This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(42)

“Thanks for coming.”

“Of course,” Dr. Grant said.

Marie grinned at me from the front room and mouthed the word “awkward” to me.

Nyx and Persephone disappeared down the hall, leaving me, Mo, and Marie to witness the extremely uncomfortable situation that was Dr. Grant clearly trying to kiss and make up with Circe.

“You look beautiful, as always,” Dr. Grant said.

I winced. I waited for Circe to hurl some insult or tell Dr. Grant to kick rocks, but to my surprise, the corner of her mouth lifted in a little half smile.

Dr. Grant tilted her head to the side and stared at Circe like she was the only person in the room. “I’m glad you called, because I got some information about that Karter kid. Thought it might be of interest to you.”

I gripped my phone.

“What is it?” Mo asked. “Did you find him?”

Dr. Grant followed Circe into the front room and pulled out her phone.

“It looks like he was treated at a hospital in Red Hook. They wanted to keep him, but he left against doctor’s orders. The address and phone number he left with them were fake. Then he pops up again on some security footage we pulled from an incident outside Red Hook.”

Circe straightened up. “Incident?”

Dr. Grant nodded. “There’s an airstrip out there. Doesn’t get much use, but kids use it for racing. Illegally. The owner was sick of it, so he put in some cameras a few months back.” She angled her phone toward Circe, and I peered over her shoulder as Dr. Grant hit play on a grainy video. “The morning after Karter left the hospital somebody landed a private plane on the strip. The security camera captured this.”

Karter limped into the frame. He held his face like he was in pain, flash of white on his wrist, a hospital bracelet. He shuffled to the plane and climbed a set of steps, disappearing into the cabin.

“Whose plane is it?” Circe asked. “There’s gotta be a record of it.”

Dr. Grant nodded. “The flight originated in Turkey, but I’m having trouble tracking down a passenger manifest.”

Circe tipped her head back and stared up at the ceiling. I tapped the screen on Dr. Grant’s phone and the video played again. I watched Karter hobble to the plane over and over again.

“Karter called me,” I said. They needed to know what he’d told me.

“What? When?” Mo eyed my phone.

“Just now. When I was upstairs. He said he was sorry. He said we should hide because him and his raggedy-ass family are going after the last piece of the Heart and once they get it, they’ll come after us.”

Circe gripped the table’s edge and Marie settled into an unnaturally still posture.

“Can I have your phone?” Dr. Grant asked. “I might be able to get the department to pinpoint his last location.”

“I think I already know where that is.” I opened the text he sent me and showed her. “It says Abana.”

“Where’s that?” Marie asked.

Circe scrambled to the map and searched the area near the place where the four finger-like protrusions of land jutted out into the sea.

“Here,” she said. “It’s a town on the south shore of the Black Sea. It’s very close to where I was thinking we should look for the Great Eye. If they’re headed there, then we must be on the right track.”

Anger bloomed inside me. I wanted so badly to believe there had been some part of our friendship that was real. The way we’d laughed together and shared things that neither of us had before. Tears welled in my eyes and my throat burned as I tried to swallow the white-hot anger. I hated myself for being so open with him. Look where it got me. Images of him in the apothecary helping his mother terrorize me and my parents played in my head. He really didn’t care what he’d done. He used me to get his mom the information she needed, then bounced, and I was supposed to be grateful that he’d given me this clue? I shoved my phone back in my pocket and gripped my hands together in front of me.

The doorbell rang.

Circe went to answer it, and I recognized a familiar voice. Dr. Grant’s father, Isaac, came in, with Lucille from the candle shop in town trailing behind him.

“Hey, Miss Briseis,” he said. I tried to fix my face but I couldn’t wipe the scowl off quick enough. “Uh-oh. Bad timing?”

I shook my head. “No. It’s fine.”

Isaac smiled warmly at me even as concern flashed in his eyes. “We came to say hello to everyone.” Circe patted him on the back before embracing Lucille.

“Persephone’s here, too,” Circe said.

Lucille chuckled. “Are you having a family reunion?”

“Something like that.” Circe winked at me.

Lucille swept over to me and took my hands in hers. She traced the lines on my palm, the same way she had when we first met. She stared into my eyes. “Oh, baby, what happened?”

I shook my head. “I don’t even know where to start.”

She ushered me into the front room as Persephone and Nyx rejoined us. Nyx grabbed a few chairs and we all sat down. Mo and Marie sat on either side of me, while Dr. Grant and Circe seemed to have reached some kind of shaky truce. They sat side by side on two folding chairs, their knees brushing against each other. Isaac stood in the doorway, and Nyx and Persephone stood shoulder to shoulder by the fireplace. Lucille paced in front of the table as Circe spoke.