I search his expression for the answer to that question, but just like the illusions in the Fortress, I can no longer tell what’s real and what’s not.

Bram’s heart is a puzzle box that I don’t know how to open.

Jacey turns toward me, her hair gathered in her fist to keep it from blowing in her face. “So, will you tell us now?”

I raise my eyebrows in a question. Is she talking about me and Bram? Am I that transparent?

“Tell you what?”

“Why Latham wants you dead?”

The question makes something inside me recoil. I think of times I’ve trusted too easily and been betrayed. Like with Declan. And on my other path, by Latham himself. But as I look around at their faces, I see my own fear and vulnerability reflected in their expressions. We are all raw and hurting. All of us had our secrets exposed in the Fortress. If I can’t trust them, then I can’t trust anyone.

So I take a deep breath and I tell them the truth.

The story spins out of me like a dropped ball of yarn. Some details unfurl quickly. Others tangle and jumble in the telling. By the end, my voice is as raw as my emotions.

My teammates sit quietly for a moment, digesting the details of my mother’s death. Of Gran’s.

“There’s more,” I say. “I think Latham is designing our challenges.” The idea began to take shape in my mind after I saw Latham in the Fortress. And the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve become convinced. After the first trial, the other teams came back to Ivory Hall talking of mazes and obstacle courses, while our team got a challenge that seemed tailor-made to torment me with visions of a future spent on Fang Island. And after the horror of this last trial, I know I’m right. Latham must be using the bone games to torture me, to make my bones more powerful before I die.

“But that’s impossible,” Jacey says. “He couldn’t design them unless—”

“Unless there’s a traitor on the Grand Council who gave him control,” I finish for her. “Yes, I know.”

She sucks a sharp breath through her teeth. “Who?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Maybe the Bone Charmer? He seemed to be watching me especially carefully during our first trial. Like he was enjoying my discomfort. But until we know, we need to be careful.”

Tessa frowns. “We need to tell Norah. She can help protect you.”

“Absolutely not,” I say. “She reports to the Grand Council, and if she doesn’t believe us, it could backfire.”

“She’ll believe us,” Tessa says. “She cares about your safety. That’s why she hired Rasmus. It’s why …” She trails off, twirling a finger around a lock of her hair.