I think of all the times I thought it was unfair that my mother wielded power over my future—over the future of the rest of Midwood. When she performed readings, I used to imagine her as a puppeteer maneuvering the strings of a person’s future until they danced in a way that pleased her.

But I was wrong.

I was no marionette. I could reject what she chose for me, refuse to move in the direction she preferred.

But this decision … the defendant can’t simply discard our verdict. He can’t walk away or refuse to dance.

We have to get this right. We hold a man’s fate in our hands.

“This initial statement is marked ‘preliminary,’” Bram says.

We sit around a table on the fourth tier of the library—the only level that was vacant—the document resting on the table in front of us. I’m bleary with lack of sleep, and a headache pulses behind my eyelids.

Talon traces his finger along the edge of the page. “Which means what? That the facts might change?”

Bram clears his throat. “Not necessarily. But it’s definitely incomplete. When the Ivory Guard is tasked with conducting an investigation, they do just enough work to decide if a trial should be held. The real work comes later.”

“We have to do the real work,” Jacey says, her voice bleak, “even though none of us are properly trained for this.”

An uncomfortable silence follows, as the words hang in the air between us like a chill. She’s right. None of us feel prepared for this. After poring over the document, we all agree that the facts of the case—what few we were given—are muddy at best. A man was accused of using unbound magic, and though there were several witness statements, it seems no one actually saw him do it.

Niklas pulls his ring from his finger and spins it on top of the table. “He was probably a leftover.”

Jacey’s mouth twists into a knot. “That’s a terrible thing to say. Just because someone can’t afford a kenning, doesn’t make them a criminal.”

Niklas snatches the ring and slides it back onto his finger. “I didn’t mean it like that. But he must have been someone with magical tendencies who didn’t get a kenning. Otherwise, how would he be able to use unbound magic?”

I shift uncomfortably in my seat.

“That makes sense.” Talon picks up the parchment and squints at it, as if he’s expecting new words to appear to congratulate us on guessing correctly.

“I don’t think we’ll know anything for sure until we investigate more,” Bram says.

Tessa reaches into the box and scoops up the pouch of bones and offers them to me. “A bone reading seems like a logical place to start.”