“I’ll kill her before it’s done.”
With a sigh, he lowered his forehead to hers. “I find I don’t want this for you. I know it must be, but I find I wish it wasn’t.”
“I was born for this.”
“And so much more, mo bandia.”
“He’ll find another way. Odran. He’ll find another way through, sooner or later.”
“Aye, until he’s destroyed, he’ll keep finding a way. But ask yourself this. Why didn’t he come through this day? So many of his demons and warriors came through. Even Shana. He sent Yseult through, and with one purpose I see. To bring you back to him. He didn’t come through and take you or try. Why?”
“I hadn’t thought of it.” So much blurred, she thought, with so many moments of clear-cut clarity. But she hadn’t thought of that.
“You’ve a brain in there.” He tapped a fist lightly to her head. “And a fine one at that. So think of it. We were taken by surprise, and outnumbered. Even with the warriors waiting for a signal, we were at a disadvantage until Harken brought the valley warriors. Shana found you. Yseult found you. Why didn’t he?”
“He can’t come through?” Her eyes narrowed as she turned the question into a statement. “He can’t come through, not yet. He doesn’t have enough power to come through again.”
“The gods banished him to that world, and it took centuries for him to build enough power, to drink enough to pass through to Talamh. And what did he do?”
“Made a child—my father. To drain the power from his son because he didn’t have enough to take the world, to take Talamh. Nan stopped him, and it took him years more to come for me. He sends others through to steal children, young Fey, for sacrifices, for more power. But it’s not enough.”
“And won’t be, I’m thinking. He’s a god in that world, but in this? There are weaknesses and risk.”
“He’s a coward.” When it struck her, she gripped Keegan’s bloody shirt. “He’s a goddamn coward. Stealing and killing children, lording it over a bunch of ugly, asshole demons and—and wingnuts.”
“Wingnuts? Faeries?”
“No, I mean extremists. People who choose to belong to some insane, twisted cult because somehow it makes them feel good, feel superior.”
She gave him a little shake, paced away, paced back while Bollocks stayed stretched out on the ground and watched her with adoring eyes.
“I’ve been a coward, so I know beating one isn’t just possible. It’s probable. If he thinks he won something today, he’s wrong. He’s just one more step closer to losing.”
“I didn’t think I’d smile today,” Keegan told her. “But here you are.”
She stopped in front of him. “I need more training.”
“You do, aye. And you’ll get it. Sure I think I won’t find it so easy to knock you down so often as before.”
“I killed today.”
“Ah, Breen.”
“I killed wicked, evil things today, and I’m fine with that. This?” She held up her arm, turned her wrist to show him her tattoo. “Misneach. Courage. That’s not just a wish anymore. It hasn’t been just a wish for months now. So you’ll train me to kill wicked, evil things, and you and Nan will help me learn how to use magicks as a weapon against them.”
“I think Yseult would say you’ve learned that well already.”
“I wanted to hurt her as much as kill her, and that was a mistake. I took a sword from a body and used it. You wouldn’t have liked my form, but I used it. You’ll teach me to use it better.”
Giving in to what he’d wanted since he’d seen her standing in the field, he brought her wrist to his lips. “That may be beyond my skills.”
“Maybe I’ll surprise you.”
“You do, every day. If I kiss you here and now, I may never stop.”
“I’m all right with that.”
He drew her in, brushing a hand over her hair, hair full of hellsmoke but still bright as a flame. He touched his lips to hers gently, once, twice. Then yielded to need, to her, and poured everything, the relief, the longing, the hope, into the kiss.
She locked around him in the light, and answered everything.
“Can we stay here like this?” She pressed her face to his shoulder. “Just for a minute. I want, so much, to go home. The valley, the cottage, so if we could stay like this for a minute. I have to stay for Morena, her family. For the Leaving. I need to be here for Finola and Seamus when they come. I need to help you do all the sad, hard things you have to do.”