All I’m saying is that if you choose to go, there’s a really good chance you won’t survive. And if by some chance we can’t get Thandie back, then you’ll be gone, too. Then what?”

Mo looked at me with tears in her eyes. “I need a minute,” she said.

She turned and walked out of the room and out the front door. Not two seconds later she walked back inside, and I heard the locks click shut. She came into the front room and stood, visibly trembling, her fingers interlaced on top of her head. I rushed to her side and took her by the arm.

“What’s wrong?” My heart raced. I glanced to the front door. “Mo? What happened?”

Nyx stood outside the window, peering in through the glass.

“Mo!” I shouted. “What is going on?”

“I—it’s—I saw …” Her legs went out from under her, and if I hadn’t been holding on to her arm, she would have cracked her head on the edge of the table. I tried to guide her down, but she still hit the floor with a loud thud.

“Oh my god! What happened?” I screamed, my heart cartwheeling in my chest. “Mo!”

Circe raced to the front door, and just as she reached for the handle, the room suddenly darkened as vines slithered across the windows, blotting out the light. My heart punched inside my chest. The twisted foliage pushed its way through the crack under the door. A tapestry of Peperomia prostrata unfurled from the second floor banister, dropping down around me and Mo like a curtain.

Circe yanked the front door open, glanced outside, and sighed. “Nyx! Come on, now! You’re gonna give her mom a damn heart attack. She passed out!”

Nyx and Marie came stumbling through the front door. Persephone appeared at the top of the stairs, peering down at us.

“Oh no,” Marie said, crouching down and effortlessly readjusting Mo so that she was lying on her side. “Damnit, Nyx. I thought he was hibernating or something.”

“He doesn’t hibernate,” Nyx said. “What else was I supposed to do?”

“Tell him to stay his ass at home!” Marie shot back.

“Yeah, okay.” Nyx rolled her eyes. “You know how disobedient he can be when he misses me.”

“We’re gonna put his funky ass on a leash and tie him to a tree or something,” Marie said.

“Over my dead body,” said Nyx.

“Well, we both know that isn’t gonna happen, so I guess we’ll have to figure something else out,” Marie shot back.

“He’s outside all the time,” Nyx grumbled. “He doesn’t mind, but maybe we could let him in—”

“In where?” Marie asked angrily. “Not in the house? Are you serious? He can’t even fit in there! And I know you’ve seen the size of his droppings. Ain’t no way.”

They were both breathing hard, and then they exchanged glances. Marie’s chin wobbled, and then they both descended into a fit of cackling. My heart continued to beat out of my chest, but Marie and Nyx weren’t overly concerned about whatever it was that was happening outside.

I was about to cuss them both out when a shadow engulfed the front entryway. Not the patchy darkness the vining plants had created, but a full and total eclipse of the fading evening light filtering through the windows flanking the front door and the stained glass at the top of the wall.

Something enormous was standing in front of the house.

A familiar sound split the air. The same sound I thought I heard from the bluff the other night at Marie’s.

The rhythmic beating of wings.





CHAPTER 6

Mo stirred as I cradled her head in my lap. I stared out the open front door, unsure of what I was seeing. I shut my eyes and opened them again, thinking maybe I was seeing things. Maybe I wasn’t immune to the poisonous plants, and their toxins had finally caught up with me. Hallucinations were a side effect of deadly nightshade, henbane, and mandrake—all of which I’d come in contact with at some point.

That didn’t make any real sense, but neither did what I was seeing—a mass of black feathers, taloned feet, four heavily muscled legs extending above the roof of Marie’s black sedan, slope of a fur-lined belly. Wings.

Mo’s eyes fluttered open, and she sat up groggily. I scrambled to my feet as the creature folded its giant wings against its body and lay down in the driveway.

“It’s a griffin,” Marie said, like that was supposed to mean something to me. “He belongs to Nyx. They’ve been together forever.”

I couldn’t find the words to say how I still didn’t trust what I was seeing with my own two eyes. “It’s—it’s your—your pet?”

Marie winced, and Nyx narrowed her eyes at her. “You’ve been telling people he’s my pet?” She looked absolutely disgusted. “The disrespect.” Nyx turned back to me. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t expect him to follow me here. He’s usually very good about staying put. Is Mo okay?”

Mo was sitting slack jawed on the floor. “Not okay,” she mumbled. “Not okay. Not even a little.”