The Awakening

“You know what I think’s irresponsible? Slogging through a job you hate day after day. Covering up who you are, or who you may be given the chance to be, because your mother’s made you feel inadequate.”

Breen’s confrontation with her mother is her first step in breaking away from the life her mother has tried to impose on her toward the life she wants. Her mother has used responsibility to guide Breen in a way that has left her feeling inferior. This contrasts with the sense of responsibility Breen will learn from Marg, who supports who Breen is as well as who she wants to be.

“She’d be on her own, really on her own, for the first time in her life.”

Breen’s choice to go to Ireland to find her father is a quest to discover not only her father, but who she is. Initially, she finds her independence frightening, but she will rise to the challenge and separate from her Philadelphia life so that she can rediscover Talamh.

“But today, she told herself, today is for me. I opened a door, and today I walked all the way through.”

Arriving in Ireland, Breen imagines she has crossed to another world, foreshadowing her discovery of Talamh. In her quest to find herself, she taps into memories of her past and a deeper knowledge, revealed to her in dreams, of who she is. Breen is on her way to claiming her own powers and gifts. The narrative repeats “today” to create emphasis and lyricism.

“You have to look to find. You have to ask to have the answers. You have to awaken to become.”

In her first dream in Ireland, Breen sees Marg visiting a grave and is told once again to awaken. This passage offers an example of the prose style that prevails in the book, a use of repetition (each sentence begins with “You have to”), lyricism, rhythmic cadences, and the occasional figure of speech. The call to “awaken” echoes through the first part of the book as Breen progresses toward the knowledge that she is the Chosen One.

“This is home, my own darling. It’s for us to keep it, and all in it, safe. It’s for me to teach you how. That’s joy and duty.”

Breen dreams that her father discusses her birthright and the land they have to protect. Breen’s father attempted to navigate two worlds, as Breen attempts to do as well. He suggests there can be joy in duty, that protection is an act of love. What her father shows her in the dream—their farm in Talamh—will come to feel like home to Breen more than Philadelphia.

“Oh now. We’ll say living happy as you can, loving hard as you can. Taking care when care’s needed. And a good cup of wine of an evening.”

When Marco asks her the secret to her youthful-looking appearance, Finola answers by naming the values or habits that can lead to success in the earth world but also prevail in Talamh. Her reply offers a moment of humor—Marco and Breen don’t know yet that Finola looks youthful because she is a Sidhe, and so a faery creature.

“Sleeping, she didn’t see the lights dancing outside her windows, keeping watch. Or the hawk perched on a branch nearby to guard Eian Kelly’s daughter.”

The third-person narrator typically stays close to Breen’s thoughts and feelings, but occasionally moves to another point of view, like Marg’s or Keegan’s, to reflect on something Breen doesn’t see. In this case, the narrator is omniscient, or all-knowing. The narrator reveals, through images, that entities are welcoming and guarding Breen from danger.

“It’s all connected, you see, young Breen. The earth, the air, the water that falls from the sky, the sun that brings the light and warmth. And all that grows—the plants, the animals, the people. The bees that buzz, the birds that fly, all bound together.”

Seamus instructs Breen as they garden. She has not yet discovered Talamh, but he is teaching her its ruling principles. The idea that the world is connected and stays true to its natural state offers a striking contrast to the world Breen knows in Philadelphia.

“He loved her, Breen, and never stopped. But his love for you was beyond even that. He asked of me to watch and wait, and if I saw you had a need to come through, even more than if you were needed—and you are—that I would see to it. So I have.”

Marg gives Breen information at their first meeting. She explains Breen’s early life and shows how she, Marg, has taken up Eian’s task of loving and guarding her. Marg hints that Breen’s own need to know who she is put the events of the book in motion. It also helps Breen to know her father loved her and her mother.

“‘Is it safe you’re wanting?’ Marg demanded. ‘Is it really what you’re wanting when you wear the word for courage over the beat of your own heart?’ She tapped a finger on Breen’s tattoo. ‘Be brave, girl, and listen. You’re blood of my blood, and I gave up the joy of you for reasons you’ll learn as time goes. But the time for that is done, and the choices now will be in your hands.’”

When Breen disbelieves all she hears, Marg challenges her to listen. Marg has been one of the voices calling Breen to awaken and become. Marg wants Breen to recognize her inner nature—that Breen doesn’t want to be safe, but to be courageous, as exemplified by her tattoo. This passage also touches on the novel’s themes of blood, choice, awakening, and The Importance of Love and Family.

“You are loved, Breen. Whatever your choices to come may be, you will always be loved. But you can’t make true choices until you awaken.”

In their first meeting, Marg stresses to Breen that she must understand herself and her abilities before she can make a choice. Breen must awaken not only to her own gifts but also to the duties and obligations those gifts confer—her destiny as the Chosen One.

“We’re a peaceful world. You have to work to have peace, and there are times you have to fight for it. There are those who live for, who thrive on destroying, on taking, on the ruling of others against their will.”

Keegan speaks to Breen and identifies the two forces in Talamh—the peace he fights to provide and which her father died to protect, and the forces of destruction, represented by Odran. The conflict between good and evil, light and dark, is a common trope of the fantasy genre.

“My granddaughter, my blood, my treasure. You are a child of the Fey, a daughter of the Wise, from your father, from me and mine. And from mine long ago, there is Sidhe in you. You have human from your mother. And you carry the blood and power of gods.”

Marg outlines Breen’s heritage, which is what makes her powerful and also of interest to Odran. Breen has shifted from feeling inadequate in her mother’s world to being unique and irreplaceable in her father’s. This is a common theme in fantasy novels, where a protagonist is unrecognized in the world of their upbringing but seen as special and irreplaceable in the world they ultimately belong to. An example of this is Bella Swan from Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight series; Bella is awkward and clumsy as a human, but a powerful force to be reckoned with as a vampire.

“He’d use you to take it, piece by piece, heart by heart. Destroy, enslave, corrupt, as he has with lesser worlds. You’re the bridge he seeks to travel, and the bridge we need to stop him.”

Marg uses a metaphor, where something is compared to something else without using “like” or “as.” In this case, she compares Breen to a bridge between worlds. She uses the metaphor to further explain Odran’s ambitions and why Breen is the link that will allow him to access worlds. Odran’s power to destroy threatens Talamh, a world devoted to peaceful prosperity and healing.

“She made her wand. Under Marg’s supervision, she chose wood from a chestnut tree and a clear, polished crystal that pulled in and shot out light. She cleansed and imbued the crystal under the light of the moons. She chose a carving of a dragon, one that rode up the shaft of the wand toward the light, and marveled, though she could feel it—feel it inside—when the image in her head carved itself bold red into the chestnut.”

Breen’s training in magicks is a type of awakening as she learns how to use the power latent in elements like stone and wood, imbuing them with her vision and intention. This passage also illustrates the prose style characteristic of the novel and its use of imagery, such as the detailed steps of the wand’s creation. Here, we also see the novel’s characteristic repetition—“She chose”—and “feel it.” The phrase “she chose” emphasizes Breen’s claiming of agency.

“You must learn […] for your sake and that of others. There’s not a one in this world who wouldn’t give their life to protect you.”

Breen struggles to understand why she has to learn to fight. Keegan helps her realize her significance carries a duty and burden. She is the threat that draws Odran. She must learn to fight him to protect Talamh, as her father and Marg did. The realm’s loyalty to her father creates an obligation for Breen, which she feels curtails her choice. Here, Keegan emphasizes the importance of devotion, which Breen will ultimately embrace at the novel’s end.

“She made me feel less. That’s the bottom of it. She always made me feel less than what I am.”

Breen’s chief conflict with her mother hinges around Breen’s desire for self-expression. Though Breen comes to understand that Jennifer held her down and hid her out of fear, Breen also understands that family loves, supports, and encourages. Her mother’s protection wasn’t nurturing but limiting, like how Odran put Breen in a glass cage. Here, the narrative again uses repetition for emphasis—“she made me feel less.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t know what I’ll be. But it won’t be less. I’m never going back to less.”

When Breen learns the extent of her powers, and that she can channel energy with her hands, Keegan says she is finally awakening. It is a turning point for Breen when she realizes she will claim, own, and use her powers. She doesn’t know what her destiny is yet, or what she will choose, but she doesn’t want to return to her unknowing, unawakened state.

“One who knows your grandmother well. I am the dark to her light. I am the one who helped Odran send your father, that weak excuse for a son, to his death. Come, come watch, child, while I do the same to the woman who bore him. Then I’ll take you to your grandsire. He waits to cloak you in robes of gold and show you the true power in your blood.”

As Breen awakens and grows stronger, Odran’s power grows in balance, and the dark faery Yseult comes to taunt Breen. Odran’s ambition, built on subjugation and destruction, takes away agency. Yseult and Odran are the dark forces seeking to steal and snuff Talamh’s prosperity; they try tempting Breen to use her own power for selfish ambition.

“She’s caught between fear and fascination just as she’s caught between Talamh and the world she’s known. Her loves, her loyalties, her needs, her doubts, they tangle inside her like vines.”

Keegan sees the conflict within Breen as she wishes for a life in both worlds, Talamh and Philadelphia. The narrative uses a simile, where something is compared to something else using “like” or “as.” In this case, Breen’s conflicting emotions are compared to tangling vines, suggesting a strangling. As the Chosen One, Breen will have to choose to accept her destiny, and Keegan can see that she’s not ready.

“Sedric said I was unique. God, I used to long to be special in some way. In any way. Now if that’s what I am, it’s not all bright and shiny. It’s a burden, and a responsibility.”

Breen echoes her father’s earlier teaching about love and duty. She confides in Keegan how it feels to know she’s special at last. Her father’s duty to protect has descended to her. Keegan also understands duty and the burden of being chosen, which makes him a fit partner for Breen.

“How lucky was she? she thought, to be able to bounce from one story to the other, from one world to the other. From one life, really, to the other.”

As her writing career develops and Breen works on two books, she enjoys the ability to navigate between fictional worlds, much as she enjoys the ability to travel between Ireland and Talamh and spend time in each. Her writing talent, like her ability with magicks and her fighting skill, is another gift growing and awakening within Breen.

“A woman who did everything she could not to be noticed. Who followed rules someone else set for her. A woman who believed her own father couldn’t love her enough to stay. But that’s not who’s going back.”

When she informs Keegan she’s returning to Philadelphia, Breen describes how she has changed, the effect of her awakening. Though she is returning home, she is not the same person she used to be. She wants to make peace with both her worlds and use her new strengths and gifts in both.