This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(45)

“I will,” I said.

“I know you’re not going on this trip with Circe, but I’d like to tell you that if for some reason or another you were wondering who might be here to keep Mo safe if you had to leave for a little while, well, Lucille and I are a couple of old farts, but we are not to be underestimated. We’ll be here.”

He squeezed my hand, then got in his car and pulled out of the driveway. I went back inside to find Dr. Grant and Circe emerging from the apothecary with tear-stained faces but holding hands. Dr. Grant squeezed my arm as she, too, went out to her car and left.

“Are you okay?” I asked Circe.

She nodded but didn’t say anything else about it, and I decided to stay out of her business for now.

The mood had changed. The hopeful feeling I’d had as we discovered Aeaea’s most likely location was being eclipsed by an encroaching dread—what were we really stepping into here? We knew where we needed to go and how we’d get there but had no clue as to how it would actually unfold. On top of that I had to think of a way to leave Mo behind, to lie to her without hating myself for it. I didn’t know if she’d forgive me for leaving when she’d made it clear that she wanted me to stay. If I brought Mom home, I could see her letting it go, maybe. But if I couldn’t get Mom, if something happened to me along the way … I pushed those thoughts away and pulled out Circe’s moon clock and stared down at the dials.



Waning gibbous. Third quarter moon. Waning crescent. Six days on the calendar and three phases in Circe’s moon clock had ticked by. Marie’s contacts were dragging their feet, and I was pretty sure Circe had aged five years in that same time. Every morning she looked like she hadn’t slept, and her interactions with Marie became more and more strained. Mo was starting to think her plans weren’t going to work. She urged Circe to make a plan B, but there was no alternate plan that didn’t involve missing our window to resurrect my mom.

I spent as much time in the garden as I could. It felt far from the chaos that enveloped me in the house. I lay among the overgrown beds of the Poison Garden, staring up at the scaffolding that crisscrossed high over my head. I worried about how much longer I could hide myself away. Mo was worried. So were Circe and Marie. But it was Persephone who found me in the Poison Garden early in the morning.

“Thought I’d find you here,” she said as she leaned against the curved arch of the moon gate that separated the front part of the garden from the back.

I sat crisscross on the ground as a tangle of black hellebore bloomed around me, their velvety petals unfurling by the dozens. “It’s quiet out here.”

Persephone had her braids piled high on top of her head and wrapped in a red scarf. She came over and sat down across from me. She stretched her legs out and rolled her head from side to side as she leaned back on her hands. “I need a favor.”

I glanced up at her. “Okay?”

“I need you to let me have this place to myself tonight.”

I looked around. “The Poison Garden?”

She nodded.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

She stretched out her hand and beckoned to a gathering of pale purple bell-shaped blooms sprouting from thick ovate leaves arranged in rosettes. They leaned toward her.

“Mandragora officinarum,” I said quietly.

“Herb of Circe,” Persephone said. “Sorcerer’s Root. Mandrake. When I learned about these plants I didn’t know them by their scientific names. I’m still a little hazy on that, but I know their folk names like I know my own.”

“I thought if I studied plants I’d be able to figure out what was going on with me.”

Persephone’s brows pushed together. “I’m sorry you didn’t have someone to guide you.”

“I did, though. I had my parents. Maybe they didn’t fully understand it, but they embraced it from the jump.”

“I can see that,” she said. She took a deep breath. “I see so much in you that I don’t have. You have a life ahead of you that can be filled with learning and practice. You can build yourself up and know that you’ve made peace with this gift.”

“You don’t have that?”

“No,” she said bluntly. “A long time ago, maybe. But when you live a life as long as mine you do all there is to do.” There was sadness in her voice and behind her eyes. “So you’ll leave me to it later tonight?” She changed the subject and masked the pain in her face with a wide smile.

I nodded and she hopped up and dusted herself off. “Just for tonight.” She strode out of the garden, and I disentangled myself from the hellebore and made my way back to the house.

Circe was in the front room and waved me over as I came in. “Marie and Nyx took Mo to get some groceries.”

“Oh, okay. Did Persephone come back yet? She left the garden right before me.”

“We probably won’t be seeing too much of her. It’s a dark moon tonight.”

I palmed the little moon clock in my pocket. “Is that important?”

Circe looked up from her notebook. “Will you come sit with me? We can have a little lesson.”

I went over and sat on a folding chair by the table. She opened a journal to a blank page and sketched out several circles. “The moon goes through various stages. You’ve obviously heard of the full moon, maybe even the waxing and waning phases, right?”