“This land is clean,” Duncan said.
Tonia leaned against him. “This shield is true.”
“Open.” Fallon stepped out of the circle. “This place is open to all who walk or fly or crawl in the light. And forever barred, in and out, from any who seek the dark.”
“As night follows day,” they said together, hands again joined, “as day follows night, this world is guarded by the light.”
She turned to her mother. “It’s done. It’s finished.”
“I know.” Tears glimmering, Lana cupped Fallon’s face. “I know it.”
“I never saw you here. Mom, I never saw Hannah. We couldn’t have done it without you, both of you.”
“And what came out of New Hope with you,” Duncan added.
“Thought I heard singing.” Tonia swayed. “You hear singing?”
“Something like that. How about you and Hannah take Tonia back?”
“Yeah.” She sent Duncan a weak smile. “I can go with that now. Because … uh-oh.”
Duncan caught his twin when she passed out.
“She just fainted,” Hannah assured him as she checked Tonia’s pulse. “We’ll get her to the clinic. We’ll take care of her. Here.” With Hannah on one side, Lana on the other, they supported Tonia.
“It’s going to take another flash,” Lana warned her.
Supporting her sister, Hannah braced herself. “I can handle it.”
“I know you can.” She looked into Fallon’s eyes, laid a hand on her heart, and flashed.
Safe. They’d be safe now. Fallon ran her hands over her filthy face. “It was in the altar. I could feel it in the stone. It wanted me to lie on the slab so it could suck the life and light from me. So I destroyed the altar, but I didn’t kill it. Only weakened it. I—”
“It’s done now. It’s done.”
It didn’t seem quite real, not quite solid now that the tidal wave of power ebbed.
“I don’t know how to feel. Relieved? All my life’s been aimed at this moment, so what do I feel now that it’s finished?”
She looked at him. Real. Solid. And everything steadied again. “You’re a mess. Bruised, bleeding, burned. I guess I am, too.”
“We’ll fix each other up.” He took her hand. Light still shimmered between them, and he focused on that as he spoke. “I wanted her dead, and wanted to do it. For Denzel, for Mick, too. For so much and so many. But when it came down to it, she was just crazy. Pathetic. Evil, but pathetic. Ending her…”
It wasn’t satisfaction, it wasn’t pleasure.
“Relief’s good,” he decided. “Relief works.”
“I’ll take it, and now we need to— Laoch! Oh Jesus, Laoch. I need to—” She ran to him, ran a hand over the flank the dragon had burned.
Instead of a wound, even a healing scar, he bore, like the shield, the fivefold symbol.
“Sometimes the gods are kind,” she murmured. She breathed out a sigh as Taibhse dropped down to perch on the golden saddle, and Faol Ban sat beside the alicorn to wait.
“We need to make sure I destroyed all of it in the woods, that there’s nothing left that can—”
“Fallon.” With a tenderness that surprised them both, Duncan pressed a kiss to her forehead, turned her around. “Look.”
The woods lived again. They stood thick, the pines green, the oaks ripe with color under the light of the swimming moon. A moon, she realized, and stars that shined through a sky as clear as glass.
Through the trees, and over the fields no longer scorched and burning, lights danced.
“The faeries came. They’re bringing it back. All of it back.”
“We’ll come back, too, bring Mom so she can see the house again. Open it up to the light again.”
“Someone will farm the land again.”
“Someone.”
She smiled at him. “Relief’s okay. Happy’s better. I think I just got to happy. And finished? That’s best of all. Let’s go home, Duncan.”
“Let’s go home.” He yanked her in, and they flashed to New Hope on a kiss.
EPILOGUE
On New Year’s Eve, in a year that ended and would begin in light, snow lay in white blankets over the sleeping gardens, draped over the branches of trees like lacy handkerchiefs. The wind blew cold and clear over families of snowpeople.
Inside the house where Fallon’s family had made a home in New Hope, friends gathered. Food for all and more covered tables, wine and whiskey poured generously into glasses. Music played jubilantly.
Fred, round with child, wings fluttering, danced with her oldest son while Eddie worked his harmonica, a dog at his feet, his youngest in his lap, clapping the time. For old times’ sake, Poe and Kim argued over a game of Scrabble while their sons rolled their eyes.
Jonah watched his middle son finally work up the nerve to ask a pretty girl to dance, and nudged Rachel. On a sigh, she tipped her head to Jonah’s shoulder, then reached out and grabbed Gabriel before he could dash by.
“Mom needs a hug.”
“Dad, too.”
On the lower level several gathered to play poker for pebbles and feathers and the high stakes of candied nuts. Colin narrowed his eyes at Flynn as Flynn raised him, yet again, ten nuts.
“No elf mind reading allowed, pal.”
“Don’t need them with you. You’ve got tells.”
“Do not.”
“Do,” Travis corrected, frowning at his own hand. “You’re jiggling your foot, so you’re bluffing.”
“I am—too,” Colin said on a laugh, and folded.
Across the room, content to watch the party, the game, Starr stroked Blaidd. When Ethan settled on the floor beside her, she drew back a little.
“He likes when you pet him,” Ethan said easily. “Not everybody or every animal likes to be touched. But he likes when you pet him.”
She sat for a moment, cleared her throat. “You have such kindness in your mind. Not everybody does. I know the farm is your home, but I’m sorry you’ll be going back soon.”
“We’ll come visit. New Hope’s home, too.”
Arlys, her hair styled in a smooth sweep for the party, and the end-of-year broadcast that had preceded it, weaved through the crowd. She carried a steaming mug to her father-in-law as he sat warm by the fire.
“Echinacea tea, for that scratchy throat.”
“Tea?” Bill scoffed with insult. “It’s New Year’s Eve.”
“Tea for the throat.” She leaned down, kissed Bill’s cheek. “The whiskey in it for the rest of you.”
“All right then.” He gripped her hand. “It’s going to be a good year.”
“Best ever.”
“Will Anderson!” he called out. “Your father didn’t raise a fool for a son. Dance with your pretty wife.”
“There’s an idea.” Will swung her toward the music, then just wrapped around her and swayed. “A really good idea. Theo’s flirting with Alice Simm’s daughter. Can’t blame him. Cute as they come.”
“I noticed. Cybil’s flirting with Kim’s oldest.”
He yanked back. “What?”
“Typical.” Arlys pulled him right back. “It’s your son, it’s ‘Woo-hoo.’ Your daughter, it’s ‘Whoa.’ I might have to write an article about that.”
“Oh no, you don’t.”
She laughed, snuggled in. “Chuck’s dancing. Not with anyone, and it’s not actually dancing. But it’s movement approximating the basic concept of dancing. Katie’s in the kitchen gossiping with Lana. God, I’m going to miss Lana. Hannah went down to the poker game with Simon. And—”
She looked up at him. “The gang’s all here, Will. We’re all here, and I love you.”
In the kitchen, Katie poured more wine, studied it. “I think I’m going to get sloshed.”
“Stick with faerie wine. No hangover.”
“Lana. Lana, what am I going to do without you?”
“We’ll visit. A lot.” Because it made her teary, Lana poured more wine for both of them. “And you have to visit us. I want you to see the farm. In fact, I hereby decree everybody comes to the farm this summer for a huge party. I demand it.”
“I’m in.” Katie blinked at tears. “We’re going to miss you and Simon, the boys.”
“Colin’s going to stay in Arlington.” Her smile bittersweet, Katie understood. “He’s a soldier, not a farmer. So more visits there, too. And Fallon.”
Lana breathed in, breathed out. Like giving birth, she thought. Letting a child find her way in the world wasn’t all that different, really, from bringing them into the world.
“This will be her home now. This house, her home with Duncan.”
“Are you—did they—”
“Just something I know. So visits, lots of visits. One day they might want a wedding or handfasting. Won’t that be a party for us to plan, Katie? Our babies.”
“I’ll watch out for her for you. I love her, Lana. I love Fallon and your boys.”
“I know. I love Duncan and your girls. We raised strong kids, didn’t we, Katie?”
“Amazing kids. To your four and my three.” She lifted her glass.
“Lucky seven,” Lana said and lifted her own.
“Ladies.”
Lana glanced over, laughed. “Mallick! You came.”
When she circled the counter to embrace him, he patted her back awkwardly, but smiled. “I wanted to wish you, all of you, a happy New Year.”
“How about some wine?”
“I’d be grateful. This home is full of light,” he added as she poured him a glass. “They’ll be happy here. I would offer a toast to two fine mothers and their excellent children.”