“The keepers of the Heart determine who is and is not worthy of possessing it,” said the woman.

“Why?” Katrina asked, angrily. “Why do they get to decide? Selene was selfish. She wanted to keep it for herself!”

“To protect it,” said the woman. “And you slaughtered her like an animal.”

I flinched. It hurt to hear what Mrs. Redmond—Katrina—had done to Selene. The woman paused for a moment, glancing back at me. Her gaze was hypnotic. There was something unnatural about the way she moved, the way she spoke.

“You will not wield it,” said the cloaked woman. “You are not worthy of the power it will grant you.”

“I deserve to be among them! Among the gods!”

The tall woman tilted her head back and let out a laugh that shook the walls and rattled the floor. “You deserve no such thing.”

Katrina struck the woman in the face. She didn’t even flinch. With a flick of her wrist, the woman tossed Katrina onto the floor. The dog descended on her, sinking its teeth into her shoulder. She wailed in agony.

I stumbled back to where Mo sat with Mom’s lifeless body. My ears popped like the air pressure in the room had changed. A huge, black void appeared by the door. Heat radiated from it, so stifling I threw my hand up to cover my eyes. It burned my nose and the inside of my throat.

The dog pulled Katrina toward the opening. Somewhere inside was a light like a smoldering ember. In one angry motion, the dog whipped its head and tossed her into the void. The last thing I saw before Katrina disappeared were her wild, terrified eyes.

The woman picked up the vial of Living Elixir and walked over to where Karter lay. She crouched over him. “Leave this place and never return.”

Karter stumbled to his feet. Limping toward the door, he glanced at me. The giant dog growled angrily and Karter rushed out of the apothecary.

The tall woman rose and came toward me. Mo scooted back, dragging my mom with her, but I stood and faced her. She reached out and cupped my face in her hands. Her skin was cool and smooth to the touch. She smelled like fire.

A strange feeling swept over me. It was like I knew her. My deep fear was tempered with a deep sense of understanding. “Please. My mom, she’s—she’s hurt.”

“She’s dead,” the woman said.

Grief washed over me again. The woman wiped away my tears with the sleeve of her cloak. “Death is only painful for the living.” Her gaze moved over my face. She traced my jawline. Her hand, from palm to fingertips, was longer than my entire face. Her shoulders were inhumanly broad, and she was taller than me while kneeling. I stared at the woman whose appearance seemed to shift as we stood in the shadows.

Her face grew softer, her eyes more luminescent. “Do you know me?”

“I—I don’t know,” I stammered. I didn’t, but I felt like I should.

“You all look so much alike, the members of this ancient family. My family.”

I blinked. This wasn’t Medea if the portraits that hung around the house were accurate, but she did look a bit like her. The women were connected somehow . . .

It suddenly dawned on me that I knew exactly who she was.

“Hecate.”

Her eyes turned to liquid gold in the darkness. She nodded gently.

“But Medea—the stories—she was your devotee.”

“My daughter,” she corrected. “And Absyrtus, my son.”

My heart raced as the revelation seeped into my brain. This family wasn’t just made up of people who were devoted to a goddess. They were a part of her, as Medea and her brother Absyrtus were, as I was.

Hecate stood. “I will guide your mother on her journey to the underworld. She will be safe under my watch.” The vial of Living Elixir glinted in her hand.

“Can’t we use it? To bring her back?” I asked.

She shook her head. “To make life everlasting, there must still be life. Alone, it is not enough to bring the dead back. But . . .” She trailed off.

“But what? Please. I’ll do anything. Please help me. Help her.”

She glanced toward Mom and then back to me, leaning down, putting her face very close to mine. “Can you do what has never been done? What no one has been able to do since the pieces of the Heart were first separated?”

I thought of Circe’s journal. Absyrtus made whole, master of death. “The six pieces. If I bring them together, I can save her?”

“She must come with me now,” Hecate said. “I cannot stave off death forever, but I can keep it at bay for a full cycle of the moon. Reunite the six pieces and resurrect her.”

“But I don’t know where they are! What if I can’t find them?”

Hecate pressed her palm to the side of my face, put the vial of the transfigured Absyrtus Heart in my hand, then turned and knelt at my mom’s side. Mo stiffened, but didn’t move. I stood watching as the cloaked goddess slipped her arms under Mom’s body, cradling her like a child. She walked to the void, her dog at her heel, and disappeared into the abyss.

CHAPTER 31

Hecate was real and Mom was dead—but we had a chance to save her if we could bring together the six pieces of Medea’s brother, Absyrtus. I was the only one who could do it. I was all that was left of Medea’s descendants. Hecate’s family.

I called Dr. Grant. When she arrived, Mo and I tried to recount everything that had happened. She looked at us like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. We sat in the front room, stumbling over our own words, trying to lay it all out.

I called Marie and told her everything as she rushed to the house. When she arrived, she didn’t speak. She looked exhausted, and she kept her injured arm covered, but she held my hand as Nyx stood by the front door.

“What do we do now?” Mo asked through a torrent of tears. “What do we do?”

“We have one month,” I said quietly. “And we have this piece.” I held out the vial. “It’s already transfigured.”

Marie took my hand in hers. “I drank the elixir Astraea gave me,” she said in a whisper.

“So we have one vial and one person who consumed the elixir. That’s two.” I stared at Marie. Was she now considered a piece of the Heart itself? I couldn’t see how, but Hecate said the six pieces could be reunited. Looking into Marie’s face, I didn’t like the questions that posed—or the way those questions made me feel.