“Get it!” she screamed.

Karter leaped over me, grasping at the elixir. I grabbed his leg and he fell face-first onto the floor with a sickening crack. He was still for a second, then scrambled forward, groaning, holding his unnaturally situated jaw. He writhed on the ground and I tried to grab hold of him, but he thrust his leg out, catching me on the side of my head. Everything went black.

“Briseis,” Karter mumbled. “I—I’m sorry.”

As my vision came back into focus, I could feel blood trickling from the top of my ear and into my open mouth. It tasted the way the Absyrtus Heart smelled, like wet metal. Karter grabbed the vial as I clawed at him.

“Get away from it!” Mrs. Redmond screamed. She really didn’t give a single thought to her son. All she cared about was the elixir. She’d moved behind my mom, holding a fistful of plant matter. The jar of dried oleander leaves lay at her feet. “Selene tried to keep me from the Heart.” Anger burned in her eyes. “She paid for that with her life.”

It took a moment for me to register what she’d admitted to. I scrambled to my feet. “You—you killed her? You killed Selene?” A numbing ache coursed through me that had nothing to do with handling the Heart.

Mrs. Redmond glared at me. “It seems I’ll have the very rare privilege of making you a motherless child twice in your life.” She shoved the oleander into Mom’s mouth and clamped her hand over her lips. I lunged toward them, but Karter caught me by the arms, holding me back. My mother struggled against her bindings, but she’d lost so much blood, she didn’t have the strength to fight back.

“Mom!” My legs went out from under me. Blistering sores erupted on her face. She gasped as Mrs. Redmond shoved another handful of leaves in her mouth, her own fingers blistering as she did.

The damage was done. Mrs. Redmond rushed to the sink, holding her hand under the tap. Karter loosened his grip on me and I wrenched away from him, scrambling to my mother’s side. I pulled the leaves from her mouth and cradled her head as her eyes rolled back. A gurgling sound erupted from her throat.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see straight. Karter handed his mother the vial, and they embraced. I hated them with everything in me.

Suddenly, Mo was kicking in the door, screaming and scrambling across the floor. She tore the tape from my mom’s hands and feet. We lowered her to the ground and Mo held her, tears running down her face.

My mom didn’t speak or cry. The color drained from her face. I knew the poison was quick, and Mrs. Redmond had given her enough to kill fifty people. She became so still, she didn’t look real.

And then, she was gone.

A ragged scream broke from Mo and split the air. Anger and grief pooled inside me. I stood and balled my fists at my sides. There was no reason to hold back anymore. Roots and vines by the hundreds crashed through the windows and burst right through the floor, tearing up the wooden slats. They twisted like tentacles, slithering in through every crevice.

Mrs. Redmond screamed as vines wrapped around her waist. A smaller one tangled itself around Karter’s leg, and he slashed at it with the knife. I focused on Mrs. Redmond, moving toward her as I completely gave myself over to my anger and my grief. A trio of slender roots broke through the window and gripped her legs. I wanted them to squeeze the life out of her.

Karter broke free and sprinted for the hallway, but he stopped short.

A hulking beast-like shape darkened the doorway.

My heart, already beating wildly in my chest, almost stopped.

A guttural growl erupted from the shadows, and a dog the size of a bear lumbered into the room, its wet lips pulled back over its gleaming yellow teeth. Karter tripped over his own feet as he scrambled away from the creature. Mrs. Redmond struggled against the vines. I was frozen where I stood.

Just then, a tall, hooded figure appeared from the shadowy hall.

They wore a sweeping black robe that melded so perfectly with the darkness that I thought my mind, racked with fear and anger and grief, was playing tricks on me. Only Mo’s terrified gasp let me know it was real.

As the figure crouched to fit through the doorframe, their hood fell down around their shoulders. A cloud of lustrous coils framed her head. Her skin, the rich color of black calla lilies, shone in the darkness. Circling her head was some sort of crown with six or seven points radiating like the golden rays of the sun. Her black eyes narrowed as she glided into the room. The dog heeled to her like a puppy, and she stroked it between its ears.

I tried not to scream.

“Calm yourself,” she said to the dog. Her voice was a symphony of thunder, wind, and fire.

Karter stumbled into the counter, sending the mortar and pestle clambering to the ground. The mysterious woman made a noise like a sigh and the dog leaped on top of him, clenching his shin in its mouth. Karter cried out, and Mrs. Redmond struggled again.

The woman turned to me. “Release her,” she said, pleasantly enough.

I let out a long, slow breath. The vines dropped away from Mrs. Redmond and came slithering over to me. Mrs. Redmond stumbled and the tall woman caught her by the throat, lifting her off the floor like she weighed nothing. It was only in that moment that I realized the woman had to be pushing ten or eleven feet tall.

She took hold of Mrs. Redmond’s hand, crushing it inside her own. Mrs. Redmond let out a howl like a wounded animal. The vial of Living Elixir fell from her fingers and landed on the counter. Karter squirmed in the grip of the black dog.

“Heel,” said the woman. The dog retreated and Karter grabbed his leg to stanch the bleeding. The woman turned back to Mrs. Redmond. “Katrina Valek.”

“Wha—what?” I stammered.

The woman narrowed her eyes at Mrs. Redmond in a way that sent a bolt of pure, unfiltered terror straight through me. “You’ve denied your own name? Melissa Redmond, Louise Farris, Angela Carroll. Lies.”

My mind looped back on itself. Those were names from the apothecary’s ledger. She’d been here, trying to get access to the Heart for years, decades.

“How did you find them?” the cloaked woman asked. She closed her hand tighter around Mrs. Redmond’s—Katrina Valek’s—throat when she didn’t respond. “The guardians of the Heart. How did you find them?”

Katrina kicked her legs wildly. The woman loosened her grip slightly.

“Jason’s line remains,” Katrina gasped. “We’ve been hunting them since the Heart’s inception. We should be the ones to reap the benefits of its magic.” Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.