This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(52)

In a lot of ways, Marie was like most of the other seventeen-year-olds I knew. Impulsive, a little mouthy, push-and-pull relationships with the people closest to her. She was eternally seventeen, but the reality was that she had a three-hundred-and-seventy-six-year history behind her. The mention of Astraea’s name stoked a curious feeling in me. I wanted to know more, and since we were stuck on a plane for the next twelve hours, I figured it was as good a time as any to ask.

“Can you tell me about your life back then?” I asked. “With Astraea? It doesn’t sound like she thought you were a monster.”

“You probably have to start with the Colchis family’s history first.” Marie glanced at Persephone, who gave her a little nod.

“I accompanied Astraea’s mother, Ariadne, and her three sisters, across the ocean in the company of Dutch merchants in 1630,” Persephone began. “New York was still called New Amsterdam at that time. Only thirty land grants were given to Black people between 1643 and 1716. We were granted two in 1643 and that is the land we are now the caretakers of. The same spot where the apothecary now sits. We were one of the few free Black families in a land drenched in the blood of the enslaved.”

We sat in a silence for several moments in quiet recognition of all those who had come before us.

“I met Astraea when we were young,” Marie said quietly. “I don’t remember much before I knew her. My family had traveled north and came to the place that would be known as Rhinebeck.” She took a deep breath and continued. “We were best friends. We spent so much time together people thought we were sisters. I remember her talking about her family, about the secrets they kept. Then we got sick. My baby sister died first. She was so little, her body didn’t stand a chance fighting off the illness. Then my father died.”

“Gods, Marie,” Circe said.

Marie stared blankly at her. “You’ve heard this story before.”

“And it never gets any easier,” said Circe. “I can’t imagine. I’m so sorry, hun.”

Marie nodded then went on. “I got sick and had to stay in bed. I don’t think I could’ve gotten up if I wanted to. I was so weak. Astraea came to visit me every day, but my mother wouldn’t let her inside. She didn’t want her to get sick, too, so Astraea sat outside the window, where she’d grown a bunch of sunflowers that never wilted. My mother thought it was a sign that I’d recover but I knew the truth. It was Astraea, and she had that magic that all of you have. As the days dragged on, my body felt like it was on fire. It hurt to breathe, to swallow. I wanted to die, and the look on my mother’s face told me I was gonna get exactly what I wanted.”

A knot stuck in my throat.

“I closed my eyes one night and fully expected to never wake up. But at some point I felt someone’s hand behind my head. There was a cool sensation on my lips and then in my throat, and then there was nothing. I thought I was dead until I started to hear Astraea’s voice calling to me from somewhere. She just kept saying my name over and over again. When I finally opened my eyes, I was renewed, revived. I got up and my mother fainted.” She laughed lightly. “I went to her and picked her straight up, like she weighed nothing. I was stronger than I’d ever been.”

“Nobody questioned it?” I asked.

“They did. Even I questioned it. It took years for me to convince Astraea to tell me what she’d given me. She kept saying it was an elixir or a tonic but she didn’t want to go into detail.”

“She knew how to keep our secrets,” Persephone said.

Marie rolled her eyes. “She should have been able to tell me more than she did. She used the Heart on me. Y’all could’ve helped me deal with what was happening.” She glared at Persephone. “You knew what I would become and you didn’t even try to reach out. Real neighborly of you.”

“Not everything is your business,” Persephone snapped.

“Kind of feels like it’s my business when I’m dying and then all the sudden I’m a damn monster!”

I grabbed Marie’s arm. “You gotta stop saying that. You’re not a monster.”

“How can you say that after the things you’ve seen me do?” She put her hand over her mouth and her gaze dropped to the floor.

“I’ve seen you rescue me from people who were probably trying to kill me,” I said. “I’ve seen you do what you had to do to protect the people you care about. That doesn’t feel monstrous to me.”

“And if I didn’t have this power?” she asked. “What would you think of me?”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

Marie sighed. “Even if I didn’t ask for this. Even if I was afraid of it in the beginning … It’s what makes me special,” she said quietly. “Now it’s the most interesting thing about me. Who am I without it?”

“You serious?” I asked in disbelief. “There’s so much more to you than that.”

Persephone turned her face to the window, and Circe pulled out a pair of headphones and stuck them in her ears.

“I’m glad you think so,” Marie said.

I laced my fingers through hers. “I’d still like you if you weren’t … this. Anyway, I think the most interesting thing about you is the way you think nobody sees how scared you are sometimes, how you kind of put up this front with Nyx and Alec even though it’s clear you love them. You’re not a monster. You’ve seen some shit. Been through a lot of things that I can’t even begin to imagine, and you’re still here, trying to make it work.”