over there and the barracks over there. You can’t have one,” he said, gesturing toward the farm, “without the other,” and to the barracks.
“Like Tonia said,” he continued, “we know this world and what it takes to live in it, because you gave it to us, you fought for it, built it, and taught us how to live in it. But the world goes beyond the farm back home, New Hope, and the places from here to there. If we don’t take it for the light, they’ll take it for the dark.”
“They’re right.” Hannah let out a sigh. “Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if New Hope was the world. If this was all there was. Our homes, our neighbors, working at the clinic, learning to be a doctor, spending time with friends, music in the gardens on a night like this. Then I remember another night like this in the gardens. I remember when someone I thought was a friend tore through our home. I think of Denzel and Carlee and everyone she killed. I think of what we do, Rachel, Jonah, in the clinic after a mission. You taught me what to do.
“I don’t have magick like Fallon, Tonia, Travis. I’m not a soldier like Colin. But I know what to do, and what needs to be done, because you all taught me.”
“Basically,” Colin said after a pause, “we’re saying it’s time we kicked some ass.”
That got a laugh, reluctant in some corners, but a laugh.
“You’re not wrong,” Fallon told him. “Ass kicking’s on the list. So’s rescuing, training, staking claims, building, expanding.”
“Okay.” Katie lifted her hands in what struck as a gesture of surrender. Her eyes, Duncan’s eyes, Fallon thought, scanned the group. “First I’m going to say I’m proud of all of you. Next, I’m going to say it sounds like you’re telling us it’s time to pass the torch.”
“No. I don’t want you to pass the torch,” Fallon said quickly. “I hope like hell you won’t pass it.”
“But we need more torches,” Simon finished, and had her releasing a relieved breath.
“Yes. We need more torches. They bring the light.”
“The light will grow,” Lana said.
Fallon felt the vision take her mother even as it took her. “From the source to The One and beyond.” It rose in Fallon, spread with the words she spoke. “The end is done, the beginning begun. The five links joined, for good or ill.”
“The dark will come, with blood and death, in madness and guile. It lives to extinguish the light. On a dark beast it rides to bring grief and loss. You will weep, daughter, child of the Tuatha de Danann, and the dark will drink your tears. You will despair, and the dark will feed on your heart. This is your mother’s sorrow.”
“Light against dark, life against death, blood against blood. We will rise up, rise up, rise up, and when the storm passes, if the light holds, five will stand together.”
“The five links joined,” they said together, “never again to break. Who rides through the storm and stands brings good or ill for all.”
With the visions fading, Fallon gripped Lana’s hand. “I won’t fail. I can’t.”
“The dark beast is real. A black horse. No, a dragon.”
“With a red inverted pentagram.” Fallon ran a finger down the center of her forehead. “I saw it. I can’t tell you not to worry, because that would be stupid. But I’m asking you to believe in me.”
“If I didn’t, I’d have defied the gods and kept you on the farm.”
“What’s up with the five links?” Eddie asked.
“Fallon’s symbol. Well, the fivefold symbol,” Fred corrected. “I think of it as Fallon’s because it’s on her sword.”
“The four elements,” Fallon explained, “linked by magick. So, whoever wins this, those links are for good or for ill.”
“So, we win,” Colin said simply.
“You got that right. We’re going to start lighting those torches. Tonia, Flynn, and I will scout Arlington tonight.”
“Tonight?” Katie jolted in her seat. “We haven’t begun to organize.”
“It’s a lot to accomplish in a short time. We can flash Flynn—it’s always easier with another magickal. Duncan, Mallick, and another of their choosing scout the Utah base, Thomas and two of his people the one in South Carolina. Then we coordinate, work out plans of action.”
She looked back at Katie. “Organize. Meanwhile, we’ve got a—I’ll go with rudimentary again—idea of the layout in Arlington from what Chuck’s pieced together, and what I’ve pieced together through a series of looking spells.”