quest had come to end.” A devious smile crept onto her lips. “But I didn’t know about you, the girl they tried to save.”
A sudden and terrible rumble reverberated through the ground. Dust rained down from the ceiling and fear darkened Mrs. Redmond’s face.
“We have to hurry,” she said. She grabbed my arm, digging her fingers into my skin. “Grind up the Absyrtus Heart. The whole thing. Now.”
She shoved me to the counter and I stared at Karter. He looked away. Coward.
Mrs. Redmond followed my gaze. “Kill her if Miss Briseis here tries anything.”
Karter let his gaze drift to the floor but he nodded.
My fingers still ached as I took hold of the plant. The Heart had stopped beating. The leaves had wilted and the lobes were ashen. The smell of rot was just as intense as the cold sensation. I ripped the Heart to pieces and placed them in the mortar, then crushed them together.
Mrs. Redmond pushed the stone bowl toward me. “Dump it in here.”
I tipped the mortar, and the ground pieces of the Heart slid into the bowl. She picked up the two vials of liquid—one gold, one silver—and dumped them in. She added three spoonfuls of honey. The contents shimmered and a thick ash-gray mist billowed out. Mrs. Redmond stood transfixed, but I took several steps back. The bowl rattled and the jars on the shelves clanged together.
“Put your hand in there,” Mrs. Redmond said. “Complete the transfiguration.”
I didn’t move. Mrs. Redmond motioned toward Karter. He sank his fingers into the wound in my mom’s arm. She cried out weakly, then sobbed, her body convulsing with each heave.
“Okay! Okay!” I shoved my cut hand into the bowl, trying to recreate the feeling I had when Dr. Grant’s father had shown me how to transfigure the contents we’d put on the copper plate. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. A warm sensation built in my palm, chasing away the cold. The liquids and pieces of the Heart combined under my hand. I pulled back as my muscles spasmed.
Mrs. Redmond stared into the bowl as a deafening crack split the air. Then, silence. She grabbed the bowl and poured the contents into an empty glass vial. The liquid was red as blood and thick like honey.
CHAPTER 30
“The Living Elixir,” Mrs. Redmond said breathlessly. She held up the vial, admiring its contents. “It has had a thousand names over as many years, but the Absyrtus Heart was always the most important piece of the formula. Do you have any idea what this means for me?”
Karter was staring at his mother—not with reverence or admiration, but sadness. His jaw was set, his fingers twitching on the handle of the knife. I couldn’t stand it. I had to put an end to this.
As Mrs. Redmond gawked at the elixir, I edged around the counter, lowered my shoulder and rushed her, catching her in the gut. We crashed to the floor and my shoulder struck the counter on the way down, sending a stab of pain through my arm. The glass vial flew out of her hand and skidded across the floor.
“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