RAFE ASKED. I couldn’t believe it. “Shojin’s heart. It’s gone!” “Are you sure that’s where you buried it?” he asked, sounding like his usual calm and collected self. “Of course I’m sure.” I grabbed the skillet and flung it out into the snow. “That little thief took it.” “What thief?” “Xenia!” I glared at him. “You do know she’s missing, right?” “Yes, but we stopped looking when we realized she used the pen charm to hide herself. She’s beyond our capacity to see.” Unfair as it was, I knew that to be true. The Arelim were powerful and possessed some magical abilities, but it was their fallen brothers who topped the charts on spells, charms and curses. The knights took mostly after their Fallen fathers and not the Arelim angels their fathers used to be. “How can you be sure it was Xenia?” He sounded genuinely curious. “Because I reburied the heart the night the Hatchet murderer almost killed me and Natalie.” It made perfect sense now. Xenia had watched me from our bedroom window and she’d run to tattle on me to my grandparents.
