This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(6)

“I don’t know how that’s gonna work,” said Mo. “But listen. I let Bri know she doesn’t have to choose. She can learn more about where she comes from without having to feel like she’s stepping on my toes. I’m with her no matter what. But I need you to promise me that you’ll respect that. Be honest with her, because I’ve seen things since we’ve been here that tell me this is way beyond me, but don’t force it on her. I don’t know you from Adam, but I can tell you’re not gonna try to hurt her. Long as it stays that way, we won’t have a problem.”

I smiled. When I thought I could never do that again, I smiled. Mo still didn’t play when it came to me. That hadn’t changed.

Circe forced a quick laugh. “God, this kid is lucky to have you. And I’m sorry you have to be here now, under these circumstances, but I’m on your side and I’m going to do everything I can to help you both. It will not be easy. What we have to do is something I believed until very recently to be impossible.”

“I’ve seen a lot of impossible things lately,” Mo said.

Circe handed me and Mo the cups of tea.

“Drink up,” she said. “Rest. Then we’ll regroup.”

Mo took a cup and drank it in three big gulps. She turned to me and opened her mouth to speak, but her eyes closed and she rocked to the side like she’d forgotten how to stand. Persephone caught her before she fell.

“That was quick,” Circe said. “The brew is strong.” She put her fingers on Mo’s wrist as she glanced at her watch. “She’ll be just fine. Try not to worry.”

I took a cup and brought it to my lips, but Circe gently put her hand across the top.

“It won’t work for you,” she said. “It won’t affect you at all.”

“I guess it wouldn’t, right?” I set the cup back down. “What do I do?”

Circe sighed. “Not much you can do. I have tried every botanical sleep aid known to man and still haven’t found one that works.”

Marie moved closer to me and nudged my shoulder. “I’ll stay with you. As long as you want me to. I can call Alec and make him talk to you. That should put you right to sleep.”

I took the still-piping hot cup of tea and drank it in three gulps. Maybe it wouldn’t help, but I thought I should at least try. I waited for sleep to fall on me like it had for Mo, but just like Circe said, I didn’t feel a thing.

“It was worth a try,” I said.

Circe gave me a quick smile. “You should still try to sleep, if you can.”

Persephone turned, still cradling Mo, and I followed them out to the hallway. She ascended the stairs, and as I climbed up behind her, the painting of the black dog on the wall stared out at me. The eyes of generations of the Colchis family followed me as Persephone deposited Mo in my bed. Circe lingered at the bottom of the stairs and did not follow us up.

I took off Mo’s shoes and pulled the covers up around her. Marie slumped into the rocker by the fireplace, and I went to the window as Persephone left us alone. A figure moved in the dark, around the side of the house. My heart cartwheeled in my chest before I realized it was just Circe, two iron cages in hand. I squinted into the night and watched as she cut a path straight to the trailhead that led to the garden.

I kicked off my sneakers and lay across the end of my bed as Mo remained completely knocked out.

“Circe is going to help you, Briseis,” Marie said as she gathered her cloud of white coils behind her neck and secured it with a hair tie she had on her wrist. “I know she will.”

“What if we can’t find the last piece?” I didn’t want to allow such a negative, terrible thought to take hold of me, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Marie didn’t answer. It felt like a silent acknowledgment that this might not go the way we wanted it to.

I might be forced to live the rest of my life without Mom.

That thought brought the tears again. Marie was suddenly there, lifting me up so I could rest my head in her lap. Her fingers traced the tracks of my tears. There wasn’t much else to say or do. I closed my eyes.





CHAPTER 2

I opened my eyes the following morning. At least I thought it was morning until I realized the sun was slanting through my curtains at full strength. A rustle near my feet almost made me jump out of my skin. The plants sitting on the hearth had knitted together in the night and were now twisted around the four posts of my bed. My hand was rebandaged, and the aroma of sweet almond oil and menthol wafted from it. Mrs. Redmond had sliced open my palm, but whatever this balm was made the pain barely noticeable.

Mo still slept, her face relaxed, her breathing slow and steady. I couldn’t believe I’d managed to sleep, but as I awoke, the horrors of the previous day and night crashed over me again. If Mo could just stay asleep, she wouldn’t have to feel what I was feeling. The weight of this grief held me to the bed, made it hard to breathe. I thought if I didn’t get up I might lie there forever.

I forced myself to stand and slipped out of the room to let Mo rest as long as she could. I wandered through the hall and down the stairs like a ghost, like my body was just going through the motions. I rounded the corner and almost bumped into Persephone. She had the coffee table tucked under her arm. Me and Mo had tried to move it when we first got here and couldn’t because it was solid as a rock. It was made of oak and must’ve weighed a hundred pounds. Persephone was slinging it around like dollhouse furniture.