Page 16 of Poison Nights & Twilight Alchemy

“Oh, Mrs. Dulce!” Sylvan rasped. “How? We saw you with our own eyes, dead as a deer at festival feast, you were!”

“Pale and cold too,” Lucas added, shivering dramatically at the memory.

Vesta rushed forward, hauling Dulce into her arms and squeezing her tightly. “Is it really you?”

“It’s me,” she breathed, embracing the woman in return. “I’m alive. And we have much to discuss.”

Released from Vesta’s embrace, Dulce told the people she trusted most in the world what had transpired between her and Cornelius. How he’d poisoned her, how she’d woken in the casket below ground, and how a young thief had saved her from meeting the cold fate Cornelius dealt her.

“That craven son of a boil-brained flesh-monger!” Vesta bit out between clenched teeth. “Where is he? Why, I’ll—”

“He’s dead,” Dulce answered, not the slightest hint of sadness came at the fact.

“Please tell me you poisoned the villainous measle,” Lucas said brightly.

“Unfortunately, no.” Dulce tsked. “I was robbed of the pleasure.”

She continued with the rest of her story, of the powerful witch, and of how Dulce had frightened Cornelius to the point that he’d been foolish enough to climb to the roof and fall to his death.

“Serves him right!” Lucas balled his hand into a fist and held it up. “If I’d been here, I’d have—”

“A witch was here?” Sylvan asked, his throat bobbing. “Using magic, you say?”

“Do any of you know her?”

Vesta shook her head. “Mr. Cornelius never mentioned anyone like that in our presence, nor did we see any woman with ruby hair at your funeral.”

“The witch did something to Mother’s tree with her magic,” Dulce continued. “It was as though she were taking life from it. And before Cornelius’s death, he told me that this land was valuable to the witch, yet he didn’t know why.”

Sylvan’s gaze met Vesta’s, and something knowing passed between them.

“It’s time to show her, Vesta,” the old man said. “Take her inside while Lucas and I dislodge Cornelius’s body.”

Lucas didn’t look the least bit enthusiastic about the concept but nodded.

Vesta wore an expression she’d never seen on her before, and Dulce’s pulse thrummed with anticipation. They had hidden something important from her.

“Show me what?”

Vesta’s face softened. “You would have learned the truth very soon anyway. On your next birthday, to be precise. But now it seems you are to learn your mother’s secret sooner. Come—follow me.”

She led Dulce into the manor as the men disappeared to find Cornelius’s body.

Dulce’s mind raced. What secret would be revealed within the manor’s walls? She knew every inch of her home and all of its contents. What new piece could be given to her?

She followed Vesta down several carpeted hallwaysuntil they reached the cellar door. Vesta lit a candlestick, and her gaze filled with warm compassion. “Are you all right, my little Dulce? How is your heart?”

“I didn’t love him.”Truth.

“That doesn’t mean you didn’t want to.”

“Perhaps, but that changed the moment he poisoned me.”Instantly.

Dulce took a deep breath, fighting back the tears pricking her eyes. Not because she was forlorn about Cornelius’s death, but because by trusting him, she had put her loved ones in possible danger too. “Anyway, I only married him because of your tea leaves.”

“My tea leaves are never wrong,” Vesta clarified, shaking a finger at her. “Your true love will come.”

The white-haired thief drifted into Dulce’s mind once more, and she shook her head, banishing this most ridiculous thought. She would never see him again.

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