This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(43)

“I’m glad we’re all here together.” She quickly glanced at Dr. Grant. “I have a confession to make.”

I held my breath. I didn’t know if I could take another revelation.

Circe massaged her temple and sighed. “I think I’ve done a disservice to you and, if we’re being honest, to myself by not being a little more open about what has been going on here over the years. I’ve always been a pretty private person. I thought it was what was best. Now, I know that was the wrong thing to do.” She kept her gaze on the floor. “I can’t go back but I can start to try and do better.”

“Nobody blames you for being so private,” Lucille said. “Look what you’ve had to shoulder.”

“The burden is heavier than you could possibly imagine,” Circe said. “But I’m learning to set it down.”

“Or let us help you carry it,” Dr. Grant said.

Circe looked into her face, and it reminded me of the way Mom and Mo looked at each other. Circe swallowed hard and continued. “What I want to tell you all is that we have a pretty good idea about where the last piece of the Heart is and we have to go get it to try and bring Bri’s mom back.”

Lucille turned to me. “Was it the oleander?”

I could only nod.

“I—I didn’t know,” she mumbled half to herself, half to us. “I just saw that it was bad. I felt the pain but I didn’t know.”

“The only people to blame are this Redmond woman, her son, and anyone who was helping them along the way,” Circe said. “Lou’s disloyal ass was feeding them information.”

“I never trusted him,” Isaac said. “Not fully.”

“He’s so good at his job, though,” Dr. Grant said. “He did the body when my aunt Nene died.”

Isaac nodded. “Nene looked like she was sleeping.”

All I could think of was the body I’d seen in the coffin when Karter and I had gone to see Lou for the first time, how Lou had been so proud of the reconstruction work he’d done on that poor old lady’s skull.

“He has a good cover,” Circe said. “He needs to be good at his job in order to steer suspicion away from him. Nobody would have known he was betraying a sacred oath at every opportunity.”

“He’s been dealt with,” Marie said.

Isaac raised an eyebrow, and Lucille shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t care one little bit.

Mo gripped my hand. “So now what?”

“We have to go to Abana,” Circe said. “We have to locate the Great Eye.”

“We’re not worried Karter is leading us into a trap?” Marie asked.

“We were already going to the general area,” Circe said. “What I’m more concerned about is that they’re already so far ahead of us.”

“If they get in your way it could trip things up,” I said. Circe’s celestial clock sat open on the table. We were running out of time.

Lucille suddenly shuffled past Circe and approached Mo, extending her hand. Mo glanced at me and I gave her a half smile. She rested her hand in Lucille’s and Lucille traced the lines on her palm.

“You stay here when they go,” Lucille said. “You don’t step foot outside this house when they go or you’ll die, just like—”

“Okay, Lucille,” Circe said. “I know your word is ironclad but ease up just a little for me, please. We have to focus here.”

Mo pulled her hand into her lap. “I’m staying. So is Bri.”

I stared into my lap because if I looked at her, she’d see that I was up to something. Moms just know, and I couldn’t lie to her right in her face.

“I think our best course of action is to gather as much information as we can about Aeaea and then get to the last piece of the Heart before Karter and the others do,” said Circe. “It’s clear that Karter still has someone in his corner, probably his extended family, who ferried him away on a private jet. I don’t know what resources he has, what he’s told them about what happened here or if it even really matters. All I know for sure is that this is going to be extremely dangerous.”

Isaac cleared his throat. “We were all so close for so long and then you up and disappeared for ten years. I hate seeing you leave again, but I understand you all have something you need to do.” He reached into his pocket and took out a small vial. “I have something that may lift your spirits.” He uncorked the glass container and poured a small amount of the shimmering silver liquid into his palm.

Circe’s eyes grew wide. “Isaac. Is that what I think it is?”

He nodded. “Briseis transfigured this mixture for me the last time I stopped by. She is very skilled. Maybe even more than she realizes.” He rubbed his hands together like he was lotioning up. His hands glistened with the substance.

Persephone stepped forward. “Briseis. You did this with no other training? No other preparation?” She seemed absolutely dumbstruck.

“I did something,” I said. I remembered how afraid I’d been when he asked me to help him, but transfiguring the wolfsbane mixture had come naturally to me. “It felt like my muscles were coming off the bone.” I turned to Isaac. “You never told me what it was for.”

His eyes glinted in the light. “Watch.”