Prologue

The old woman was having trouble sleeping. Guilt pierced and pricked at Ana as she lay in bed. Three children missing. Three children she had secretly been teaching about seeds and gardening. There was no way around it. It was her fault. She should have known GRIM was still watching. It wasn’t safe.

At least Clare and Dante had made it to Canada. That much she knew. But it didn’t change the fact that every time she saw their mother the lines on Mrs. James’s face were cut deeper, sadness all but dripping off of her. Alone too early, missing her babies. Or the fact that it might not have ended as well as it did. If you could call it an ending. Clare and Dante were safe in Canada, but what next? Ana felt she should reveal herself to Mrs. James but at the same time was afraid of making things worse.

And now Lily was out there, too. Alone and who-knows-where, trying to find her father. All the while with GRIM and that wicked Trinia Nelson still nosing around. The note Lily left said only that she intended to find her father and thanked Ana for telling her what her mother never had—that her father was still alive. That he had been a famous leader in the dissident Seed Savers Movement. 

The aged woman sighed. What good was being old if she had learned nothing about indiscretions? 

“Dear God,” she prayed, tired and beginning to wonder if anyone was really there, “save the children.”