Page 33 of Innocent Until Proven Witch

His gaze shifts toward the open ledger. "You know, there comes a point when an investigation becomes unnecessary."

I raise an eyebrow. "Does it?"

"Certainly," he answers, his voice remaining pleasant. "Especially when the answer is already known."

There it is. Not an order. Not a warning. A suggestion. The kind that sounds harmless. The kind that isn't.

I stare at the records, then back at him. "What answer is that?"

Aldric's expression never changes. "The one everyone already understands."

I almost laugh at the word everyone. An interesting choice of words. Not facts. Not evidence. Everyone. The same argument I've heard since returning to Moonhaven. Fear dressed up as certainty.

He watches me, waiting, expecting something. Agreement, perhaps. Compliance. Instead I smile. "Thank you."

The response clearly isn't what he expected. His eyebrows lift slightly. "For what?"

"The advice."

Aldric studies me, the silence stretching, before eventually inclining his head, a small movement, controlled, measured. Then he turns and walks away.

The moment he disappears around the corner, I reopen the ledger, my attention returning to the records immediately. Because if Aldric genuinely believed there was nothing to find, he wouldn't care what I was doing. The interruption confirms something important. I'm looking in the right place.

I flip to the next page, then the next. The names continue appearing. Trade agreements, market contracts, harbor permissions.

The Patterns, connections, pieces. Not enough yet to support my speculation but enough to keep digging.

And judging by Aldric's visit, somebody might prefer that I stop.

13

REINA

The archives smell like dust, old paper, and forgotten arguments. I stand between towering shelves packed with ledgers while Iris disappears somewhere deeper inside the building.

"You're making that face again," Iris calls.

I watch the narrow aisle she vanished into. "What face?"

"The one that says you've found a problem and intend to make it everyone else's problem."

"I don't make my problems everyone else's problem."

Iris laughs, the sound echoing between the shelves. "That's the funniest thing you've said all year."

I decide not to dignify that with a response. The truth is, I don't entirely know what I'm looking for, only that Finn's investigation keeps circling the same questions. The storms, the wards, the old hurricane, the story Moonhaven has repeated for generations. Storm witches caused it. Storm witches always cause it. Storm witches cannot be trusted. The narrative is so deeply rooted that nobody bothers questioning it anymore.

Nobody except Finn. The realization pulls an unwilling smile from me. Annoying man.

Iris returns carrying a stack of ledgers nearly as tall as her torso, dropping them onto the table. Dust immediately fills the air, and I cough.

Iris winces. "That one was my fault."

"You think?"

She brushes dust from her sleeves. "I found everything connected to the hurricane."

I look at the pile. "Everything?"