White Heart of Justice by Jill Archer Page A

unimaginably powerful magic?
    â€œThe White Heart is still missing,” Glashia continued. “Different theories have surfaced from time to time on its possible whereabouts, but no one has yet recovered it.” He looked at me when he said that last bit. Considering I would be entering a race to find and retrieve a difficult target starting this Friday, his look caused a small pinprick of alarm to pierce my belly.
    There was no way the race coordinators would pick the White Heart as my target. Right?
    It was too big, too mythical, too . . . irretrievable. It had been missing for hundreds of years. Greater minds with stronger bodies and more powerful magic had searched for it and failed. I bit my lip (violating my own policy of never looking nervous in Artifice class) and refocused on Glashia, who’d just asked if anyone knew who had hired Graemite to find the sword for them.
    â€œAstraea?” Sasha volunteered. Astraea was the young demoness who had inherited Justica’s followers, but apparently not her sword. Glashia shook his head.
    â€œThe Divinity?” Ben suggested.
    Glashia looked thoughtful. “Be more specific, Mr. Nyssa.”
    â€œThe Ophanim?” But it was clear from Ben’s tone that he wasn’t at all sure of his answer. The Ophanim were a more militaristic branch of the Divinity. They were modern-day knights—similar to Maegesters in a way—but their sole client was the Divinity. It was a good guess, but I was pretty sure it was incorrect.
    â€œNo,” Glashia said, confirming my hunch.
    â€œThe Amanita,” I said quietly. I too might have phrased it as a question, but for the fact that Glashia admired confidence above all else. But my answer was as wild a guess as the others, based only upon my earlier discussion with Rafe when he’d told me that the Amanita believed that Metatron’s work defied everything an Angel stood for.
    I could tell I’d surprised Glashia with my answer. Apparently, he hadn’t been expecting anyone to know. He seemed both pleased and annoyed.
    â€œCorrect, Ms. Onyx. Metatron died without issue so the Angels inherited his possessions. When the Amanita discovered that the White Heart was missing they hired Graemite to find and retrieve it for them. You seem remarkably well informed. Do you know why they wanted it?”
    Again, that stare. The one that made me nervous about the upcoming race. The one that made me think Glashia knew more than he was saying. It also looked the least little bit like a warning.
    Did I know why the Amanita wanted to find the White Heart?
    Other than the fact that most people generally wanted what was theirs, not really. But I could guess. Most likely the White Heart had been created using perennial magic, which would explain some of the more outlandish suppositions about its capabilities. And since Metatron had created the White Heart, and the Amanita believed his magical “experiments” were blasphemous, my guess was the Amanita wanted the White Heart so they could destroy it.
    But then I remembered that Rafe had said the Amanita were hypocrites. That they practiced perennial magic in order to “fight fire with fire.” So maybe the Amanita wanted the White Heart in order to use it.
    I shrugged. Glashia narrowed his eyes at me, perhaps guessing I knew more than I was willing to say. But he moved on.
    â€œLast question about the first bounty hunter case before we move on to the more modern ones . . . Where was the White Heart last seen?”
    â€œIn Metatron’s grave?” Ben said.
    Glashia shook his head. No one else volunteered. “Ms. Onyx?” Glashia prompted. “Your thoughts?”
    â€œIn Metatron’s oxcart? The first ‘House of Metatron’?” I was way too unsure of my answer this time to state it with any sort of confidence. Glashia didn’t even acknowledge that it was incorrect. He just frowned and looked