This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)
Kalynn Bayron
CHAPTER 1
Chrysanthemum sinense. Common name, mum.
White mums symbolized grief, death, bottomless unending sorrow. The house at 307 Old Post Road was festooned with them. They twisted themselves around the exterior like a cocoon. Tendrils of mulberry purple bougainvillea writhed like snakes, intertwining with arms of Devil’s Pet, crimson thorns bared like teeth, leaves so deep purple as to be black. Inside, rumbling groans from the wooden frame protesting the worried embrace of the foliage echoed through the darkened halls. The plants had come to shelter me from the agony of grief. But that was like holding back the tide—pointless and, ultimately, impossible.
Mom was dead and the goddess Hecate herself was holding her somewhere in the underworld for one full cycle of the moon. I could get her back but only if I could do the thing that had never been done—bring the six pieces of the Absyrtus Heart back together. It was an impossible task. At least it had felt impossible until I walked in on the scene unfolding in the front room.
Circe, my birth mother’s sister, a relative I’d thought to be dead until that very moment, stood in front of me like a ghost. But she wasn’t spectral, she was living, breathing, and full of confusion if the pained expression on her face was any indication of what she was feeling inside. Tears clouded my vision and made a hazy outline of her frame.
I couldn’t make sense of her. She looked like me—same deep brown skin, dark brown eyes; she even wore a pair of oversized glasses like me. I hadn’t been in the presence of someone I was related to by blood since I was a toddler, and I had no clear memory of that time anyway.
Circe’s gaze swept over me and her lips parted then closed again, like she was struggling to find the right words. “You’re not supposed to be here,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “How—why—I don’t understand. What is going on here?”
Dr. Grant, the head of Rhinebeck’s Public Safety department, stepped forward and straightened out her blazer. She spoke gently to Circe, as if she was worried about how she’d react. “We knew something wasn’t right but we didn’t know exactly what. I’ve been here trying to piece it all together.”
Circe bristled, like Dr. Grant’s voice irritated every fiber of her being. She didn’t turn to face her but instead kept her eyes locked on me.
Mo put her arm firmly around my shoulder. “I think we need some introductions.”
Circe glanced at Mo and her expression softened immediately. “Of course. I’m sorry—I—I’m Circe Colchis. That’s Persephone Colchis.” She gestured to the tall woman with the braids next to Marie, and her—well I still wasn’t sure what Nyx’s title might be, but “bodyguard” seemed like the right thing.
Persephone.
That was a name I knew, and even in the midst of a million complicated feelings my mouth opened into a little o.
Circe blinked a few times and took a deep breath. “Not that Persephone.” She smiled a little, but it was all nerves. “She’s your—” She stopped herself. “She’s a distant relative.”
“This is my mom, Angie,” I said, gripping Mo around the waist. “I’m Briseis Greene.”
“You are,” Circe almost sighed. “You really are. Briseis. Standing right here in front of me.” She opened her mouth then closed it. Words seemed to fail her.
I glanced at the two padlocked cages sitting in the front entryway. The pulse emanating from them rattled me, literally. I could feel the slow steady rhythm reverberating in my bones. “You have other pieces of the Heart? How many? Two?”
Circe nodded. I tallied up the pieces in their various forms. We had the Living Elixir, the two new pieces in their cages, and we had Marie, who had been transformed by the Heart’s power. I didn’t know if that counted anymore, but that’s where we were at, and that only gave us four pieces in total. We needed all six if we had any hope of bringing my mom back from whatever in-between place Hecate was holding her in.
Circe turned to Dr. Grant. “I think you should leave.”
Dr. Grant shook her head.
“She’s been helping us,” I said.
“Helping?” Circe asked. She took a step toward Dr. Grant. “Just how have you been helping, Khadijah?”
Dr. Grant patted the air in front of her. “Circe, please. I have been busting my ass to figure out what was happening here. I knew there was no way you could be involved, but I couldn’t put it together until it was too late.”
Circe turned away from her, her eyes brimming with angry tears.
“Please don’t shut me out again,” Dr. Grant said. Her tone was pleading, like her heart was breaking. “You know I tried to help Selene. I’d give anything to bring her back to you.”
“You got one more time to say her name in front of me,” Circe warned with a kind of sharpness in her tone that sent a stab of fear through me. This woman was not to be messed with. “I’m not saying we won’t speak, but it’s not gonna be right now and it’s not gonna be with you pretending you’ve been doing me a favor. I need you to leave.”
Dr. Grant nodded and slowly edged past Circe. She put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Briseis. But if anybody can help you right now, it’s Circe.” She nodded at Mo, then left without another word.