The Awakening

Breen continues to train and work in Talamh, then comes home to her cottage to rest and write. One night she decides not to put rosemary under her pillow and dreams of Odran and Yseult discussing how to capture Breen. Awake, she learns that an agent wants to see the manuscript of her children’s story.

She visits Marg to tell her the dream. Sedric confirms that Breen is special, the one and only person who carries her bloodline; Odran wants to drain her power so he can destroy all the worlds, including hers. Keegan presses her as they spar and Breen lights his sword on fire with her power. Breen doesn’t want to fight, but Keegan tells her she must learn. He says: “If the worlds were as we wish, the light would be only for joy and beauty, for healing and help. But the worlds are not what we wish. So we use the light to protect and shield, to fight the dark, even kill” (351).

Breen continues her schedule because she wants time in both worlds. The agent calls and asks to represent Breen. As part of her magickal training with Marg, Breen makes an athame, a ceremonial knife used in magickal rituals. She enjoys learning magicks with Marg but dislikes the training with Keegan, who pushes her. Breen and Keegan visit her father’s grave. Breen thinks how her father had his heart in two worlds and felt the pull of duty on both sides. Keegan tells her a bit about the way justice works in Talamh and the judgments he dispenses as Taoiseach.

Keegan intensifies Breen’s training, but the attraction between them is also growing. Keegan walks her home to her cottage. Breen reads her email and discovers her agent got her a three-book publishing deal. She shares her joy with Keegan, and they make love.

Keegan comes to Breen one night and finds her sleeping and caught in a terrifying vision of Talamh devastated by war. In it, a triumphant Odran tells Breen she will never be enough. Keegan wakes her and tells Breen Odran is trying to weaken her and damage her spirit. Marco calls to tell Breen he found a house for them, and Breen remembers she is supposed to fly back to the US. in a week. Marg tells her she still needs to find her faith in the light and in herself. Breen knows going back to her world will hurt the people of Talamh, but she feels an obligation there, too. She is torn between her two worlds.

Keegan is upset when Breen tells him she needs to return to her earth world to take care of some things. He believes she should stay and do her duty. She was the image he saw in the lake, the one who urged him to take up the sword. Breen feels she needs to settle things with her mother, and she wants to show her friends that she’s a different, stronger woman now.

She leaves her dog with Marg, says goodbye to everyone, and flies home, where Marco welcomes her back. Breen looks around her apartment and thinks that “it wasn’t home, not anymore” (415). Breen tells Marco the good news about selling her book and he is happy for her.

Breen visits her mother and tells her that she discovered Talamh and her grandmother. She’s discovered that “life, a good one, is about love, about standing up for yourself and others, about that generosity, giving back” (423). Sally and Marco have taught her that. Her mother doesn’t think writing books is a real job and that Breen should go back to teaching. Breen realizes her mother never understood how torn her father felt and that, if he really loved them, he’d give everything else up. Breen goes to the club and finds Sally supportive and loving. She visits her agent in New York City and talks about her future.

Breen dreams of Odran, who asks her to share her power with him and says he will make her a goddess. She refuses. Instead, she hires Marco to market and promote her books. Back in Talamh, Keegan visits the Capital and is welcomed by his mother.

Shana is hurt when Keegan tells her she will not be his wife and partner. Keegan’s mother encourages him to fetch Breen. Breen breaks the news to Marco that she needs to return to Ireland to finish something she started. Keegan appears in Philadelphia and follows Breen to Sally’s.

Marco and Sally meet Keegan and see that he cares for Breen. Breen is upset that Keegan wants her to come back. She demands she have time to pack before he takes her away from the place she loves and cares about. Marco bursts in, demanding to know what is going on. When Breen tells him about Talamh and her birthright, Marco thinks she must be doing drugs. Keegan makes a portal to take Breen back to Talamh, and Marco grabs on and goes with them.