I was trembling so bad I could hardly stand up straight. The first man lunged forward, and I shut my eyes. Something impacted me from the front. I was suddenly being dragged across the ground. My eyes snapped open and I clawed at the dirt as a tangle of vines wrapped around my waist, pulling me back to the tree line. A gathering of nettle rose up like a fence, and to my utter astonishment, a rare and deadly plant called the stinger, a mustard-yellow bloom with poisonous barbed spears that, when threatened, released porcupine-like quills.

A pained moan cut through the air. One of the shorter men lay on the ground. He rolled onto his back. A sickening gurgling noise erupted from his throat, which lay torn open. He became unnaturally still. I tried to scream but nothing came out.

The vines held me tight, refusing to release me. I spotted Marie standing at the edge of the clearing with her back to me. The tall man stood in front of her.

“Marie! Run!” I screamed.

She didn’t move. The man leaned toward her. Her hands held the sides of his head. The vines gripped me harder, the poison plants like guard dogs in front of me.

“Marie?” I called out again.

There was a loud pop and the man’s arms went limp, dropping to his sides. Marie tossed him to the ground like a rag doll. The vines loosened, and I was able to wriggle free.

“We need to go,” Marie said. Her voice had returned to its normal singsong tone.

“What the hell is going on?” The tall man lay in a heap on the ground. The space where his head should have been was a dark spot in the grass. Was it a shadow? A trick of the light? The other two men were nowhere to be seen.

Marie huffed loudly as she marched up to me. “Did you close your eyes like I asked?”

“Are you serious right now?” The plants surrounding me slunk back into the underbrush.

The smell of metal, like wet pennies, permeated the air around her. Marie’s eyes were black as soot—no pupil, no white. She leaned toward me. “You have so many secrets, Briseis. Can you keep one more?”

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 23

I struggled to keep my feet under me as Marie pulled me along the path that led out of the cemetery. Nyx was standing at the driver’s side of the car, readjusting her jacket.

“Where were you?” Marie asked.

Nyx motioned to the ground by the rear wheel. A man lay on the ground, his arms and legs bent at unnatural angles. “He tried to run.”

“I handled the other three,” said Marie. “They already came after Briseis once before.”

Nyx frowned. “That’s . . . concerning.”

“ ‘Concerning’?” I almost screamed.

Marie pushed me into the car and slid in beside me. Nyx got behind the wheel and soon, we were driving toward my house.