This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(72)

“Keep that vial safe,” Dre said to her.

I shifted around on the floor. Every joint in my body ached. I brushed the dead leaves from my shirt and they turned from brown to yellow and then green.

“Try anything and I’ll have you asleep for a week,” Viv snapped. Despite her precarious state of existence she hadn’t given up on being an asshole. “I’ll put you in a sleep that makes you forget to eat, to piss. You’ll die before you ever get a chance to wake up. Keep it cute and we won’t have a problem.”

My head swam and a wave of dizziness washed over me. My arms and legs were stiff. “What did you do to me anyway? You can just make people pass out?”

“Viv has the blood of Hermes in her veins,” Dre said. “He was known to put people in a trancelike state so that he could pass messages to them and make them think it was a dream.”

They knew their own histories the way Circe and Persephone knew ours. I’d seen Hermes put Marie into a state of unconsciousness with barely any effort. Apparently they, or at least Viv, could do the same thing even though it took much more of an effort.

“We are favored,” Viv said.

I glanced up at her. I wondered if she could see the shock on my face as I registered that her arms were completely invisible.

“We’re special,” she said through gritted teeth. “The old gods are dead. Katrina wanted to believe they weren’t but that was just wishful thinking. It’s better for us if they’re gone. We will be the new gods and we will take back everything that was stolen from us.”

“You sound just like her,” I said angrily. “She wanted to take her place among the gods, too.” I almost laughed. “That woman couldn’t even take care of her own kid. She couldn’t get into a locked garden. Who lied to her and told her she was anything more than a bad mother, a thief, and a murderer?”

Dre’s eyes widened in shock. “Watch your mouth. You might piss off Viv here, and maybe I won’t stop her from getting to you this time.”

Viv looked like she was ready to bum-rush me at any moment.

“She’s probably going to die,” I snapped. “You know what the main ingredient in that invisibility mixture is? Wolfsbane. It’s deadly. And you just downed enough to kill a bunch of people. How did it taste?”

Viv tried to get to her feet but was stopped by another surge of pain.

“You’re angry,” said Dre, speaking to me like I was a little kid. “But it’s only because you don’t understand the bigger picture. Katrina was driven. She knew we deserved more, that we could be more. Maybe if your family hadn’t been so selfish, you’d get it. Your line has been hoarding the Heart. If you had just done what she wanted we wouldn’t even be here like this.”

I rolled my eyes and turned away from him. “She wanted to be immortal and she didn’t care how many people she had to hurt or kill in the process.”

Dre shook his head. “We will do things differently.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Help us get to the last piece. I know you can. Karter told us everything. Your abilities are remarkable. You can help us and nobody else has to get hurt.”

“I would rather die,” I said.

Viv huffed. “That can be arranged.”

Dre kept his hand firmly on her knee even as it disappeared. “No. You’ll come with us and help us get inside. Just like you did for Katrina in your garden. Get us in and out safely and we’ll let you go. We won’t need to worry about you once we’ve taken our rightful place. You’ll be nothing to us and you can live your life—inconsequential as it is—in peace.” He said it so casually, like he hadn’t just insulted and threatened me at the same time. This dude and his family were the most selfish, self-obsessed people I’d ever met in my life.

“Y’all really think the gods are dead?” I asked.

Dre’s eyebrows arched up. I wondered if Karter had, perhaps, left out the most important part of what had gone down in Rhinebeck—that a literal goddess had shown herself and brought her wrath down on Katrina.

“We know they are,” Viv said. “Katrina tried to convince you otherwise, huh?” She shook her head. “Stupid. She was ridiculous.” She stood up on shaky legs. “Let’s go. It’s early. We can get there in a few hours if we leave now.”

Early.

I looked up through the trees that stretched high above the ruins of the building. The sun hadn’t been fading after Viv had sent me to sleep. It was rising. It’s why I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. I’d been in a deep sleep on a stone floor for hours. I’d lost an entire afternoon. A full night. It was morning and it was day twenty-eight. The last day to reach the Heart if I had any hope of getting my mom back. I struggled to stand up.

“I’ll help you,” I said as I got my feet under me. “But we have to go now.”

Viv smiled. “See, Dre? She just needed a little convincing.” She came over and shoved me with invisible hands out into the overgrown foliage. “Keep it cute,” she repeated. “I’ll have you in a coma if you try anything. Got it?”

I nodded, but it took everything in me not to envision ropes of Devil’s Pet wrapping her up. They’d do it if I called to them and then she might put me back to sleep. I had to get to the center of the island, so I kept my head down as we began our journey.