This Poison Heart

Briseis anticipates her movie outing with Karter, and her moms comment that they like Marie and Karter more than two of Briseis’s other exes. Karter arrives, bringing Briseis flowers, which makes Angie and Thandie nervous. The teens reveal that Karter knows Briseis’s secret. This news makes the moms happy for their daughter’s growing relationships in Rhinebeck. Karter expresses excitement at seeing Briseis “show off” her talents, which pleases her. They watch a vampire movie in a theater that Briseis finds to be astonishingly small. She is annoyed when two men sit directly in front of them halfway through the film, and when she notices one of the men watching her, she grows uneasy.

Just as the teens decide to move, the men try to grab Briseis, who sprays them with Mace. They race away in Karter’s truck, swerving off the road when they flag down a public safety officer. When Dr. Grant arrives, Briseis asks the woman not to tell her moms about the attack, fearing that Thandie and Angie will want to return to Brooklyn if they hear about it. Briseis is surprised when Dr. Grant agrees to keep the investigation quiet, though she tells Briseis that she will have to inform Angie and Thandie if she learns anything about the attackers, whom she describes as “magical assholes.” Briseis is alarmed to think of hostile people among the local magic practitioners, as every magical practitioner she has encountered so far has been “cool, if not a little strange” (251). Karter and Briseis recount the event, but they are only able to confirm that the attack involved four men, one of whom was white and stocky. Briseis asks Karter to keep the attack secret, emphasizing her desire to remain close friends with Karter and remain in Rhinebeck. He agrees to keep her secret on the condition that she informs him about any new developments.

Briseis heads upstairs to her room without stopping to speak with her moms, feeling that her secrets are becoming burdensome. She finds a dusty photo album on top of her armoire, which charts Selene’s life. The latter pictures show her pregnant with Briseis. This image makes Selene feel more real to her. Remembering Angie’s reassurances that she should not feel guilty about learning more about her birth family, Briseis texts Marie, accepting her offer to see Selene’s grave. Marie replies to say that Nyx will retrieve Briseis the following evening. The next day, Dr. Grant reports no further information about Briseis’s attackers. Briseis tells her moms of her plans to visit Selene’s grave, which both easily accept. Nyx reports that Marie is arriving separately; when Marie, upon her arrival at the small cemetery, reports that she took a rideshare, Briseis points out Marie’s previous assertion that they are dangerous, warning that she knows when someone is “bullshitting” her. Marie obfuscates, implying that her mysteriousness is for Briseis’s own good. When Briseis rejects this, Marie clarifies that it is for Marie’s own good, which Briseis accepts despite feeling an instinctive anxiety.

As they enter the cemetery, Briseis gets a call from Karter, which she doesn’t answer. Marie sees the call, commenting that the used bookstore where Karter works only opened several months prior. This misaligns with Briseis’s understanding, but she is forced to focus on keeping the grass from reaching for her rather than reflecting and clarifying her memories of what she knows about the bookshop. The two girls move through the cemetery, which houses only local families who have ancient lineages in the area. They arrive at Circe’s and Selene’s graves, the latter of which is thickly grown over with hellebore, a poisonous flower. Briseis feels heavy with sadness at seeing the centuries of Colchis graves.

They come across Astraea’s grave; she died in 1680. Though Marie asserts that she is trying to clarify things for Briseis, she avoids a question about how she could be friends with someone who died centuries ago. They discuss Briseis’s uncertainty over the idea of taking on the responsibility that Circe has left to her—both the apothecary and guarding the Absyrtus Heart. Suddenly, the same four attackers appear. Marie urges Briseis to close her eyes; Briseis does. Something grabs her, and she realizes that a line of rare, deadly plants is protecting her. One of the men makes a horrible sound, and Briseis looks over to see his throat torn out. Suddenly, Marie yanks off another man’s head with brute force. The plants release Briseis as Marie returns to her side, her eyes entirely black. She asks if Briseis can keep another secret.

Between the actions of Marie and Nyx, all four men are now dead. As Nyx prepares to call Dr. Grant, Briseis demands to know the truth. Marie discloses that the men were after the Absyrtus Heart, which Astraea used to heal Marie from a childhood illness. Marie admits that she is over 300 years old; the illness she suffered from was a strain of the Black Death. Marie tells her that the Absyrtus Heart cures impending death and replaces it with immortality. Briseis realizes that the bare space in the Heart’s enclosure once held a second plant: the one that healed Marie. Marie doesn’t know how Astraea healed her, but she understands that the power offers a tempting allure to others. She promises that she is now being completely honest with Briseis. Briseis promises not to “walk away” from their friendship but says she needs some time to process what she’s learned.

With Briseis’s safety still in question, she plans to speak to the coroner about what happened to Selene’s family while Marie speaks to Dr. Grant. Marie kisses Briseis on the cheek as she says goodbye, leaving Briseis exasperated with herself for still being attracted to Marie despite the alarming details she has just learned.

In the morning, she and Karter go to meet coroner Lucian Holt to learn more about the Colchis deaths. When she sees a casket with lackluster flowers, Briseis can’t resist using her powers to improve the dead woman’s bouquet, and the undertaker, Lou, sees her doing this. (He is actually named Lucifer; Lucian was his grandfather, and all the men in the family have “Lou” names.) He is angry that Marie gave Briseis his information and makes a casual reference to Marie’s immortality, reporting that she and Lucian had a love affair many years ago. Karter is confused.

Lou keeps all the medical records in his head, not on paper. He has refused to tell Marie the details of the Colchis deaths because he believes it to be none of her business. He is willing to tell Briseis, whom he identifies as being related to the Colchises on sight, but he says that Karter is “an observer.” Briseis tells Lou that Karter knows her secret, but Lou cryptically asks if she thinks “that’s the only secret worth keeping” (279). Lou states that violent death follows the Colchis family; they have suffered 12 unsolved homicides in six generations, as well as drownings and disappearances. The latter two categories weren’t investigated because they were falsely reported as natural causes. He says there were “reasons” for doing this, but he doesn’t say what those reasons were.

Lou tells Briseis that Selene was killed by a gunshot and the shooter was never found. Circe discovered Selene’s photograph of Briseis and swore Lou to secrecy, as she did not want Briseis in Rhinebeck. He doesn’t know what changed Circe’s mind. She disappeared in 2010, three years after Selene’s death, and was only recently declared dead. Briseis is astonished by this given the letters that Circe left her. Lou is surprised to hear of the letters’ existence. At this, Karter suddenly urges Briseis to leave, claiming that Lou is “full of shit” (281). Lou asks Briseis to remind Marie that he “[doesn’t] appreciate having to clean up after her” (282). Briseis assumes this to be a comment about the dead men in the woods. The teens leave, and Briseis is unsettled by what she has learned. She plans to meet Marie that evening.

Briseis struggles to settle her mind as she gathers rosary peas for Marie’s necklace. An email from Dr. Kent explains the hazy relationship between history and myth in classical studies. Dr. Kent relays several mythological details that have a partial basis in fact, claiming that her own research suggests that Medea actually existed. She urges Briseis to think of the term “witch” as something closer to “priestess.” While Medea is framed as a devotee of Hecate, Dr. Kent posits that the Medea figure predates the Hecate figure and frames the two as having a “deeper connection that has yet to be discovered” (286). Dr. Kent doesn’t believe that Medea killed her own children, citing a Vatican Archives folio that mysteriously disappeared 20 years prior. She attaches a photo of the document, which reminds Briseis of the document she found in the secret room behind the hearth. She can’t tell if the letters match, but the shape of the paper does. Briseis takes the ancient document to Marie’s. Marie hugs Briseis, relieved that the teen still wants to see her after their misadventure. Briseis gives her the rosary peas and reports what she learned from Lou. When Briseis tells Marie about the ancient document, they enlist Alec’s knowledge of Greek to translate it.

The document claims that “Medea was gifted with the power of immunity to any and all poisons” (291). Her brother was named Absytrus. Jason, captain of the Argo, tricked Medea into believing that her brother and father planned to marry her off and offered his protection and love. He claimed to need the Golden Fleece to protect her, and the two searched for the item for years. They failed. Absyrtus found his sister and revealed that the supposed plot to marry her off was a lie. Jason kidnapped Absyrtus and Medea’s three children, threatening to kill them if she did not find the fleece for him. With the aid of a goddess, Medea defeated a dragon to obtain the fleece and then decided to poison Jason. Jason, however, forced their children to taste his food, and the three collapsed. In revenge, Jason took the fleece and cut Absyrtus into six pieces. Medea called to Hecate, who appeared with something (the damaged document is unclear, but Alec believes it says “hound”) and opened the gates to the underworld. Medea’s immunity passed to her children, who were saved from the poison while Jason fled. He took the fleece and married a princess, becoming king. Medea and her children retreated to the island of Circe, where she buried the pieces of her brother in a poison garden. Where each piece of Absyrtus is buried, a plant that only Medea’s family can tend grows. She fed the plant with her blood and moonlight.

Briseis is agog, listening to Alec’s translation. Marie sweeps Briseis out of Alec’s study. Briseis admits that she opened the Absyrtus Heart’s enclosure. Marie is disappointed but fascinated when Briseis offers to show her the Absyrtus Heart. She warns that Circe would never have allowed such a thing, but Briseis doesn’t care; Circe has only left her strange clues and no clear information. When Briseis declares her intention to share everything with Karter as well, Marie insists that Briseis must keep the secret. The two briefly argue and then make up, nearly kissing. They head back to Briseis’s house, and the Briseis’s thoughts linger on her attraction to Marie. She texts Karter, asking him to meet them there.

Karter arrives at the same time as Marie and Briseis. Karter and Marie bond over their mutual dislike of Lou. The three head to the turret room, where Briseis shows them the illustration of the Absyrtus Heart. She explains the pain she suffered when she touched it, earning Marie’s displeasure at her recklessness. The ancient document causes her to suspect that she is related to Medea and must possess the innate knowledge of how to care for the plant. They head to the garden despite the imminent sunset. When they reach the Poison Garden, Karter is forced to hold his breath and run to avoid the effects of the toxic plants. They enter the Absyrtus Heart’s enclosure, and Briseis explains her theory that the Absyrtus Heart needs blood to revive. Karter and Marie are concerned, but Briseis gives the Absyrtus Heart a single drop of blood. It moves, startling Karter into fleeing the room. Briseis blocks him from poison plants at the last second, and Marie uses her preternatural speed and strength to pull him to the safety of the outer garden.

Briseis has injured her ankle, so Marie carries her out of the garden, trying to hide the fact that she’s doing so effortlessly. Karter demands to know how Marie pulled him from the garden so quickly, and Briseis promises to explain once her ankle is tended. Karter agrees to keep everything he’s seen a secret. She heads to the apothecary despite her mothers’ wariness; they would prefer that she go to the hospital. Angie, at least, is reassured when the arnica paste that Briseis makes has an immediate effect. Karter and Marie leave, and Briseis heads to bed, worrying about Marie’s contact with the poison in the garden.

The next morning, Briseis dusts the house despite her injured ankle since Thandie’s allergies are bothering her. Behind the drying rack in the apothecary, she discovers a small altar room. Inside is a table with a statue of Hecate, three keys, dried herbs, black candles, and a photo of Briseis as a child. Alarmed, Thandie calls her sister, Leti, who knows about altar craft. While Thandie and Leti talk, Briseis and Angie find a family tree drawn on the wall, which starts with Medea and ends with Briseis. Angie wonders if the tree is real given its long timeline, but Briseis feels certain that it is. Thandie reports that Leti will call back with more information. Wishing that she had revealed everything sooner, Briseis tells them everything that has happened, starting with the water hemlock. Her parents are supportive, though they urge her to be more forthcoming. Their support makes Briseis cry, and the three hug.