The Quickening (Magical realism): Most people see the Irish Travellers as a ragged bunch of musicians, artists, and fortune-tellers crossing the country in an old double-decker bus in the new land, in the twenty first century, but these people are a secret. They are a race older than time, the Sdhe, the Fair Folk, almost immortal. On an unforgettable night of murder and mayhem, Kathryn Shilton meets the Travellers and her life changes forever. She and her witch friend Merrin help the Sdhe find the ones responsible for the bombs, fires, and terror wrought on the Southside of New Rathmore. When Hunter's son, a child of immense magical power, is kidnapped by members of Michael Blacker's Fundamentalist Christian cult all hell breaks loose. But no one knows what's really going on and who or what are the powers behind both sides in a struggle against bigotry and hate. Except, perhaps, a conspiracy of ravens.