Alec stopped and checked his notes and computer screen again. “The document is damaged here. A partial word, ‘Κυν——λο,’ is written, and the word ‘κυνηγόσκυλο,’ meaning ‘hound,’ could fit in the space.”

He went on. “ ‘Hecate appeared with a hound and opened the gates to the underworld. Jason fled with the fleece, and Medea looked on as Hecate swept everyone in attendance to their deaths. In an act of grace, Medea’s immunity flowed in the veins of her children and they were saved.

“ ‘Jason made use of the fleece and took the princess Glauce as his wife, and so became King. Medea and her children retreated to the island of Aeaea, home of the sorceress Circe. She spent her days wandering her Poison Garden, where she buried the six pieces of Absyrtus’s body. In the spot where the earth covered each piece of his remains, peculiar plants grew, plants only Absyrtus’s beloved family could tend. Medea nurtured them with drops of her own blood and slivers of moonlight.’ ”

I felt like I’d fallen off the edge of a cliff. That sickening feeling of free fall made my stomach turn over. Marie’s hand was firm on the small of my back.

“This is fascinating,” Alec said as he continued to study the parchment. “The way the story’s told here, its age—I’ve never seen anything like this outside of a museum.” He eyed me carefully. “Where did you say you got it?”

Marie reached down and snatched the paper off his desk. He winced, reaching for it.

“Be careful!” he said angrily. “It’s delicate.”

Marie handed the document to me, gently nudging me toward the door. “Thanks, Alec. You can go back to illegally accessing the MoMA’s encrypted files.”

“History belongs to all of us,” he said as we closed the doors behind us.

I looked Marie dead in the eye. “I found the key.”

She blinked. “The key to what?”

“The door in the garden.”

“You didn’t open it.”

It wasn’t a question as much as it was a statement, as if saying it to me like that would make it true.

“I did. I’ve seen the Heart.”

Marie’s eyes grew wide. “Briseis.” She didn’t have to say anything else. I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

“You don’t understand,” I said. “Everything has been leading me to it, and this document—whatever it is—is proof of that.”

She shook her head, avoiding my gaze.

“Do you want to see it?” I asked.

Marie slowly leveled her eyes at me. “You’d take me in there? Circe would never have—”

“I don’t care what Circe did and didn’t do. How am I supposed to know what she wanted? Everything she left me is a clue or a riddle or both and I’m over it. She wasn’t specific, so I’m gonna do things my way.”

“That’s not fair,” Marie said. “Your family has been guarding the Heart for generations. You’re just gonna let random people in to see it?”