“Does anyone here ever get tired of writing girls into corners?”
“No. That is why you need corners with witnesses.”
She took a slim green volume from beneath her notebook.
The title stamped into the cover read:
Formal Consent and Record.
“You carry that around?”
“Today, yes.”
“Charming.”
“It is a procedural manual.”
She opened to a marked page and turned the book toward me.
Chapter four was titledRefusal and Witness.
The first line read:
A refusal made publicly must be witnessed by parties who cannot benefit from its erasure.
I read it twice.
It still meant nothing to me.
“That sounds important.”
“It is.”
Cosima tapped the line with one finger.
“Caspian cannot be a clean witness.”
“Because he benefits.”
“The Council will argue that he does. If you refuse the question they ask and keep him honorable, he benefits. If you accept him, he benefits. If you refuse him, his family benefits from claiming injury.”
Her mouth tightened on the next words. “Ashford men are very difficult to make irrelevant. On paper or otherwise.”
“And Kieran?”
“Too easy to call partial.”
“Hale?”
“Too easy to call compromised.”
“Rev?”
For the first time, Cosima hesitated.
“Reverie tells the truth very well when she is angry. Unfortunately, everyone knows she is your friend.”
“So being my friend makes her less believable.”
