by Nora Roberts
“Like a goddamn pet? Kept her? Damned her is what it would have done, killed her, crushed out that light in her.”
“Given her eternity.”
“Of dark, of a craving for the blood of what she’d been. Condemned her to a life that is no life. She didn’t know what she asked me.”
“She knew. Such a strong heart and mind she has, and courage, yet she asked and she knew, and would have given you her life. You’ve done well, haven’t you? You have culture and wealth, skills. Fine homes.”
“That’s right. Made something of my dead self. Why shouldn’t I?”
“And enjoy it—when you’re not sitting in the dark brooding over what can’t be. What you can’t have. You enjoy your eternity, your youth, your strength and knowledge.”
He sneered now, damning the gods. “Would you rather I beat my breast over my fate? Endlessly mourn my own death? Is that what the gods demand?”
“We demand nothing. We asked, and you gave. Gave more than we believed you would. If it were otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”
“Fine. Now you can go away again.”
“Nor,” she continued in the same easy tone, “would I give you this choice. Continue to live, grow wealthier yet. Century upon century, with no age, no sickness, and the blessings of the gods.”
“Got that already, without your blessing.”
Her eyes sparkled a little, but he couldn’t tell—didn’t care—if it was amusement or temper. “But now it’s given to you, the only of your kind who has it. You and I know more of death than any human can. And fear it more. There need be no end to you. Or you can have an end.”
“What? Staked by the gods?” He snorted out a laugh, took another long pull from the bottle. “Burned in god-fire? A purification of my condemned soul?”
“You can be what you were, and have a life that comes to an end as all do. You can be alive, and so age and sicken and one day know the death as a man knows it.”
The bottle slipped out of his fingers, thudded on the floor. “What?”
“This is your choice,” Morrigan said, holding out both hands, palms up. “Eternity, with our blessing to enjoy it. Or a handful of human years. What will you, vampire?”
In Geall, a quiet snow had fallen, a thin blanket over the ground. The morning sunlight glinted off it, and sparkled on the ice that coated the trees.
Moira passed her cousin’s infant back to Sinann. “She’s prettier every day, and I could spend hours just looking at her. But our company’s coming after midday. I haven’t finished preparing.”
“You brought them home to me.” Sinann nuzzled her daughter. “All I love. I wish you could have all you love, Moira.”
“I had a lifetime in a few weeks.” She gave the baby a last kiss, then glanced around in surprise as Ceara rushed in.
“Majesty. There’s someone…downstairs, there’s someone who wishes to see you.”
“Who?”
“I…I was only told there’s a visitor who’s traveled far to speak with you.”
Moira’s eyebrows shot up when Ceara dashed away again. “Well, whoever it is has her fluttered up. I’ll see you again later.”
She went out, brushing at her trousers. They’d been cleaning for days in preparation of the new year and her most anticipated guests. To see them again, she thought, to speak with them. To watch Larkin grin over his new niece.
Would they bring any word, any at all, of Cian?
She pressed her lips together, reminded herself not to let her inner grieving show. It was a time of celebration, of holiday. She would not put a pall over Geall after all they’d fought to preserve.
Something trembled along her skin as she started down the stairs. Shivered up her spine and to the base of her neck where her lover had liked to press his lips.
Then it trembled in her heart, and she began to run. That trembling heart began to race. And then to soar.
What she believed never could be was, and he was there, standing there, looking up at her.
“Cian.” The joy that had been shut away burst out of her, like music. “You came back.” She would have launched herself into his arms, but he was staring at her so intently, so strangely she wasn’t sure she’d be welcomed. “You came back.”
“I wondered what I’d see on your face. I wondered. Can we speak in private?”
“Of course. Aye, we’ll…” Flustered, she looked around. “It seems we are. Everyone’s gone.” What could she do with her hands to stop them from touching him? “How did you come? How—”
“It’s New Year’s Eve,” he said, watching her. “The end of the old, the start of the new. I wanted to see you, on the edge of that change.”
“I wanted to see you, no matter when or where. The others come in a few hours. You’ll stay. Please say you’ll stay for the feasting.”
“It depends.”
Her throat burned as if she’d swallowed flame. “Cian. I know what you said in your letter was true, but it was hard, so hard, not to see you again. To have our last moment together standing in blood. I wanted…” Tears flooded her eyes, and she nearly lost the war to will them back. “I wanted just a moment more. Now I have it.”
“Would you take more than a moment, if I could give it?”
“I don’t understand.” Then she smiled and choked back a sob when he drew the locket she’d given him from under his shirt. “You still wear it.”
“Yes, I still wear it. It’s one of my most treasured possessions. I left nothing of me behind for you. Now I’m asking, would you take more than that moment, Moira? Would you take this?” He lifted her hand, pressed it to his heart.
“Oh, I was afraid you didn’t want to touch me.” Her breath shuddered out with relief. “Cian, you know, you must know, that I…”
The hand beneath his trembled, and her eyes went wide. “Your heart. Your heart beats.”
“Once I told you if it could beat, it would beat for you. It does.”
“It beats under my hand,” she whispered. “How?”
“A gift from the gods in the last moments of Yule. They gave me back what was taken from me.” Now he drew out the silver cross that hung around his neck with her locket. “It’s a man who stands before you, Moira.”
“Human,” she whispered. “You live.”
“It’s a man who loves you.” He pulled her toward the doors, flung them open so the sun poured over them. And because it was still so miraculous, he lifted his face, closed his eyes and let the stream of it bathe his face.
She couldn’t stop the tears now, or the sobs that came with them. “You’re alive. You came back to me and you’re alive.”
“It’s a man who stands before you,” he said again. “It’s a man who loves you. It’s a man who asks if you’ll share the life he’s been given, if you’ll live it with him. If you’ll take me as I am, and make a life with me. Geall will be my world, as you’re my world. It will be my heart, as you’re my heart. If you’ll have me.”
“I’ve been yours from the first moment, and I’ll be yours until the last. You came back to me.” She laid a hand on his heart, and the other on her own. “And my heart beats again.”
She threw her arms around him, and those who’d gathered in the courtyard, and on the stairs cheered as the queen of Geall kissed her beloved in the winter sunlight.
“So they lived,” the old man said, “and they loved. So the circle grew stronger, and formed circles out from it as ripples spread in a pool. The valley that had once been silent sang with music of summer breezes through green grass, the lowing of cattle. Of pipes and harps and the laughter of children.”
The old man stroked the hair of a little one who’d climbed into his lap. “Geall flourished under the rule of Moira, the warrior queen and her knight. For them, even in the dark of night, a light shone.
“And that brings the tale of the sorcerer, the witch, the warrior, the scholar, the shifter of shapes and the vampire to its own circle.”
He patted the rum
p of the child on his lap. “Off with you now, all of you, while there’s still sunlight to enjoy.”
There were shouts and whoops, and he smiled as he heard the arguments already starting for who would be the sorcerer, who would be the queen.
Because his senses were still keen in some areas, Cian lifted his hand to the back of the chair, and covered Moira’s.
“You tell it well.”
“Easy to tell what you’ve lived.”
“Easy to enhance what was,” she corrected, coming around the chair. “But you stayed very close to the truth.”
“Wasn’t the truth strange and magical enough?”
Her hair was pure white, and her face as she smiled at him, lined with the years. And more beautiful than any he’d known.
“Walk with me before twilight comes.” She helped him to stand, hooked her arm through his. “And are you ready for the invasion?” she asked, tipping her head toward his shoulder.
“When it comes, at least you’ll be finished fussing over it.”
“I’m so anxious to see them all. Our first circle, and the circles they’ve made. Once a year for the whole of them is so long to wait, even with the little visits between. And listening to little pieces of the tale brings it all back so clear, doesn’t it?”
“It does. No regrets?”
“I’ve never had a one when it comes to you. What a fine life we’ve had, Cian. I know we’re in the winter of it, but I don’t feel the cold.”
“Well, I do, when you put your feet on my arse in the night.”
She laughed, turned to kiss him with all the warmth, all the love of sixty years of marriage.
“There’s our eternity, Moira,” he said, gesturing toward their grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. “There’s our forever.”
Hands linked, they walked in the softening sunlight. Though their steps were slow and measured from age, they continued through the courtyards and the gardens, and out through the gates while the sound of children playing rang behind them.
High above on the castle peaks, the three symbols of Geall, the claddaugh, the dragon and the sun, flew—gold against the white.
• • •
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Glossary of Irish Words, Characters and Places
a chroi (ah-REE), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my heart,” “my heart’s beloved,” “my darling”
a ghrá (ah-GHRA), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my love,” “dear”
a stór (ah-STOR), Gaelic term of endearment meaning “my darling”
Aideen (Ae-DEEN), Moira’s young cousin
Alice McKenna, descendant of Cian and Hoyt Mac Cionaoith
An Clar (Ahn-CLAR), modern-day County Clare
Ballycloon (ba-LU-klun)
Blair Nola Bridgitt Murphy, one of the circle of six, the “warrior”; a demon hunter, a descendant of Nola Mac Cionaoith (Cian and Hoyt’s younger sister)
Bridget’s Well, cemetery in County Clare, named after St. Bridget
Burren, the, a karst limestone region in County Clare, which features caves and underground streams
cara (karu), Gaelic for “friend, relative”
Ceara, one of the village women
Cian (KEY-an) Mac Cionaoith/McKenna, Hoyt’s twin brother, a vampire, Lord of Oiche, one of the circle of six, “the one who is lost”
Cirio, Lilith’s human lover
ciunas (CYOON-as), Gaelic for “silence”; the battle takes place in the Valley of Ciunas—the Valley of Silence
claddaugh, the Celtic symbol of love, friendship, loyalty
Cliffs of Mohr (also Moher), the name given to the ruin of forts in the south of Ireland, on a cliff near Hag’s Head, “Moher O’Ruan”
Conn, Larkin’s childhood puppy
Dance of the Gods, the Dance, the place in which the circle of six passes through from the real world to the fantasy world of Geall
Davey, Lilith, the Vampire Queen’s, “son,” a child vampire
Deirdre (DAIR-dhra) Riddock, Larkin’s mother
Dervil (DAR-vel), one of the village women
Eire (AIR-reh), Gaelic for Ireland
Eogan (O-en), Ceara’s husband
Eoin (OAN), Hoyt’s brother-in-law
Eternity, the name of Cian’s nightclub, located in New York City
Faerie Falls, imaginary place in Geall
fàilte à Geall (FALL-che ah GY-al), Gaelic for “Welcome to Geall”
Fearghus (FARE-gus), Hoyt’s brother-in-law
Gaillimh (GALL-yuv), modern-day Galway, the capital of the west of Ireland
Geall (GY-al), in Gaelic means “promise”; the city from which Moira and Larkin come; the city which Moira will someday rule
Glenna Ward, one of the circle of six, the “witch”; lives in modern-day New York City
Hoyt Mac Cionaoith/McKenna (mac KHEE-nee), one of the circle of six, the “sorcerer”
Isleen (Is-LEEN), a servant at Castle Geall
Jarl (Yarl), Lilith’s sire, the vampire who turned her into a vampire
Jeremy Hilton, Blair Murphy’s ex-fiance
King, the name of Cian’s best friend, whom Cian befriended when King was a child; the manager of Eternity
Larkin Riddock, one of the circle of six, the “shifter of shapes,” a cousin of Moira, Queen of Geall
Lilith, the Vampire Queen, aka Queen of the Demons; leader of the war against humankind; Cian’s sire, the vampire who turned Cian from human to vampire
Lora, a vampire; Lilith’s lover
Lucius, Lora’s male vampire lover
Malvin, villager, soldier in Geallian army
Manhattan, city in New York; where both Cian McKenna and Glenna Ward live
mathair (maahir), Gaelic word for mother
Michael Thomas McKenna, descendant of Cian and Hoyt Mac Cionaoith
Mick Murphy, Blair Murphy’s younger brother
Midir (mee-DEER), vampire wizard to Lilith, Queen of the Vampires
miurnin (also sp. miurneach [mornukh]), Gaelic for “sweetheart,” term of endearment
Moira (MWA-ra), one of the circle of six, the “scholar”; a princess, future queen of Geall
Morrigan (Mo-ree-ghan), Goddess of the Battle
Niall (Nile), a warrior in the Geallian army
Nola Mac Cionaoith, Hoyt and Cian’s youngest sister
ogham (ä-gem) (also spelled ogam), fifth/sixth century Irish alphabet
oiche (EE-heh), Gaelic for “night”
Oran (O-ren), Riddock’s youngest son, Larkin’s younger brother
Phelan (FA-len), Larkin’s brother-in-law
Prince Riddock, Larkin’s father, acting king of Geall, Moira’s maternal uncle
Region of Chiarrai (kee-U-ree), modern-day Kerry, situated in the extreme southwest of Ireland, sometimes referred to as “the Kingdom”
Samhain (SAM-en), summer’s end (Celtic festival); the battle takes place on the Feast of Samhain, the feast celebrating the end of summer
Sean Murphy (Shawn), Blair Murphy’s father, a vampire hunter
Shop Street, cultural center of Galway
Sinann (shih-NAWN), Larkin’s sister
sláinte (slawn-che), Gaelic term for “cheers!”
slán agat (shlahn u-gut), Gaelic for “good-bye,” which is said to the person staying
slán leat (shlahn ly-aht), Gaelic for “good-bye,” which is said to the person leaving
Tuatha de Danaan (TOO-aha dai DON-nan), Welsh gods
Tynan (Ti-nin), guard at Castle Geall
Vlad, Cian’s stallion
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