“We can’t. If we steal the bones, we can prevent them from mending, but that could destroy all of us.” I think of what my mother told me after Gran’s bone fractured. I wanted to do nothing. To simply allow both of my potential paths to exist simultaneously, but my mother made it clear that wasn’t an option. If the bone doesn’t heal, all of your futures will disappear.

I don’t know what would happen if none of the bones healed, and I’m not sure how long we have. A month? Two? How long can fate stay suspended until it snaps? I dig my fingers into my hair. “I wish I could see what Latham was trying to accomplish in the future by changing the past.”

“So he can see what will happen because he’s a Third Sight Charmer?” Tessa asks. “Or will he need to use your mother’s bones?”

Her question turns a page in my mind. I’ve been going about this all wrong. I can’t just focus on what options were available in the past. I need to see where they lead in the future. If I can see the outcomes, I can predict which Latham will choose. Then we can find a way to heal the bones in a way that preserves this reality exactly as it is before he heals them in a way that will change it.

“Tessa, you’re brilliant. I need to do a Third Sight reading.”

A curtain of confusion falls over her expression. “But can you do that?”

It’s as if the ground beneath my feet has shifted, and I’ve lost my balance. I let my guard down. I said too much. I think of Tessa’s expression when she claimed I didn’t trust her. And with sharp clarity, I realize I don’t. Not entirely.

And it’s because of Jensen. The seed of mistrust that his trial planted hasn’t thrived—not in light of the bone games and all we’ve been through together. But until this moment, I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t entirely dead, either. It sprouted roots that are hard to pull up.

If I tell her the truth, will she turn her back on me?

“Can you?” she asks again.

I bite my lip. “Yes. I can.” Her eyes slide to the spell book and then back to me.

“Then what are you waiting for? Do it.”

Reading the future is far more challenging than seeing the past. Before, I could simply access a reading that Latham had already done. It was relatively effortless, like perusing someone else’s diary. But this—pushing past the point where the path dwindles away and forcing the vision to extend into the future—is more demanding than any reading I’ve ever done.