This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(71)

“We got too close to the wall,” Dre said as he followed my gaze.

I looked at him, puzzled. “Wall?”

“A stone wall, three stories high,” Dre said. “Right at the center of this island. Built in a sort of rectangle. Big silver gate at the opening.”

“It’s not even locked,” Calvin croaked.

“Doesn’t need to be.” Viv smirked. “Look what it did before you even got close enough to touch it.”

“It?” I asked. “What are y’all even saying?”

Viv shoved her knee into my shoulder as she went by.

“Where are the people I was with?” I asked.

“Probably right where they fell,” Viv snapped. “Don’t know why you’re worried. You know at least two of them can’t die.”

I straightened up. Karter must have told them everything. Anger bubbled up in me and some of the rotted leaves surrounding my legs turned an obscene shade of emerald green. I closed my eyes and willed the plants outside the ruined building to come in, to tear the place apart, to catch these people and crush them in their deadly grip. Rustling and cracking split the air. I opened my eyes to find all three of my kidnappers staring at me. Viv smiled. Dre and Calvin only looked on.

“You think you’re the only one with abilities, sweetie?” Viv asked. She stepped toward me and caught my chin in her sweaty palm. She squeezed my jaw until I felt like it would pop out of place. Her dark brown eyes looked on me with all the malice and contempt she could muster.

“Sleep.”



I awoke with a start, sitting straight up, my head swimming with confusion. The light had dimmed and shadows stretched across the floor. My throat was bone dry, my lips rough and peeling. The pain in my neck was like a raging fire.

Viv and Dre sat next to each other on the bench while Calvin lay balled up on a pile of leaves on the floor. His breaths came in slow rasping draws. Dre glanced up and scowled at me as he reached into his pocket and retrieved something—two small glass vials.

The Living Elixir and the invisibility serum.

My hands flew to my right pants pocket only to find it flat—empty.

“What are these?” Dre asked.

I said nothing. My mind went in circles. It was clear he wasn’t sure what they were. I needed all six pieces of the Heart to bring my mom back and he was being way too careless as he rolled the vials between his fingers.

“Is one of them the Living Elixir?” Viv asked.

I looked away.

“It is,” she said giddily. She snatched the vials away from Dre and held them close to her face. The silvery liquid of the invisibility serum coated the glass as she examined it. The crimson Living Elixir shimmered in the light. “Which one is it?”

I stayed silent.

She uncorked the bottle of Living Elixir and held it to her lips. It took everything in me not to allow the horror I felt to show on my face or in my movements. Viv watched me intently. She recorked the vial and opened the invisibility elixir. I allowed my eyebrows to push together just slightly and I pressed my hand into the floor, letting the dried leaves crackle underneath it.

Viv grinned and brought the vial to her mouth.

“Stop,” Dre said, gently touching her arm. “She didn’t say yes.”

“She doesn’t need to,” Viv said. “Look at her. She knows this is the one.”

Dre sighed. “Try to think about who she is, what she can do. It could be anything.”

“But it’s not just anything,” Viv said. “Look at her face! She knows what it is and she thinks she can keep it for herself.”

She tipped up the glass bottle of invisibility serum and drank it in one gulp.

I blinked back my utter astonishment.

Dre’s face twisted into a mask of confusion. Something told me he was under the impression that he was the only one who was going to reap the benefits of the Heart. But he kept his mouth shut. Neither one of them appeared to give a single thought to Calvin, who lay gasping on the floor.

Viv held out her hands in front of her. “Do I look different? Do you notice anything?”

“No,” Dre said flatly.

Viv suddenly clutched at her throat, then fell forward onto her hands and knees. The cry she let out was the sound of a woman in pain but it sounded like music to me. Served her right.

“What’s happening to her?” Dre asked.

He tried to comfort her but she knocked him back as her chest and head took on a hazy quality. She lifted up her shirt and screamed at the sight of her nearly transparent torso.

“What is it?” Viv screamed. “What did you do to me?”

“It’s an invisibility elixir, and I don’t think you’re supposed to drink it,” I said.

She gripped her belly, which flickered in and out of view as Dre looked on in horror. Viv stumbled to her feet and lunged toward me, but Dre caught her and pushed her back.

“Don’t,” he said. “Not now.”

“The other vial has to be the Living Elixir,” she said. Her teeth were showing through her half-transparent cheek. She slid the second vial into her pocket and turned to Dre. “When we get to the last piece, we can make her transfigure it and we can both take it. I won’t have to be the only one who gets to live forever.”

She doubled over again and lowered herself onto the floor. The invisibility serum pushed its way through her, rendering different parts of her body invisible every few seconds. She groaned into the rotted leaves littering the floor.