“I have every intention of taking my place on the council. But not now. I have a few projects I’d like to complete first. Though, if Father is interested, I do have a recommendation for a different Charmer.”

“Oh? And who is that?”

“Della Holte. I trained with her at Ivory Hall. She’d be perfect.”

His mother’s eyes spark with interest. “Is she matched?”

Latham laughs. “Don’t even think about it. She’s already with someone. But I would love to connect with Della again. She would be … helpful … to my goals.”

I yank my hands away from the bones and the training room slowly comes back into focus. I blink once. Twice.

Master Kyra is watching me expectantly.

My thoughts are spinning, and I’ve forgotten what I was supposed to be looking for. I stare blankly ahead.

“Any luck finding the Masons?”

The Masons. My brain lurches slowly into motion. It seems like she gave me the assignment days ago.

“Household items,” I say. “They were making goblets. Torches. Clocks.”

“Excellent work. And it took you a little longer than usual. I’m glad we seem to have found a task that challenges you.”

But her words barely register. My mouth feels stuffed with cotton. Latham was trying to get my mother on the Grand Council long before I met him. Did he want us to move to Kastelia City so we’d be easier to spy on? Easier to kill?

Would it have made any difference if he’d succeeded? Would she have died sooner if we’d lived in the capital, or would events have unfolded entirely differently? Would she still be alive today?

Ever since I started studying Gran’s healed bone, I can’t stop comparing my two paths. Wondering at their differences, marveling at what stayed the same, torturing myself with all the things I might have done differently to save my mother. It’s become a compulsion. And now every choice—every branch point on my path or anyone else’s—seems fraught with uncertainty.

But one thing is clear: My visions of Latham seem to circle around the Grand Council like a vulture above a carcass. He’s been trying to manipulate it for years, though I’m still not sure of his motives. Control? Power? But those are both things that three generations of Bone Charmers will give him in spades.