~RYLAND'S POV~
A full day of investigation and we had nothing.
No confirmed trail on the vial. No witness who could place anyone in Lyra's room during the relevant window. The two dismissed guards had been questioned again and gave the same account, they'd been reassigned to the outer wing, they hadn't gone near the residential corridor. Whether that was true or a rehearsed story, we couldn't yet prove either way.
I walked into the council chamber with that weight sitting squarely on my chest and nowhere to put it.
The room was already tense before I reached my seat. Eight council members around the long table. Half of them I trusted. The other half I was about to have a significant problem with.
Lord Bren spoke first. He was a heavyset man with a grey beard and the permanent expression of someone who'd decided the world had been going wrong for decades and wasn't shy about saying so.
"We've given this a day," he said. "One day.
