This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(55)

Persephone started to follow him and I grabbed her by the sleeve.

“We’re just gonna follow him in? Y’all didn’t have a weird feeling at all?”

“Oh, I did,” Persephone said. “That’s exactly why I’m going in.”

“That makes no sense,” I said.

She disappeared inside and Circe followed her. Marie and I went in but stayed near the door in case we needed to make a quick escape.

The inside wasn’t what I thought it would be. I’d never actually been inside a lighthouse so I didn’t have much to compare it to. It was dimly lit by dancing firelight and so warm I’d already begun to sweat. There was a big open space in the center, a neatly made bed near the back, and a small kitchen with a table and chairs. Narrow windows were cut into the stone walls and were covered in blue-green glass. In the corner sat a large staff carved with two intertwined snakes running its length. A thick, sweet smell lingered in the air, and I pinpointed its origin in the dozens of potted plants the lighthouse caretaker had scattered around the interior. They were all Crocus sativus, bright purple blooms with crimson stigmas.

The man stirred the logs in the woodstove and gestured for us to sit at the table. A pulsing white light filtered down from the glowing orb high above our heads, and it lit up the space like daylight every few seconds.

Circe sat and rested her elbows on her knees. “We have come a very long way,” she began. “And we don’t have a lot of time but—”

“Who are you?” Marie jumped in. “And is this the Great Eyeball or what?”

Circe rolled her eyes and let her arms flop at her sides. Persephone scowled at Marie but the man grinned.

“Was there a younger guy with the group that came here before?” I asked, hoping he’d forgive Marie’s little outburst. “He would have been injured. His jaw was broken, I think.”

“In fact, there was,” said the man. “He looked like he’d seen better days.” He lowered his lanky frame into a rocker by the woodstove. His long coat caught on the runner and for a split second I thought I saw a flash of something gold on his foot. He quickly readjusted himself. “He was here along with three others. They have not been back since and I don’t expect they ever will be.”

“You said they were sailing the Black Sea,” Circe said. “Do you know why?”

The man cocked his head to the side. “I can see that you are already aware of what they were looking for. You’re looking for the same thing. I have yet to figure out why or if you even realize how pointless it is.”

Circe stared at the man and something in her expression changed. Her eyes went wide. Her mouth turned down at the corners and she pressed her hand into the top of the table.

The man stared into the fire. “What is it you seek on the island?”

Persephone clasped her hands together in front of her. “Who said anything about an island?”

“It’s the only reason anyone would travel to the center of the Black Sea.”

“We never said that’s where we were going,” I said.

He glanced at me. “But it is where you are going, isn’t it? Didn’t you come here looking for a way to get there?” He laughed, and the deep, throaty sound echoed off the walls. “I don’t much care for games. For trickery.”

“We’re not trying to trick you,” Circe said. “We need answers and time is not on our side.”

“Of course it isn’t,” he said dismissively. “You’re mortal.”

The way he said mortal made it clear that he himself was not.

“Can you help us?” I asked. If he could help, I didn’t care what he was.

“My advice would be this—don’t go. I don’t know why you or that other group have taken such interest in that place, but they aren’t coming back and neither will you if you press on. I’m doing you a favor. Believe me.”

“What do you think happened to them?” I asked.

“The waters are treacherous, vengeful. They’re probably at the bottom of the sea by now.”

“What if they made it to the island?” I asked.

He chuckled. “I hope they drowned. It’s a much kinder fate.”

Persephone rose from her chair and slowly approached the man. “The Great Eye is said to reveal all. We came here hoping it would point us in the direction of the island.”

“And so it seems you’ve failed before you’ve even begun,” he said. “The Great Eye does indeed see much—but not all. That place is one thing it cannot show you.”

My heart sank. “Why not? Why can’t it show us how to get there?”

“Because magic was worked on the place. A kind of magic that no longer exists in this world. It is beyond the reach of men.”

“And gods?” Persephone asked. “What about them?”

The man was suddenly out of his chair, gripping Persephone’s left wrist. Circe scrambled to her feet, lunging at the man, who immediately sidestepped her. Marie’s eyes turned black as she launched herself at him. He still held tight to Persephone’s wrist but somehow managed to catch Marie by the front of her jacket with his opposite hand and toss her against the rocker. He reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a gleaming golden sword the length of my arm.