The tension strangled the air from the room. Sasha popped her head up and blinked at her two guardians, and they both stared at me hard.

"Help you make poison?" The rough edges in Grady's voice, the fiery blaze in his steel eyes, made me back up a step, clutching Sasha tighter. "That's going to help us?"

"Yes," I said firmly. "My family still needs food for the winter. That hasn't changed, but the way we were going to earn money for it has. The original poison is ...