Only a short period of time has passed since defeating Belzan and his army to destroy magic, and moreover, Zheirger Keep. As Kellshae comes to terms with the roles of people with and without magic, a new threat appears.
Zuena is learning to control and perfect her skills as a healer, her superior skills giving her an honored place among the senior mages. There is peace in Langear, and Kellshae is slowly overcoming the chaos from the abuses to and the abused by magic. Darkness is coming, prophesied in Zuena’s nightmares, and it will bring destruction and a new battle from the Void. Zuena doesn’t fear this new war, since they’ve already defeated an evil god, and a sadistic maniac. What Zuena fears is how she’ll ever fight her turbulent feelings for Shayne, the beautiful stranger from the Void.
Colonel Shayne Eliza Zamora was only weeks from retirement, before she was given one last order: Destroy all evidence of activities performed and remove the team living there for the last five decades. Easier said than done when some from the Void refuse to leave—and a certain healer disrupts Shayne’s precisely formulated plans. Most frustrating is the feelings she has for Zuena, a woman nearly twenty years younger, after decades managing to avoid attachments of the heart — and the perplexities of love.
When a group of the Voidians decide they’d rather rule the planet than leave it, Shayne must do everything she can to protect Zuena, the only woman able to remind Shayne she still has a beating heart.
It’s been four years since Fiona, Margaret, and Sunny Cavanaugh, along with friend Brigid Conner, left Boston to start a new life in Colorado.
Sunny Josephine Cavanaugh has come of age and has become a partner in Fiona’s Carpentry business. Jo offers to do work for the new seamstress, who’s opening a shop downtown and in need of upgrading. Tessa Langford hates the restrictions and constant hovering by her brother James; his constant harping of her previous troubles forging a wedge separating them further with each reminder. She’s interested in Jo the carpenter, and James isn’t happy about it.
Fiona Cavanaugh is having serious medical trouble. She’s been losing periods of her sight and the migraines are getting worse. Afraid to tell Margaret because her teaching is doing so well, Fiona’s unable to find a way to mend the distance growing between them because of her health and her silence. Margaret has felt Fiona hiding something, and concerned when Fiona chooses to avoid rather than speak to her. After four years, Fiona’s nightmares are returning. They’re growing apart, and Margaret fears that if she doesn’t figure out what is the underlying reason, she could lose Fiona forever.
Brigid Conner has enjoyed her new life since arriving in Colorado. She hasn’t found that special someone, but gets her hopes up when James Langford shows an interest — until James causes trouble for Fiona and Jo. Brigid finds solace in the understanding ear of her friend Ethel Winton’s new beau, Nicholas Trence. Only, Nicholas can’t be as wonderful as he appears on the surface, can he? With a murderer on the loose, can the women overcome their personal obstacles before one of them is the next victim?
Giselle Saunders has a relatively happy life, until her benefactor, Preston Muir dies a horrible death. Giselle has no sooner come to grips with her “uncle’s” death, when the rest of the family begins dying one-by-one from an epidemic. She turns to Elspeth, a nurse hired to assist Colonel Gardner after an injury, and the rest of the family during this medical emergency. Other than Preston and the Colonel, Elspeth is the only person Giselle has ever trusted, and the only one who has ever created the strange feelings in Giselle’s body and heart.
Elspeth Keillor believes something sinister is happening at the Gardner mansion. When the Colonel enlists her assistance in keeping an eye on Giselle when the family falls ill, Elspeth realizes she may be in over her head—and over-her-head-in-love with the much younger Giselle. Elspeth suspects foul play by the son-in-law, Dr. Edwin Merrick, but is dismissed when she starts questioning his procedures on the patients. Her distress increases when Elspeth learns Giselle has taken it upon herself to prove Edwin the murderer.
Will Giselle and Elspeth be able to come to terms with their attraction to one another, before they are the next victim?