Chapter 27 · The Heir Transfer

"Take your hand off the witness shard, Adrian."

Chief Justice Marlow's order cracked across the hearing chamber.

Adrian stood on the Tribunal seal with one hand locked around the silver shard. Three judgment officers aimed pulse restraints at his chest.

His white shirt hung open at the collar. Blood touched the corner of his mouth.

He looked at me instead of Marlow.

"Mara, don't let them take it."

"You don't get to ask me for favors," I snapped.

His fingers tightened around the shard. Memory glass flashed between his knuckles, throwing broken pieces of my mother's face across the chamber walls.

Marlow raised his black seal. "The evidence belongs to the Tribunal. Step away from my floor, Rook."

"Your floor is built on stolen records," Adrian said. "You want the shard because it remembers who gave the order."

A murmur ripped through the gallery.

Marlow's eyes slid to me. "And you want to help him, Auditor Voss? After he destroyed your license? After his bank sold the witness chips that turned you into a criminal?"

My stomach knotted.

The chamber screens showed the same frozen image: my old auditor seal stamped across the theft report. My signature sat beneath it.