Page 171 of Maksym

“Then?”

“I said maybe that depended on the Goddess.”

“And what did she say?”

The woman swallowed. “She said the Goddess had already chosen.”

“Chosen whom?”

“Prince Nikolay.”

“No further questions.”

The third witness was a male wolf who had the hard posture of security and the soft eyes of someone who had slept poorly since the night in question. He did better on direct than the first two. He was careful. He stated only what he could claim to have seen: broken festival grounds, blood, bodies moving, Iron Valor wolves present, Nikolay near the clearing, Sage Lynch dead.

The prosecution tried to use aftermath as a substitute for causation.

I let him.

After all, I had built cases from aftermath. I knew its limits. Blood could tell you something terrible had happened. It could not, without more, tell you who had the right to survive it.

When I rose, the witness looked as if he would rather face Nikolay’s fangs than my questions.

I could not blame him.

“You responded to the ritual clearing after hearing a disturbance?”

“Yes.”

“What disturbance?”

“Shouting. A wolf’s snarls. Then... impact.”

“You were not stationed at the clearing.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I was assigned near the eastern path.”

“Who assigned you?”

He hesitated. “Alpha.”

“Did the Alpha tell you why you were not to be near the clearing?”

“No.”

“Did you know there would be a ritual involving Madelyn Baucaum?”

“No.”

“Did you know she had been restrained?”

“No.”

“Did you know a knife was present?”