Elphame is worried about her brother, Cuchulainn. Cu has been sent to the Wastelands to gather a group of human/demon hybrids together and return with them to Partholon. A century past, a group of demons, the Fomorians, kidnapped and raped human women using them as incubators to breed a race of human/demon hybrids. These new hybrids are several generations removed from those original human victims. Cu's lover was murdered by one of the hybrids, who refer to themselves as the New Fomorians. Although he does not blame all of them for the actions of one, Cu is not altogether sure that the New Fomorians can be trusted to live in peace with his people and decides to keep an eye on them before he leads them back to his people.

Once among the hybrids, Cu comes to realize they're true innocents and deserve to take their rightful place among the people of Partholon. Brighid and Cuchulainn lead the outcasts, mostly children, back to Partholon. As they travel together, what has in the past as strong friendship and respect begins to blossom into something more. Though she's rejected her Shaman heritage, Brighid is set on healing Cu's fractured soul. When Brighid learns that her centaur herd plans to make war on the humans she's come to love, she realizes she can no longer turn away from her calling. The Huntress embraces her future and her new husband with equal fervor as she sets to put her world to right.

Cast's new novel follows GODDESS BY MISTAKE and ELPHAME'S CHOICE in her series about the people of Partholon. Cu and his lover, Brenna, were strong secondary characters in the second book and readers will be ravenous to know what happened to Cu after his lover's death. Cast does a great job of dealing with Cu's many stages of grief and anger and his decision to make himself whole again and move on. The choice of a centaur heroine and human male is interesting. I wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but Cast makes it work. And remember that there's some shape-shifting involved. Her blending of different mythologies is also something that shouldn't really work, but again she does it so expertly, the different races of her world come together very well. Fans of her earlier books will be more than pleased with this one. New readers might want to read the earlier books in this series to enjoy this one even more.

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