The gods saw all.
She would know more about me. About my gift.
She would have answers.
I was certain of it.
The ground was damp and warm as I spread a blanket out in the Garden of Giants later that morning. It was the only place in the entire estate where I knew I wouldn’t be found. When Alex and I had come on our picnic, the soaring statues had been surrounded with tall grasses and brush left to grow in wild tangles.
No gardener would stumble across me.
No one would oversee anything I was about to do.
My hands trembled as I unpacked my satchel of gathered contraband.
A flask of poppy tea, brewed twice as strong as I’d normally prepared it.
A pink candle.
Matches.
And a sprig of laurel leaves, cut from a branch poking through the fence of the poison garden, just moments before.
I’d waited until Gerard had wandered away for tea before making my move and immediately wrapped the snipping into a handkerchief, hoping it would hold the toxic fumes until I was ready to use them.
The full magnitude of what I was about to do swept over me.
I was going to knowingly poison myself in an attempt to summon an otherworldly entity.
I winced, remembering the flash of her pointed gray teeth.
Not a ghost. Something far, far worse.
Releasing a shaky breath, I lit the candle. Its scent filled the air, making me want to heave now that I knew its truth.
I uncapped the flask and took a deep gulp of the tea. Then another.
I paused, waiting for something to happen.
“Hello?”
My voice was weak with uncertainty.
I closed my eyes, trying to recall everything about the weeping woman. Her dark, swirling hair. Her long, ragged nails. The cruel angle of her grin. If only I knew her name.
“I…I don’t know if I’m doing this right but…are you there?”
I opened my eyes.
All around me, the colors of the trees were wrong. It was as if I’d looked directly into sunlight, burning my retinas until the whole world was cast into a different hue. Everything was in shades of blue. Deep navy and cerulean. Swirling galaxies of lapis and cobalt.
The trees seemed to multiply.
But I saw no wraith.
I took another swallow of the tea, then unwrapped the handkerchief and breathed in deeply.
The scent of the laurel’s sap tickled at my nose.
