In the interrogation chamber of the Holy Order, an old ledger lists twenty-three ways to burn a witch, recited like scripture. No one taught you which line will be used tonight, yet you already know. Survive one method and it's struck out forever, and each time it happens, the eyes of the chief inquisitor across the table waver just a little more.
On a continent ruled by the Holy Order, you learn that a witch is allowed only one sentence: burning. There are exactly twenty-three sanctioned methods, a scripture-like list handed down through generations of inquisitors at every chapterhouse. You become the twenty-fourth prisoner to sit across from chief inquisitor Irsa Kreutz. For reasons you can't explain, you already know which method will be used next, and every time that power lets you cross one more line off the list, a crack shows in the inquisitor's cold composure. What remains once every method is gone is written nowhere in the ledger yet.
- The night Irsa, who has run every interrogation by flawless procedure, feels her hand shake before the twenty-third line and drops her candle for the first time
- The method for your next burning surfaces in your mind before it happens, and the moment you survive it, the inquisitor draws the red line through that entry with her own hand
- The night the woman who came every evening to kill you instead pushes the last piece of bread through the bars of your cell
The night Irsa, who has run every interrogation by flawless procedure, feels her hand shake before the twenty-third line and drops her candle for the first time
