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When I started to hand it to Rafe, he backed away. “I can’t touch it.”
    Damn.
    “Give me one more sec,” I shouted at Rusty, then ran around to the back of the house. A large ponderosa tree stood sentry there, a ring of melting snow at its base. I grabbed a stick to dig in the slightly frozen ground, creating a hole just big enough to conceal the heart. I buried it, then packed a few handfuls of snow on top. That would have to do for now. I’d find a better hiding place when I got back.

five
    IT TOOK LESS THAN TEN MINUTES FOR US to reach the burned-out farmhouse at the edge of town. Flames flared orange in the distance, black smoke billowing up to blend with a gloomy sky. The house was just a smoldering mess of charred wood, exposed brick and chunks of blackened plumbing.
    Natalie grabbed a toy truck from the ground and clutched it to her chest. “He’s still alive.”
    “What?” I shot a look at Rusty, who appeared equally surprised. “Who are you talking about?”
    Natalie swallowed. “The child no one knew was home when the fire started.”
    Oh, my God. “Where are the parents?” I wondered out loud.
    Natalie shook her head. “Not here, that much I know. But the boy is close. I can sense him.”
    Rusty gave me a disapproving look. “If the boy inhaled too much smoke he may not be alive for much longer.”
    “Don’t you have a fire to put out?” I asked, though I was more annoyed with myself than with Rusty. I shouldn’t have taken so much time to hide Shojin’s heart. Handing Rusty the ox horn, I told her, “Take this with you.”
    She pushed it away. “I’m fine on my own. I don’t need help from a hex that once belonged to the Vyantara.”
    I understood how she felt, but seriously? This from someone who whipped up a cloaking spell like a quick cup of coffee? “It can help you. Breathe through it if the smoke gets too thick. It acts as a kind of oxygen mask.”
    “Thanks, but no thanks.” She turned and sprinted toward a line of flames less than a mile away. “I’ll send help back for the boy,” she shouted over her shoulder.
    “I hope she’s as good at fighting fires as she is at being stubborn,” I said to Natalie.
    “She is,” Natalie told me. “Though I wish she’d accepted your offer.” Her dark eyes shone with concern. “The knights are not invincible. We could use the help.”
    Help against an unknown, and unnatural, enemy. The kind of help that only something equally unnatural could provide.
    I wanted to ask her about the others, what she knew about them and their powers. I wanted details about the knights who had survived. And though it was peaceful here in the deserted yard of a burned-out farmhouse, a clock was ticking. An injured child, possibly a dying one, needed someone to find him.
    I watched, breathless, as Natalie’s skin paled enough to rival the whiteness of snow beneath our feet. Her fingers worked over the metal toy, its bright yellow body dented, scratched and rusting on the edges. She gripped the thing as if clinging to life, which its owner might have been doing himself right then. Her knuckles turned bone-white and a drop of blood trickled down the side of her hand that had been cut on the old metal truck.
    I knew better than to interrupt a psychometrist’s connection to a subject. She was linked to this child and disturbing her now could break the tie, or worse. I’d witnessed a psychic lose his sanity when someone hastily tore him away from the object he clutched. His mind was still attached to his subject and he never recovered. I wasn’t about to take that chance with Natalie. A cut hand was nothing compared to a lost mind.
    A tear slipped free from Natalie’s glazed eyes. “He’s hiding.”
    I’d guessed that already but kept my mouth shut. She was thinking out loud, expressing her vision.
    “He’s cold,” she said, and freed one hand from the toy to hug herself. “And scared.”
    “Where is he?”
    She swiveled to directly face the