The House Of Gaian

tired. That’s all.”
    “She’s never tired.”
    Liam walked over to her, put his arm around her shoulders, and kissed the top of her head. “This has been a trying time for her, Breanna. So many people looking to her to make wise decisions, so much uncertainty about what’s going to happen. I’m not surprised she’s tired. Even my mother dozed off last night while we were still talking, and she’s a generation younger than Nuala. Don’t worry over something a good night’s sleep will set right.”
    She and Liam turned as a boot scuffed the kitchen threshold.
    “Here,” Donovan said as he walked toward them, balancing two plates of buttered toast and two cups of tea. “Tuck into that. It will take a while for us all to get a proper breakfast.”
    “I see Gwenn is teaching you how to make yourself useful,” Liam said. He released Breanna in order to take the plate and mug that Donovan held out to him.
    Donovan just snorted.
    “Does your staff make a fuss over Gwenn knowing her way around the kitchen?” Breanna asked, thinking about how their housekeeper, Glynis, was always arguing with her about what was and wasn’t proper work for a lady.
    Donovan grinned. “The first time Gwenn wandered into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, they were appalled. My cook, housekeeper, and butler cornered me and told me I simply had to explain to my lady wife that gentry ladies didn’t do that.”
    Breanna leaned forward. “What did you say?”
    “I told them I’d just married her. If they wanted her out of the kitchen, they could explain it to her.”
    “So what happened?” Breanna said when it didn’t seem like Donovan was going to say anything else.
    “She still wanders down to the kitchen to make her own tea when it suits her, so what do you think happened?”
    Gwenn came out of the kitchen with two more plates and mugs, so Breanna held her tongue and ate her toast while she watched the storm come in.
    “It’s moving fast,” Gwenn said.

    Breanna just nodded. The edge of the storm was in the Old Place now. She watched the lightning, heard the thunder. As the first breath of wind flying before the storm reached her, she shivered. “It must go from one end of the Mother’s Hills to the other.”
    “If it’s still this strong, it must have been a mean bitch of a storm wherever it started,” Gwenn said.
    Breanna noticed the way Donovan frowned at his wife’s choice of words, but she wasn’t sure if he disapproved of the language or if he was considering what it might mean for Gwenn to refer to a storm in that way.
    She set her mug and plate on the ground and stepped forward. Gwenn did the same thing before looking back at Donovan. “You should go inside. You’ll get wet out here.”
    “Will you go inside?” Donovan asked.
    Gwenn shook her head. “The storm is out here. The message is out here.”
    “Then I’m staying.”
    Breanna glanced at Liam, saw the stubborn look in his eyes, and didn’t waste the effort to persuade him to do what they both knew he wouldn’t do. Besides, the storm required her attention now.
    She watched the wall of rain come toward her, tasted it on the wind. Tasted the power still entwined with it. She shivered. “This wasn’t a natural storm.”
    “No, it wasn’t,” Gwenn agreed.
    “What do you mean it wasn’t natural?” Liam said.
    Breanna half turned toward him. “It didn’t form on its own. Someone created it—and released it.”
    “Mother’s mercy,” Donovan whispered.
    “It wasn’t formed in the Mother’s Hills,” Gwenn said thoughtfully. “Somewhere in the midlands, I think.”
    “Why would someone do that?” Donovan said, his voice sharp and worried.
    Neither woman answered him. They stepped forward together as the rain came across the lawn and finally reached them.
    A message written on water, whispered on the wind.
    This wasn’t a whisper. Despite how far the storm had traveled, she could still taste the anger that had summoned that wind and sent it flying.
    Yes, something had definitely changed.
    She watched Gwenn cup her hands and sip the rain that collected there. And she watched Gwenn turn pale.
    “Do you have what you need?” Breanna asked.
    Gwenn nodded.
    Breanna walked to the center of the lawn and began to dance, channeling the wind through her body and sending it back to shred the clouds, spreading them out even further. A hand clasped hers ... and Gwenn circled with her, taking in the strength from water and