Scout’s POV
"Taste it again," Nathan barked, slamming a fresh sliver of wood onto the stainless-steel counter.
I didn't flinch. I leaned down until my nose almost brushed the grain, breathing in the suffocating layers of sap and earth. The scent cut straight to the back of my throat. Sharp. Piercing.
"Moonbriar," I said, my teeth clicking together as I straightened up. "But it is too heavy. Concentrated. Someone boiled the bark down to maximize the toxicity."
"And this one?" Nathan thrust a darker, jagged fragment into my face. "Tell me I did not waste three hours stripping the roots."
I snatched it from his calloused fingers. The smell hit slow, a deceptive sweetness that curdled into something bitter the moment it reached my lungs. "Hollowberry root. You harvested it late. It is sta
