when it caught them.
It raced down the drive, a straight path of destruction. Men who scrambled out of its path met the Fae's arrows. They couldn't turn fast enough, couldn't run fast enough. And when it reached the catapult with another ball of flame ready to be released, he heard the savage snap of wood, heard the roar of fire-and covered Breanna's eyes and closed his own when he heard the screams of those who were still alive in that spinning fury.
"We surrender!" several voices yelled. "Please! We surrender!"
Breanna jerked. "The ground's hot."
Liam scrambled to his knees. The ground around them smoked gently. The
grass near the barn was withered, as if it had been burned by an unrelenting sun. When he glanced up, he saw smoke rising from the barn roof but no flames.
He pulled Breanna to her feet and led her back toward the manor house, keeping himself between her and the drive.
"We surrender!"
Men, holding their empty hands above their heads, looked toward the trees.
Slowly, cautiously, the Fae appeared and herded the prisoners toward the manor house.
And at the end of the drive, now moving slowly back toward them, was that funnel. Flames still flared at the top of it like captured lightning. Charred wood and bodies began falling from it.
"Mother's mercy, Liam. What is that?"Liam looked over, relief flooding through him as he saw Donovan-dirty and with a bloody scrape along his jaw-guiding Gwenn toward the manor house. She was limping a little, and her face had no color.
As they got closer to each other, he heard Gwenn muttering, "I can do this. I
can. This is what I stayed to do. Mother's mercy. Calm calm calm. I can do
this."
Donovan's eyes held worry and fear. Breanna was a quivering mass of tension beside him. The prisoners hurried toward them, terrified. And Varden and the rest of the Fae who gathered on the edges of the drive looked equally pale and frightened.
And still that funnel moved slowly toward them, losing height now, losing
its prey.
He swallowed hard as he watched the bodies fall. More and more of them until there was nothing left but a thin veil of dirt.
Three hundred men-and they'd had no chance.
"I can do this. Let go of me, Donovan." Gwenn pulled away from her
husband, shook out her skirt, and brushed at the dirt on her shirt. "I can do this."
"Do what, Gwenn?" Breanna asked, her eyes narrowing as she watched the
funnel.
Liam stared. Was he seeing what he thought he was seeing?
The last of the dirt fell away as the funnel faded into a gentle swirl of air
around the black-haired, cold-eyed woman riding a gray stallion. A beautiful
woman. The kind of woman who could take a man's breath away.
The realization that his heart wasn't just pounding in fear scared him to the bone.
The horse stopped. The woman just stared at them.
Gwenn took one step forward. Her smile was as wobbling as the curtsy she
tried to perform. "Blessings of the day, Selena."
After a painful moment of silence, the woman said, "Blessings of the day, Gwenn."
Breanna stared at the tea and thin sandwiches on the table in front of her.
She wasn't sure if she was queasy because she was hungry or because it didn't seem right to be hungry after what she'd seen. At least her hands had stopped shaking. Sneaking a healthy nip of whiskey before Sloane brought in the tea things had coated her nerves with the illusion of calm.
There was no reason not to be calm. It was over. They'd won this battle. Liam and Donovan were questioning the prisoners. And the guest she was waiting to offer tea and sandwiches to was just a witch, just another Daughter of the House of Gaian.
She lowered her face into her hands. Felt her breathing hitch as she struggled
to remain calm. It would be ill-mannered to show fear, but...
Selena wasn't just another witch, wasn't just another Daughter of the House of Gaian. Mother's mercy. How was she supposed to act around a woman who could create a funnel of wind so powerful it could have ripped grown trees out of the ground and flung them aside like a child throwing a toy with gleeful abandon. And the speed of it, racing down the drive at a fast gallop.
A few seconds, a few ticks of the clock. That's all it had taken for that twisting fury to destroy three hundred men.
Feeling her hands tremble, Breanna sat up and pushed her hair back.
Offering Selena a guest room and a chance to wash off the dust had been the polite thing to do. And it gave them all a chance to let their nerves settle a bit before facing her again. Gwenn's doing. If she hadn't played lady of the manor, they might all still be standing out there, uncertain of what to say or do.
Mother's tits. Where was Gwenn? She promised to be down as soon as she washed up a bit and changed into something borrowed from Elinore's wardrobe.
Breanna brushed her fingers over the skirt and tunic she'd borrowed, certain Elinore would have been more offended if she'd sat in the parlor looking dusty and bedraggled while offering tea to an important guest than helping herself to the other woman's clothes.
Sloane opened the door. As Selena walked into the room, Breanna decided a false, sick smile would be more insulting than a serious expression. Besides, she didn't think her parlor skills were sufficient under these circumstances to produce even a sick smile.
Where was Gwenn?"There's tea and sandwiches," Breanna said.Selena barely glanced at the tray on the table. "It looks lovely." She walked over to the windows half-covered by the heavy draperies that were usually pulled closed over the sheers at night. She stared out the window but didn't push aside the sheers to get a clear view.
"Do no harm," Selena said quietly. "That's the creed. That's the scale on which we balance all we do when we channel the power from the Great Mother. The Lady of the Moon is a wonderful dance, a celebration of the Mother's sister. But I'm also the Huntress, the protector of witches. I am justice ... and I am vengeance. Because of that, I can no longer balance what I do on the scale of our creed."
And it hurts you, Breanna thought, studying the lovely woman who now wore a simple green gown. It hurts you that you can't live by the creed. The quiet pain under Selena's words tugged at her and she said the first thing that popped into her head. "You made a mess of Liam's drive. It will take his men days to rake it smooth again." She didn't mention the men who were out there now, searching for any wounded, gathering up the dead.
Selena turned away from the window, her expression slightly puzzled.
Good. That was good.
"I thought Gwenn said Baron Liam was your brother. Isn't it your drive,
too?"
Breanna shook her head and poured tea into two cups. "Oh, no. This is Liam's house. I don't live here."
"I see."
It was like feeling the sharp blade of a winter wind cutting through a summer
day.
"No," Breanna said firmly, "I don't think you do." Since her hands were
trembling again, she didn't try to pick up her tea. "I live in the Old Place with my family. Liam and I only got to know each other a few weeks ago. His mother, Elinore, is kin to us, and his gift from the Mother comes down through her. He didn't know it was in him until the need to save me from the nighthunters broke the barriers inside him. And now..." She trailed off, remembering the mortified expression on Liam's face.
"It's a natural function," Selena said.
"So is farting, and he'd probably have preferred to embarrass himself that way in mixed company than setting a pile of arrows on fire," Breanna
replied tartly. She picked up her cup and saucer. Selena's sudden, rich laughter surprised her enough to bobble the cup, slopping tea into the saucer.
"You're younger than he is, aren't you?" Selena's gray-green eyes danced
with humor.
"What makes you think that?" Breanna asked warily.
"Younger sisters have no mercy."
Breanna tipped her head. "You have a younger sister?"
Selena walked over to the table, took her tea and a thin sandwich. "I do."
"Would she like a dog?"
It was the caution in Selena's expression, overlaid with humor, that