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He gestured west where the sun sank. “Talamh will shine on the Night of Lights. Come with me,” he murmured to Breen. “Where is my nephew?” he called out. “Where is Finian, son of Mahon and Aisling?”
“I’m here.” Finian stood, eyes wide as Keegan approached, as people parted to let him pass.
“Here is a child of the Fey, a son of Talamh.” He hefted Finian onto his shoulders. “Lift up your young so they see the light that is ours. So they and all see this child of Talamh send the first light to the Tree of Welcome.”
Finian leaned down to Keegan’s ear and whispered, “I’ve done it only with a candle, with Ma, and a few times.”
“Remember it’s light, not fire you’re sending. It’s in you, bright as the day. But if you need help, you’ll have it. Send the light, lad, one only.”
Finian straightened, looked toward his family, then at the Welcoming Tree. “I—I send a light on this night to shine bright…”
“For all good and right,” Keegan prompted.
“For all good and right.”
The hand Finian held out toward the tree trembled a little. But a tiny light flickered on a sweeping branch, then strengthened, then glowed strong.
“Do you know the rest?” Keegan asked him.
“I think I might, but…”
“Say it with me, Fin, and strong now so all can hear.”
Together, they said, “Now all who stand upon this land, every son and daughter who swim the waters, all who fly across the sky, send your light through this night. So every tree shines with the joy that’s yours and mine until comes the sun, and this night is done.”
The tree blazed with light, as did the forests, the orchards, the lone chestnuts or oaks in fields.
Voices raised in a song of peace and joy and fellowship.
As it flowed around her, Breen thought there could be nowhere in all the worlds as pure or as beautiful as Talamh on Christmas Eve.
“Maith thú.” Keegan lifted Finian from his shoulders, then gave him a high toss in the air. “Well done indeed. You’ve earned a dragon ride.”
“Now?”
He started to put it off, then thought better of it. “If it’s now, Kavan will have a ride as well.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Call your dragon,” Keegan told Breen. “You’ll take Kavan.”
“I—I will?”
“Go fetch your brother.” Keegan set Finian down. “Let them see us both, and the light we’ll stream over the sky. Let Odran and Yseult feel it and know they failed. It’s a gift we’ll give to Talamh, and a bloody kick in the balls to Odran.”
With Bollocks and Kavan with her on Lonrach’s back, she flew up beside Cróga. Kavan let out his hoots and babbles, and raising his arms, spinning his hands in the air, sent out rains of faerie dust.
When Keegan swept an arm, a white rainbow bloomed over thesky. Breen did the same, while below Talamh glowed with countless points of light.
Since the incident with Caitlyn Connelly put Breen off wassail, she stuck with wine for the gift exchange at Fey Cottage. Though she’d seen some of Brian’s quick sketches, saw talent in them, the painting he gave her, one of the bay at sunrise, took her breath.
“It’s so beautiful, all the colors, the mists. You even have Bollocks splashing in the water.”
“It seems a favorite time of yours, the break of dawn, and I wanted to give you that moment, with thanks for opening your home to me.”
“It’s Marco’s home, too. But this?” She looked up and over to where he and Marco squeezed together in one of the big chairs near the fire. Like kids, she thought. Like lovers. “I’m going to be selfish with it,” she decided. “I’m hanging it in the room I use to write. A constant inspiration.”
She rose to walk over and kiss him before handing him a package. “Now that I have this, your gift might be a little self-serving.”
