This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(36)

“For what?” I asked. “I don’t wanna go anywhere.” I pulled her close again and she nuzzled my neck, sending a rush of warmth all through me.

She pulled back and smiled. “Guess who Circe wants to pay a visit to?”

I shrugged.

“Lou.”

“For real?” My last visit to Lou’s had been with Karter, and Lou had made it clear that he would probably try to fight Marie if he ever saw her again. “That dude hates you.”

A wicked grin spread across her face. “I know. This is gonna be way too much fun.”

“Just don’t hurt him, okay? He’s a creep, I get it. But if Mo’s going with us, I don’t think she’ll be able to handle you folding Lou up like a pretzel.”

“That’s Nyx’s thing,” she said. She put her hand on her heart. “I promise I won’t do anything he can’t walk away from. Did you know that if you cut off someone’s toe, it can be reattached as long as you keep the severed piece on ice? I mean, that’s probably true for fingers, too, right?”

I blinked twice and pressed my lips together. “See? Maybe you should stay here.”

“Zero chance of that happening,” she said. “I’m going, and I’m gonna apologize to you in advance because I’m about to be real petty.”

I sighed. “Please just answer this one question—did you seduce his grandpa?”

Marie’s eyebrows arched up and she puckered her lips.

“Oh man,” I said. “You did, didn’t you?”

“In my defense,” she said. “I’m technically seventeen and so was his grandpa at the time. He wasn’t anybody’s pawpaw back then. We kissed maybe two or three times.”

I couldn’t keep my face from twisting up.

She laughed. “That was all we did, but to hear him tell it, I was obsessed. He spread all kinds of rumors about me to try and distract everybody from the fact that he was married, which was a thing back in the day. People got married really young sometimes.” She shrugged. “I didn’t know. I left him alone when I found out, but he tried to make my life miserable.”

I grimaced. “He clearly didn’t know who he was dealing with.”

“He sure the hell didn’t. I made a point to pop back up when he got older just to mess with him. I hadn’t changed at all, and he was probably seventy the last time I saw him. He thought he was seeing a ghost and passed smooth out.”

I sighed. “This should be fun.”

She rubbed her hands together. “Yup.”

I ran inside to check on Mo, who had showered and changed her clothes. She sat on the end of my bed looking mostly refreshed, but nothing was washing away the dead tired look from her eyes.

“We’re going into town,” I said. “Wanna tag along?”

“Where are y’all goin’?”

“Lou’s. It’s a funeral parlor.”

“Why do you—you know what? I don’t need to know. You taking some of the Avengers with you?”

“Just Marie and Circe,” I said.

“Y’all go ahead. I’m gonna stay here. Persephone said she has a few more things to patch up in the apothecary. She don’t really need my help. She asked if I knew how to run a circular saw.”

The look of horror on my face must’ve been clear because Mo quickly put her hands up in front of her.

“Love, you don’t even have to worry. Persephone saw how confused the question made me. Now she got me handing her pieces of wood that she already cut. I think I can handle that.”

“Okay, good,” I said. “Because I don’t think anything I have in the garden or the apothecary can grow your hand back if you cut it off.”

“Which is exactly why I’m on assistant duty.”

I gave her a hug and went back down to join Marie and Circe in the entryway. Marie jingled the keys in front of Circe.

“I’m driving.”

Circe tipped her head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Fine. Let’s just go.”

I slid into the front seat of the blacked-out sedan that Nyx usually drove us around in. Circe climbed into the back and slipped on her seat belt, yanking it back and forth. When she seemed satisfied it would hold, she made eye contact with Marie in the rearview mirror.

“Me and Briseis aren’t immortal so please stick to the speed limit.”

I glanced at Marie, and her devilish grin made me smile, but I also touched the buckle of my seat belt.

Marie drove us across town. She stayed five miles under the limit the entire time but somewhere in Rhinebeck was a jogger recovering from a near-death experience due to her insistence on hugging the curb. When we parked in front of Lou’s Funeral Parlor, Circe unfastened her seat belt and leaned through the partition, yanking the keys out of the ignition and stuffing them in her pocket.

She sat back and let out a long exasperated breath. “I’ll drive us home.”

Marie shrugged. “Probably a good idea.”

The funeral home stood quietly, set back from the road, its wide green lawn neatly trimmed.

“Why are we here again?” I asked.

Circe narrowed her eyes at the sleepy Victorian. “Lou’s family has been in Rhinebeck almost as long as ours. We have a long-standing agreement, but I have a sneaking suspicion he hasn’t been holding up his end of the bargain the way he should.”