This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(41)

Circe sighed and rested her head against the window. “I’ve seen you do some things that I didn’t learn to do until I was much, much older. I know you’re capable and Hecate showed herself to you when she hasn’t done that for any of us in more generations than I can count. That has to mean something. Just make sure you’re ready to go when it’s time, because as soon as we have what we need, we need to roll out.”

She was hesitant. I could see it all over her face, but she was setting that aside for reasons that weren’t entirely clear. I didn’t really care. I was going to go with her to find the last piece of the Heart, and I was going to bring my mom back from the dead.





CHAPTER 11

The next day as we sat in the front room Circe convinced Mo that she and I both would stay behind while the others went ahead to find the last piece of the Absyrtus Heart. Mo wasn’t happy about it, but she kept repeating that everything would be fine. I didn’t think she actually believed that, but it’s how she dealt with the crushing improbability of this entire scheme actually being successful. So many impossible tasks had to be completed within a short period of time, and the final task, actually reuniting the pieces of the Heart, was something none of us had a real handle on.

Circe and Persephone pulled together every piece of information they had about the Great Eye and where it might be located. I helped them read through texts and books and obscure websites, and after three more days, we still had nothing.

As Marie made arrangements for fake passports and chartered flights we turned our attention to what would happen if we were able to actually reach Aeaea.

“How do we combine the six pieces of the Heart?” I asked.

Mo shot me a sideways glance.

“How are y’all going to put all the pieces back together?” I made sure to act like I was upset but resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be going.

Persephone’s face was tight. She didn’t like lying to Mo. The two of them had become friendly. But she stayed quiet.

“The first and most important step is finding the last piece,” Circe said. “If we can’t do that, nothing else even matters.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The screen was still cracked, held together by packing tape, but through the fractured glass I could make out the name I’d saved for the number that was calling me.

Karter.

I stood up and walked out of the room. Mo called after me, but I ran to my bathroom and shut the door. I answered the call and held the phone to my ear.

“Bri?” Karter’s voice called through the static.

I couldn’t speak or move. I couldn’t believe I was hearing his voice.

“Bri. Listen to me, please. You don’t ever have to forgive me, I just—I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I can’t—I don’t know what to say.”

I wanted to scream at him. To curse him out, but none of the curse words in my vocabulary felt adequate.

“What do you want?” It was all I could manage.

Karter breathed into the phone. “I want to help you, but I don’t know—”

“Help me?” My face flushed hot with rage. “You can’t help me! You were supposed to be my friend!” That was why it hurt so bad. After having to pull away from my friends back in Brooklyn all because they couldn’t accept me exactly as I was, his friendship had felt like a lifeline. It pulled me back from feeling like I’d never have another friend and then he’d let it all go—left me to drown in my grief.

“You don’t understand. I can’t explain. We—we’re going to get the last piece of the Heart and you have to just stay away. It’s the only choice.”

“The Heart doesn’t belong to you!”

“It doesn’t even matter now. Just—just don’t go after it. Hide. Please. Just go somewhere far away and wait. My family hates you. They’ll come after you when they get the last piece. Please, Bri.”

“I don’t care about you or your family,” I said. “We’re going to get to it before you, and when we do you better hope I never see you again.” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. All I wanted was to see him held responsible for his part in all of this. The plants from my room pushed their way under the door, through the keyhole, and knitted a curtain of leaves around me.

There was a click and the phone went silent. I stared at the screen as it went dark.

A text came through from Karter. Just one word.

Abana.

The doorbell rang, and I sat in silence as someone went to answer it. I moved toward the bathroom door, and the foliage pulled it open for me. As I passed through the curtain of leafy green buds, a delicate string of Erinus alpinus, fairy foxglove, wound its way around my ear and bloomed into a tuft of pink, pillowy soft petals near my temple. I took a deep breath and let the anger wash away from me. That anger could be useful, I’d proven that with Lou, but it wasn’t the right time.

Downstairs, Dr. Grant was in the front room. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, the most casual I’d seen her look since I met her. She held her car keys in one hand and a paper coffee cup in the other.

“Morning,” she said.

“Morning,” I said. “Everything okay?”

Circe swept into the entryway and stood so that Dr. Grant couldn’t take another step inside without bumping into her. I braced myself for them to start bickering, but Circe spoke gently to her.