Chapter 9
Ciaran opened his eyes to find himself lying in the garden bed, except he didn’t recognize it now. Lawn, trees, flowers—anything he could classify as living was now dead and dried up. At one corner of the dead garden, Gaia sat, wailing. Huge tears rolled down her face. A few feet away from her stood Liam, looking helplessly at his daughter.
Tadgh crouched and helped Ciaran up. Liam was as white as a sheet.
“What happened?” Ciaran asked.
“It looked like she sucked the energy out of you—I don’t know where she dumped it. And then she drew from the garden, as you can see, to put energy back into you. Then it seemed as if she was back to normal. She just flopped there and cried,” Tadgh said.
“She won’t let me touch her. She hissed at me!” Liam exclaimed.
Gaia sobbed louder, verb
