He touched a finger to one of the earrings, sent it swaying. “They suit you well enough, I think. And while I’d enjoy banging you against a handy tree, and I’d make certain you enjoyed it as well, we’ll settle, for now.”
He drew her in, took her mouth as she took his.
She wanted the taste, the feel, the scent of him, so drew it all in. And held on a moment longer.
“I’ll need you to go with me to the Capital.” He drew back, held her shoulders again to look into her eyes. “To fly over all of Talamh, and to stand with me where all can see so they know the dark is done.”
“It’s not done yet.” She reached up to touch his face. “But I’ll be with you, and all of Talamh will know it’s done.”
“We’ll have a quiet time after all that. A quiet time is what I want with you.”
He kissed her hand, a rare move, but in an absent way that told her his mind was already elsewhere.
On Talamh, the battle, the end.
“Don’t wander,” he said a last time before he led her back from one world to the other.
She stepped into the color and music and movement. Into the magicks that had changed her life. That had, she thought, made her life.
So she turned to him, in Talamh, took his face in her hands, and lifted up to kiss him where any who wished to could see.
Then smiled at him. “I’ll be with you, and I’m ready.”
She saw faces she knew grinning back as she walked to the stand.
“I’ve got this, Liam, thanks.”
She watched Keegan cross the road while dragons flew overhead. While crops grew in fertile fields and livestock grazed.
In the stables, a life was coming, and opening herself to it, she saw it would be a colt with Merlin’s markings.
She laid a hand on Bollocks’s head, and watched her world, their world. And knew the wonder of peace.
For a moment, one crystalline moment, absolute peace.
When the horn sounded and the alarm carried across the valley, she stood ready.
She’d made her choice.
“Protect the children,” she said to Bollocks, and drew her sword.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Faeries spread wings to fly children to safety; elves blurred away with littles on their backs or in their arms.
Many whisked through the portal, where they’d stay on the other side until it was safe to return to Talamh.
Safe, Breen thought, if—no,when—they won this last battle.
Warriors, and any who could fight, took up sword, bow, club, spear from the hidden stockpiles. She took up a bow, slung it and a quiver on her back.
Several of the Wise would bespell the tasting tents into fortified healing stations for the wounded. On the fields where children had raced, the Fey formed lines of defense. So it would be across Talamh.
This ambush would meet a well-armed and well-prepared army.
Odran would not take the valley. He would not take Talamh.
She reached down under the stall where she’d kept them, put on the pendant, put on the diadem.