This time when I pulled my hand out, I found wilted flower heads that made my stomach drop to my feet. I hissed, dropping them on the ground and rubbing my hand against my sweatpants.
“Why do you have those?” I asked sharply.
Quentin pushed herself off the bed and joined me. She stooped down to pick them up, but I pulled her away before she had the chance.
“Don’t!” I barked.
“It’s fine. They’re just flowers.”
“Oleander. Where did you get this? Don’t make me ask again.”
Quen pushed herself out of my grip. “Emmanuel Teixeira had them in his lab.”
“Quentin.” I was losing my patience with her and she could tell.
“James and I broke into his lab. I have no idea why he had them in there. He must have some sort of side project in the works with Imran because he doesn’t need them.”
“Neither do you!” I ran my hands down my face and then instantly pulled them away. “You stay away from this stuff. It’s dangerous for us. It hampers our divinity. My guess is they’ve managed to enclose it in the cuffs somehow.”
“If it’s so dangerous, why do you have it in Elysia?”
“You brought it up here.”
“That’s not what I meant. You have it in greenhouses in Elysia.”
“We don’t. Hunter had to harvest it from Earth before we destroyed the demigods.” Her face paled, and I towered over her. “Oleander struggles to grow in Elysia. What have you seen and where?”
“Archer has it in his home,” she told me. “I thought he took it from the greenhouse.”
“It can’t grow.”
Quentin shook her head. “You can’t touch it?”
“No. It burns, but it’s only lethal if ingested or enters the bloodstream.”
“Tobias,” she said, closing her eyes. “He was at Archer’s place and they wouldn’t let me hear the conversation. Archer has them in his bedroom. It has to be Oleander. When I was at the casino, Tobias’ hand was burnt. I couldn’t understand how he could be injured, but he was quick to move it out of view.”
Tendrils of my aura shot out, punching straight through the walls and the floor of the room. Quentin gasped and stumbled backwards from me, holding onto the desk, and I tried to rein in my temper.
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” I asked, gritting my teeth together.
“I forgot. I didn’t know they were dangerous.” She was inching back towards her laptop.
“You’re not going to find the answers on Google or Wikipedia, Quentin.”
She froze, and I regretted the words. Quentin coped with all situations by gaining as much knowledge as possible and I’d made fun of it.
“You share the same heavens and are so obsessed with yourselves, you didn’t realise someone was hiding a lethal plant up there?” she said, biting back. “Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid.”
“I’m not.” I crossed the space towards her.
“Fix our home.”
Muttering under my breath, I repaired the wall and floor before Quentin let me hold her again.
“I’m sorry.” Apologies were becoming a speciality. “Archer took them from his lab and back to Elysia.”
“Why?” she asked. “He can’t take care of them himself. He’s getting Tobias to help him, and Tobias knows exactly what he’s dealing with. Do you think the other minor Gods know?”
