a moment. The weight belonged to him, he thought, and always had.
“You’ll stay here in the world you know, the world that has your heart. I’ll find another way to hold Talamh.”
Because her legs went weak, she slid down, spilling out what she’d swept into the little bag.
He went down with her, crouched as she sat with her back against the wall.
“You’re saying I don’t have to go. And don’t say it’s a choice.”
“Well, a choice it is, but we haven’t given you much room for it, have we? And no doubt if you’d come back, I’d have driven you just as hard, more, than I had before. That’s the way of it. The way of me. But it’s not your way or your world.”
“My father—”
“Died for it. I loved him like my own. I don’t think he’d be thanking me for dragging his daughter back to risk all. This is for me.”
He pushed up, started to reach down to help her up.
The door swung open.
Marco saw Breen on the floor, tears on her cheeks, and to his eye, Keegan looming over her.
“You asshole! Get away from her!”
Leading with his fist, he flew at Keegan. Breen heard the crack of knuckles against bone before her shock broke, and she shot to her feet.
“Stop, stop! Don’t you hurt him,” she ordered Keegan, and just flung herself at Marco to keep things from escalating.
“Get out of the way, Breen. Nobody’s going to treat you like that. You think you can go around knocking women down, fucker?”
“He didn’t.” Breen clung tighter. “He didn’t knock me down. He didn’t hurt me. It was the opposite. I was emotional; he was being understanding.”
“Didn’t look like that to me. And I saw how you looked when you left Sally’s. You were upset. You’re still upset. That’s why I came after you.”
“I was upset. I am upset. But not with Keegan. I promise. Go close the door, okay? Before the neighbors call the police.”
After giving Keegan another hard look, Marco stomped over, slammed the door.
“I want to know what the hell’s going on.”
“I was packing.” She hunkered down to pick up what she’d spilled, and to avoid eye contact. “And I got emotional. Keegan said things—kind things—and I got more emotional. He didn’t hurt me, or threaten me, or . . . anything like that.”
“Okay.” But that wary eye remained. “If it wasn’t what it sure as hell looked like, I’m sorry I hit you.”
“No matter. Friends stand for friends. And it was a good punch, well delivered.”
“Yeah well, I’m pretty sure your face broke my fist.” He looked down at Breen. “And this isn’t the whole story. What the hell’s going on, Breen? And don’t try to bullshit me. I know you, girl.”
“You do.” She murmured it as she pushed up. “I’m going back.”
“I know. We talked about it.”
“I’m going back pretty much now.”
“Now? You said next week.”
“I know.” She looked down at the bag in her hand, the one filled with things that had seemed so important only moments before.
Now, important meant the two men in the room, and the two worlds they belonged to. She stepped into her bedroom to set the bag down.
“Let’s get out of the hall.”
She walked into the living room, turned to Keegan first. “I’m not leaving until I pack. I’m not leaving until I tell Marco the truth.”
Keegan only shook his head and paced to the window.
“Wait. Is that a sword? Why does he have a sword?”
“Let’s just sit down for a minute.” After urging Marco to a chair, she perched on the arm of another. “I wasn’t just in Ireland this summer. It started there. Or no, here. It started here, sort of, after I saw Sedric on the bus. The man with the silver hair, remember?”
“Breen—”
“But I started to feel more in Ireland. Morena—with the hawk? How I felt so connected so quickly. Then at the cottage, I felt more and more. And I followed Bollocks through the woods, and he led me to the tree. I went through after him and into Talamh. Where my father was from. Where he and my mother got married. Where I was born. I met my grandmother.”
“I thought she gave you the dog. Your grandma.”
“She did, but I didn’t know she did until she told me. When I spent time with her, I learned so much. I learned, and could feel, how everything’s connected. How there’s a power, two-sided—the dark and the light—that connects everything and everyone.”
“What, like the Force?”
“No,