Faith and hope
amid Fairy-tale darkness
 
Sul is a bountyhunter with a magic stone instead of a heart – a man without feeling or pity. Psyche is a gunmaker who has been assaulted and staked out to die by a gang of Naughtist griefers. Psyche and Sul are trapped together on an isolated ranch, and their only way to survive is to team up and do battle against the griefers.
 
When they part, Psyche is left traumatized and unable to fire a gun. She also feels that Sul is special to her – just what Sul himself can’t feel. The job and its contract are his honor, his code, and his only interests in life.
 
But Sul comes back into Psyche’s life unexpectedly.
 
Volo Pine, dark Runemistress, has learned a wicked secret. She can steal the youth and beauty of younger women through magically-aided cannibalism. And there is one victim she can hardly wait to grow up – the Three-Hearted Child, a magically songful girl. The victim who will make Volo immortally lovely.
 
It’s a stretch to hire a bounty-hunter to retrieve a child. But Volo just needs to find a bounty-hunter desperate to end his career and get his heart of flesh back. She just needs to lie about the justification for the job. And she just needs to offer enough money for a bounty-hunter to retire.
 
The plan is perfect – except for Providence and the fact that Volo unwittingly hires a bounty-hunter who knows the target’s mother.
Can the man without pity be persuaded to break his contract? Can a gunmaker who can no longer pull the trigger hunt down a powerful runemistress and save her daughter?