Chapter One
DANA Steele considered herself a flexible, open-minded woman, with no less than her fair share of patience, tolerance, and humor.
A number of people might have disagreed with this self-portrait.
But what did they know?
In one months time, her life had, through no fault of her own, taken a sharp turn off its course and into territory so strange and uncharted she couldnt explain the route or the reason even to herself.
But wasnt she going with the flow?
Shed taken it on the chin when Joan, the malicious library director, had promoted her own niece by marriage over other, more qualified, more dependable, more astute, and certainly more attractive candidates. Shed sucked it up, hadnt she, and done her job?
And when that completely undeserved promotion had caused a squeeze resulting in a certain more qualified employees hours and paycheck being cut to the bone, had she pummeled the despicable Joan and the incessantly pert Sandi to bloody pulps?
No, she had not. Which in Danas mind illustrated her exquisite restraint.
When her greedy bloodsucker of a landlord raised her rent to coincide with her pay cut, had she clamped her hands around his scrawny neck and squeezed until his beady eyes popped?
Again, she had demonstrated control of heroic proportions.
Those virtues mightve been their own reward, but Dana enjoyed more tangible benefits.
Whoever had come up with that business about a door opening when a window closes hadnt known much about Celtic gods. Danas door hadnt opened. It had been blown clean off its hinges.
Even with all shed seen and done, with all shed been a part of over the last four weeks, it was hard to believe that she was now stretched out in the backseat of her brothers car, once again heading up the steep, winding road to the great stone house of Warriors Peak.
And what waited for her there.
It wasnt storming, as it had been on her first trip to the Peak after receiving that intriguing invitation for “cocktails and conversation” from Rowena andPitte —an invitation that had gone out to only two other women. And she wasnt alone. And this time, she thought, she knew exactly what she was in for.
Idly, she opened the notebook shed brought along and read the summary shed written of the story shed heard on her first visit to Warriors Peak.
The young Celtic god who would be king falls for a human girl during his traditional sojourn in the mortal dimension. (Which I relate to spring break.) Young studs parents indulge him, break the rules and allow him to bring the maid behind whats called either Curtain of Dreams or Curtain of Power, and into the realm of the gods.
This is cool with some of the gods, but pisses others off.
War, strife, politics, intrigue follow.
Young god becomes king, makes human wife queen. They have three daughters.
Each daughter—demigoddess—has a specific talent or gift. One is art or beauty, the second is knowledge or truth, the third is courage or valor.
Sisters are close and happy and grow to young womanhood,tra -la-la, under the watchful eye of the female teacher and the male warrior guardian given the task by god-king.
Teacher and warrior fall in love, which blinds the eye enough that it isnt kept sharp on the daughters.