“I don’t want you in it ever. I guess I don’t get my way on that.”
“I don’t know what I need to do yet, or have yet, or be yet. It’s hard to know what I don’t know. But whatever I have?” She tapped a hand on her heart. “Is going south. Here, tomorrow night—or in Talamh—there’ll be ceremonies, rituals. Samhain’s a sabbat and important. You can’t really be part of that, but you can be there, watch, and send your heart and mind, too.”
“Okay. Okay, we’re going to do all of that.”
“And pack for a few days at the Capital.”
“Brian’s going to show me his art.”
She shook her spoon at him. “Is that a euphemism?”
“Don’t need one. I’m going to see his art, then we’re going to get each other naked. Or it could be the other way around. What do they wear in the Capital?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea.”
“I’ll ask Nan. And you take that new dress.” He smiled at her. “You’re making me feel better.”
“That’s my job. And since I fixed this elaborate breakfast, you get to do the dishes while I get what we need for your gift for your boyfriend.”
“Don’t be calling him that yet. You could jinx it.”
She rose, spoke solemnly. “I saw what I saw, I know what I know.”
When she came back, she set out leather strips, selected protective stones.
“He’s a big guy.” Marco studied his choices. “Can we do a six-strip braid?”
“I have no idea how to braid six together.”
“I do. I can show you.”
“You do it.”
Instantly, Marco snatched his fingers away from the leather. “I don’t want to, like, dilute anything.”
“You won’t—the opposite. You’ll add yourself.”
“Okay, if you’re sure. It’s more like weaving, see?” He chose five brown strips of varying hues and a black for the center, and in his practiced way wove them snugly together.
“That’s good, already impressive. You choose the stones, place them where you want them.”
“Tell me what they are, okay, and what they do?”
As she tutored him, he set stones in a wide zigzag pattern over the leather braid.
“That’s not too many, is it?”
“No, and damn it, it’s better than the one I made you. It looks like something you’d buy in a high-end arts and crafts shop.”
“Don’t you insult the bracelet my best girl made me.” Satisfied, he sat back. “What’s next?”
“Magick.” She picked up her wand. “Put your hand over mine on the wand.”
He hesitated. “I really can? I won’t screw something up?”
“The power’s from me, but the heart’s from you—so we weave them like you wove the leather.”
“That’s chill.”
“So let your heart and your intent lead. Think of him.”
She called the light, said the words, and with Marco’s hand on hers trailed the wand over the leather and stones. Once, twice, three times.
“They just … They just sort of melted into the leather. I could feel it, Breen.” Dazzled, thrilled, he looked over at her. “I could feel the energy just pouring out of you.”
“From you, too. Your faith, your heart.” She tipped her head to Marco’s. “He better appreciate you, or I’ll burn the skin off his ass.”
“Bet you could. I hope he likes it, and it’s not too much, too soon.”
“He will, and it isn’t. Now you get to sew the pouch. Pick a color. I brought leather because dragon rider.”
“I like the blue, like his eyes. Is that completely lame?”
“It’s adorable.”
Since Marco sewed better than she did, Breen left him to it and put the unused stones and leather away. She pulled on boots, a jacket, added a scarf since the day—at least on this side—held cool and damp.
By the time they left the cottage, the stacked clouds overhead sent down a thin, chilly rain.
In Talamh, they stepped into fresh fall air and sunshine.
Because Aisling’s boys played near the kitchen garden, watched over by the patient wolfhound Mab, Breen sent Bollocks ahead.
Finian strutted up to them. “In one more day, it’s my birthday.”
“I heard that.” Marco crouched down so they’d be eye to eye. And Kavan immediately climbed onto his knee. “You’re going to be fifteen, right?”
Obviously thrilled, Finian grinned before holding up three fingers. “I get to ride with Harken on his dragon because I don’t have wings like Kavan. But one day I’ll have my own dragon like Harken and Keegan.”
Now Breen hunkered down. “Your gift is of the Wise, like your mother’s.”
He studied her. “Ma says that, but I can’t do anything.”
“You will. Good things and great things. I see it. I feel it.”
His eyes rounded. “Do you swear it?”
She touched a hand to his heart, and felt that pulse of light, that soft, young power. “I do. I swear it. Your dragon is only this big now.” She held out her other hand, measured the distance. “He needs his mother for a while longer. He’s green as your fields, with blue like the bay on his wings.”
Finian gasped. “You’ve seen my dragon?”
“I see him in you. You’ve named him Comrádaí in your heart, for brother, and he’ll be, like Kavan, a brother to you.”
“I picked his name! I did! But I haven’t seen him. I have to tell Ma. Come on, Kavan, I have to tell Ma about my dragon.”
Kavan stopped playing with Marco’s hair, smiled, and scrambled down to run after Finian.
“Did you really see all that?”
“Yeah. I didn’t expect to. I—the longing is so strong in both of them. It was all just there. God, I hope it’s all right I told him all that.”
“You know what I think?” Marco pushed up, took Breen’s arm to draw her up with him. “I think if you saw and said all that, you were supposed to. And you sure made that kid happy.”
Since Mab followed the boys, and Bollocks stood vibrating, watching her with hope, she stroked his topknot. “Go ahead. I’ll call for you when we’re ready to ride.”
“Is it like that with the dragons, you think? Like it is with you and Bollocks?”
“That’s what they say. Now, I guess we should find Harken, or check in the house to let them know we’re getting the horses.”
She led the way to the stables first and found Harken crooning as he ran his hands over a mare. The mare, Breen realized, she’d watched Keegan’s stallion impregnate on a rainy summer day.
“Good morning to you both.” Harken murmured something to the animal, rubbed his cheek to hers.
“It’s Eryn, isn’t it? Is she all right?”
“More than fine. Just giving her a once-over before I let her have a run in the field. She and the foal are both well. And how are you faring after the big night?”
“More than fine,” Marco answered. “Is it okay if I pet her?”
“Sure she likes the attention. You’ve just missed Morena, who left to take Amish hunting. And my mother as well, as she and Minga are off for a ride.”
“It’s still all right if Marco and I ride to the gravesite?”
“It is, of course. I’ll get your tack.”
“We’ll get it. I know where everything is now.”
Marco stroked the mare another moment. “I guess some of the soldiers left for the south already.”
“Before the sun broke the night, and Keegan with them. He and Mahon will come back for Finian’s birthday celebration, then off they’ll go again.”
Breen laid a hand on his arm. “And you?”
“Not this time. I’m here, as Keegan wants me close to our mother and sister, the boys. They’ll not get past them, but we take no chances.”