This Poison Heart

As they walk, Briseis keeps Karter close to prevent the plants from attacking him as they did Alec. She admits that she is immune to the poisonous plants, which leaves Karter confused but curious, though he promises to exercise caution. Though he doesn’t touch anything, he begins to cough violently when they get too close to the Poison Garden. Briseis hurries him out of the garden, certain that he will flee, but Karter remains curious and supportive. She admits that Selene was her birth mother and tells him of her plans to revive the garden. When she asks for his help, he says that he “kill[s] plants on contact” and can’t go into the Poison Garden (178). She demonstrates her ability to make plants move toward her and is relieved when Karter calls this “magic” instead of a more negative term. She describes how her previous fear that her power might hurt someone has now evaporated. Karter offers to help with the non-agricultural parts of her project, like raking, and Briseis feels intensely comforted to have a friend who supports her despite her secret. They work throughout the afternoon, with Karter often pausing to gape at Briseis’s powers. Before they finish for the day, Briseis revives a section of the garden called Hecate’s Garden, which features all-black blooms.

Briseis tells her moms about her progress in the garden, feeling guilty that she has revealed more to Karter than to them, but she rationalizes this decision by telling herself that she is preventing them from ever having to choose “between loving [her] and being afraid” (183). Over the next week, Karter helps in the garden daily, though he stays away from the Poison Garden. They mostly talk about Briseis’s life because Karter is hesitant to share anything about his own family. Whenever she works in the Poison Garden, Briseis intentionally touches the most toxic parts of plants in order to test her abilities, but she never suffers any ill effects. One day, Karter asks about Briseis’s birth mother. Briseis admits to sometimes thinking about Selene, whom she knows to have died of an illness shortly after Briseis’s adoption was finalized. Karter says that his father died when he was 12 and that occupying the spaces they used to share together helps him to feel close to his deceased parent. He asks if Briseis feels the same. She doesn’t, but she likes the idea, thinking about how the garden has a “pull” that urges her to learn more, especially about what hides behind the locked gate.

Briseis asks Angie for the email of her curator friend, Professor Madeline Kent. When she emails the professor about Greek mythology, she gets an immediate reply. When the two later speak over the phone, Professor Kent cautions Briseis that because Medea’s story is often retold by men, Briseis should always be aware about any author’s intent in creating a specific narrative. Professor Kent argues that Medea is often framed by those with misogynistic biases. She clarifies that Medea is not entirely fictional and that historical accounts suggest she was considered a witch and was a daughter of the “King of Colchis” (188). This information startles Briseis, as Colchis is Circe’s last name. Briseis asks to send more questions via email so she can gather her thoughts, and she writes to Professor Kent to ask which Greek myths were based in reality. She also requests more information about the narrative that casts Medea as a witch.

She asks her moms to drive her to town so she can see Mrs. Redmond, feeling a twinge of guilt when she lies about why she’s seeking a key. After splitting up from her parents, Briseis encounters the old woman who smiled at her in town on her last visit. The woman introduces herself as Mama Lucille and asks for several supplies from the apothecary. She reports that Marie was “gushing about the beautiful girl at the apothecary” (192), which makes Briseis blush and stammer. When Briseis asks what Mama Lucille uses the herbs for, Mama Lucille lists items including “load candles,” which are candles “[imbued with] a specific purpose” (193). Briseis asks if Mama Lucille is a witch, and Mama Lucille evades the question. The woman makes mysterious comments about Briseis being on the “right track” and cautions her against stocking oleander in the apothecary. She pays Briseis and provides her phone number.

The bookstore is empty, as is Mrs. Redmond’s office. Briseis calls Karter, who reports he is at his other job; he promises to tell Mrs. Redmond that Briseis is looking for her. She then gets an urgent text from Angie and hurries to meet her mother at the grocery store; someone slashed their tires while her moms were shopping. While the car is being repaired, Mrs. Redmond returns Briseis’s call, somewhat testy at the implication that she may have failed to deliver a key. After double-checking, she reports that she doesn’t have another key, but she does have a drawing. Briseis returns to Mrs. Redmond’s office; the drawing features the same crest that is emblazoned on the locked door in the Poison Garden, along with three horizontal lines beneath. Mrs. Redmond speaks somewhat bitterly about Karter’s preference for spending time with Briseis over working in the bookshop. She then asks if Briseis has seen Marie, whom Mrs. Redmond saw standing in the driveway of the house several weeks prior, and confesses to being frightened by Marie. She cautions Briseis that people may seek to take advantage of her given her recent inheritance. Their conversation is interrupted when the local news announces that a Rhinebeck resident named Hannah Taylor, with whom Mrs. Redmond attended high school, has been found dead. (In Chapter 28, Briseis will learn that this information about the two women’s past connection is untrue; instead, Mrs. Redmond killed Mrs. Taylor in order to steal documents related to the Colchis house.) Briseis leaves, with Mrs. Redmond once more urging caution.

While driving home, Angie sighs over the irony that although people fret about danger in the “big city,” it is only in small-town Rhinebeck that she has ever had her tires slashed. They talk about their plans to move to Rhinebeck, and Briseis confesses her worry that her parents might find it uncomfortable to live in a house that belonged to her biological mother. Angie only hopes that the upcoming move will not adversely affect Briseis and insists that Briseis’s desire to learn more about her biological family will not compromise her relationship with her parents. In her room, Briseis examines the drawing from Mrs. Redmond and searches the desk in the hidden room for any secret symbols. When she realizes that the crest continues on the underside of the desk, she presses an indentation, and a secret compartment opens. Inside is a sketchbook documenting the Absyrtus Heart in extreme detail, along with a list that looks like a recipe and a mysterious note that asks, “The Heart must be kept, but at what cost?” (206). In the back of the book is a fragile sheet that looks more like fabric than paper. It is covered in Greek lettering. Briseis also finds a piece of cloth and a key made of bone that contains a red stone carved in the shape of a human heart.

Just then, Marie calls to invite Briseis to her house and offers to send a car for Briseis so that she can visit despite the late hour. Briseis quickly fixes her hair and jewelry, which prompts some teasing from her moms. The car is driven by a woman named Nyx, and the Greene family gapes at this grandeur. Nyx says that “Miss Morris” has lived in Rhinebeck since it was “Beek-man’s land” but then stops talking, as if fearing that she has revealed too much. Nyx takes Briseis to a large, expensive house and shows Briseis into a library. Briseis looks at an illustrated book of fairy tales, feeling the sense of calm that she associates with old books. When Nyx returns with snacks, Briseis realizes that Marie has been in the room the whole time. Marie discusses her eagerness to invite Briseis to her house, identifying Nyx as her bodyguard. Briseis is enraptured by Marie and struggles to concentrate. Marie offers her a tour of the house, discussing her love of travel, which taught her more than she learned in a “schoolhouse.” Briseis finds Marie’s use of this old-fashioned term odd but attributes it to Marie’s wealth. Marie shows Briseis a collection of antiquities that she is returning to their countries of origin, though she dodges a question about how she acquired the items. A bowl featuring Hecate leads the two into a discussion of the goddess, whom Marie likens to Circe. Marie sees Circe’s life as “tragic” and claims that she was hiding an “unfathomable secret.”

Briseis considers leaving, but Marie urges her to stay. Briseis says she won’t give Marie any information—she can’t, as she hasn’t opened the far garden door. Marie tells her not to, knowing only that Circe kept a “very rare, very poisonous plant” there (219). She knows this due to her friendship with Astraea, one of Briseis’s biological relatives. She reports Astraea’s obsession with the plant, which the woman professed to value more than her own life. Briseis is frustrated to learn that Astraea has since died, and she starts to worry about the fact that so many of the women in the Colchis family have died. This mystery is deepened when Marie reports that the Colchis women’s death certificates tend to go “missing.” The two commiserate over the frustration of not being able to get any straight answers to their questions. Briseis offers to try to get information from the medical examiner, despite Marie’s assertion that he is “an asshole.”

Briseis asks after Alec, who is home from the hospital. She senses that Marie is not telling the whole truth about her relationship with the older man. When pressed, Marie admits that he is not her grandfather, but he is family. She forestalls further questions, but Briseis insists on knowing why Marie was sneaking around outside her house when she first moved in. Marie says that she was “making sure everything was on the up-and-up [since] Circe wouldn’t have wanted some stranger in her house” (223). Later, as Briseis departs, Marie offers to take her to see Selene’s and Circe’s graves. As they drive, Nyx comments that it’s been “a very long time” since Astrea died. When Briseis questions this by stating that Marie is only 17, Nyx agrees that this is “technically” true and states that Marie was relieved to learn that Briseis is related to the Colchises; Marie was “undone” when she thought they were all gone. Nyx urges Briseis to “keep an open mind,” as “all kinds of people [will come to see Briseis,] most of them with no ill will” (225). Briseis agrees and heads inside to tell her moms about her evening, excited by the prospect that Marie is interested in her.

Briseis wakes up early the next morning, eager to try the new key on the back garden gate despite Marie’s warnings. She hurries through the front garden, which has been beautified by her recent efforts, and enters the Poison Garden, the effects of which only cause the cold sensation for a moment. When she uses the key, the gate groans open to reveal an enclosure the size of a closet. Inside, the walls are completely covered with toxic plants, including crimson brush, which is supposedly extinct. Behind the crimson brush is a narrow staircase that leads into a small, damp room. Inside is a glass enclosure, above which is a round shaft that admits a tiny bit of sunlight. Briseis can’t get the enclosure open, but she can see that it contains a plant that looks like a human heart. Startled, she drops her phone, cracking the screen. When she bends to retrieve the phone, she sees a placard naming the plant “ABSYRTUS HEART.” She wonders why Circe made her jump through so many hoops to find this plant. The Absyrtus Heart grows in a small ring of stones that is adjacent to another circle with nothing growing inside.

Briseis finds a keyhole, opens the glass case, and inspects the plant more closely. She reaches out to touch the desiccated plant, wondering if she can bring it back to life, but she is shocked by the acute stab of cold that shoots up her arm. This indicates that this plant is far more toxic than any she has ever encountered. She leaves, wondering at the limits of her immunity as the pain fails to retreat. As she tends to some oleander, Briseis thinks that Marie was right to warn her away from the Absyrtus Heart’s enclosure. Returning to the house, Briseis decides not to return to the enclosure, though she feels dread upon wondering why Circe kept such a toxic plant at all.