The House Of Gaian

hand these days. “Go to the house. Warn Nuala. Go!”
    As the boy raced for the house, Breanna and Fiona looked at each other.
    “Get the children into the house,” Breanna said.
    Fiona started to protest. Then she noticed Clay and her brother Rory hurrying toward them—and the hawk flying ahead of them. Nodding, she ran toward the children, who had stopped playing and were now anxiously watching the adults.
    Trusting Fiona to take care of the children, Breanna set her quiver on the ground and grabbed a handful of arrows. She pushed the heads of four of them into the ground in front of her to make them easy to snatch if they were needed. The fifth she nocked in her bow, keeping her fingers light on the bowstring.
    Facing the woodland trail, she waited.
    Sensing movement on her left, she started to draw the bow and turn when she realized it was Falco. He had changed from hawk to man, but he’d forgotten to use the glamour to hide the pointed ears and feral quality of the Fae behind the mask of a human face. Or else he had a reason for not hiding what he was.
    “Black Coat?” Breanna asked softly.
    Falco shook his head.
    That would have been reassuring if Falco hadn’t looked uneasy, even nervous. Whoever was in the woods wasn’t an Inquisitor, but also wasn’t a friend.
    She’d just turned back toward the trail when Jean ran out of the woods. The girl looked flustered, exhilarated. But not frightened.
    When she was a few feet away from Breanna, Jean stopped running. She shook out her skirt, ran her hands over her hair to smooth it, licked her lips to wet them, and pinched her cheeks to bring more color to her face. “How do I look?”
    Breanna stared at her. “Get in the house. There’s an intruder in the woods. Possibly an Inquisitor.”
    “Is that what he told you?” Jean said, giving Falco a look that was equal parts pouty and scalding.
    Any reservations Breanna had about Fiona’s suspicions and feelings were destroyed by that look.
    “It isn’t an Inquisitor,” Jean said. “It’s a Fae Lord, and he’s so handsome.”
    Breanna saw something cold and mean in Jean’s eyes when she realized Falco didn’t notice she now considered him an inferior specimen of a man.
    “Breanna,” Falco said quietly.

    Looking at the trail, Breanna saw the man coming out of the woods. He was handsome, with his black hair and fair skin. He was too far away to see the color of his eyes.
    “Jean, get in the house,” she said quietly.
    “So you can impress him?” Jean replied nastily. She gave the man a sweet smile of welcome.
    The man stopped and gave Jean a long, considering look. When he resumed walking toward them, the look he gave Falco was as scalding as Jean’s had been.
    “So this is where you’ve hidden yourself,” the man said harshly, stopping a few lengths away from them.
    “This is where I live now,” Falco replied.
    “Where you live ? Have you forgotten what you are? Have you forgotten your duty to your Clan ?”
    “I’m needed here.”
    ‘To do what? To be what? A witch’s pet? The man looked angry, disgusted. “When they told me you were down here, playing the tame Fae, I told them they were wrong. I told them Falco knew his duty to his Clan, and if he was cozying up to a witch here, it was only to seduce her into trusting him. Then he would persuade her to go back to Brightwood with him, and we would have a witch again to anchor the magic, to hold the shining road open. We would have a witch again who would perform the duty to the Fae she was meant to perform and free my sister from the burden . That’s what I told them. Now I see they were right. You’ve abandoned your Clan, abandoned your own kind . For what? Does she even spread her legs for you, or are you so pale a man that you don’t even demand that much for whatever favors you bestow here?”
    Incensed, Breanna raised her bow, drew back the bowstring, and took aim at the center of the man’s chest. “Who do you think you are?”
    “Tell her,” the man commanded, pointing a finger at Falco.
    Falco hesitated. Then he said, “This is Lucian. The Lord of the Sun, the Lord of Fire. The Lightbringer.”
    Perhaps it was because the two men expected her to be intimidated, awed, maybe even frightened about confronting the male leader of the Fae that power rose in her as sharp, sizzling temper.
    “Well, good for him,” Breanna said. “ ‘ You may see the Lord of Fire, but all I see is an intruder I’m going to shoot if