Page 33 of Winter's Edge
"Hm…" He picked it up, and I licked my lips, my mind spinning on what I could possibly tell him that would make him believe me when I still wasn't sure of the dosage and all the different ways it worked exactly on people like him. Wolf shifters. And on the fact that it was just moonshine mixed with harmless herbs and not real poison at all. The screw lid on top squealed slightly as he twisted it, and then he inhaled. "Well. Certainly smells that way."
"Ever heard of the five-step snake?" I blurted.
"Can't say that I have."
"After a five-step snake bites you, that's how many steps you take before you fall over dead. Just five." I nodded at the bottle still in his hands. "That concoction… That's what I would call a five-step snake."
"You don't say.” There was a tinge of interest in his boisterous voice, but that didn’t mean anything. Interest didn’t put money in my pocket. “And how do you know this for sure? Did you try it out?"
"I did. I dipped one of my arrows in it and shot it into my horse." The lie poured out easily, but my insides shriveled back from the words as if they were offended I could even think such a thing. I was offended, too, but I kept going. "She was sick anyway, so I was doing her a favor. Five steps, and that was it."
"A horse, huh? Impressive."
I couldn't tell if he believed me or not, or if he was just spouting off what he thought I wanted to hear.
"Surely you didn't strengthen your pa's potion all by yourself though?"
His tone wasn't dismissive of my intelligence, but the words sure were.
"I perfected it," I bit out. "All by myself."
He paused for several beats, and then, "Show me."
I was too busy glaring daggers at him to realize the implication right away. "On you?"
He chuckled, completely void of any humor, a chuckle that crawled across the table and glared right back. "Let's find an animal, and you can show me this new and improved version."
Thoughts crashed together inside my skull. One, this poison couldn't do what I'd just said. Two, by animal, what if he meant Archer since he'd already been detected outside of town? Three, this poisoncouldn't fucking do what I'd just said.
I schooled my expression, feigning confidence, and shrugged. "Whatever you say."
He stood, and I could feel him towering over me, and reveling in it. "What's your name, girl?"
"Aika."
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Aika Song." He turned, his heavy boots carrying him out of the cramped room.
"If it's such a pleasure, then you won't leave me here for long," I called after him. "I have places to be, after all."
Another empty chuckle. "Don't we all." He shut and locked the door behind him.
Bastard.
Now, alone in the silence, I could think about how screwed I was. Like really drill down and discover the depths of my stupidity. The dumb had no end. Shit shit shit. What was I supposed to do now? Sure, a well-placed arrow could kill anything, but poison? That quickly? What the hell had I been thinking?
But I refused to let myself crack. I'd come so far and had a little farther to go. Whatever animal he brought me to kill, I'd just have to shoot it and hope for the best. Not Archer, though.
Oh god, please be okay, Archer. And Lee and Jade, and even my baba too. This would all be over soon, one way or another.
Sooner than I'd expected, footsteps pounded outside and the door banged open.
Vision, clear as day, clicked into place inside my head. I gasped as I looked at my face through something else's eyes.
Oh, shit no. Archer? Thomas? Yet another wolf? But no. The only wolves I could see through had been poisoned just like me.
The unexpected disorientation caused my stomach to sway, my hands to fly to the table's edge and hang on. Wait, not just my stomach was swaying but the thing I was peering out of as well. Behind my head in the darkened window, I spied the animal through my borrowed vision. A wolf pup with red eyes, no older than Sasha. It swung from Faust's meaty hand from the scruff of its neck, its nose twitching furiously.
Another wolf I could see through. Was it part of Archer and Grady's pack? Did they even know it was here?
