The Becoming (the Dragon Heart Legacy, #2)

The second installment in Nora Roberts's Dragon Heart Legacy trilogy picks up where The Awakening left off. Breen Kelly, a young woman who recently discovered she carries the blood of the Wise (witches), the Sidhe (faeries), humans, and the gods, has just stepped back through a portal into Talamh, a magical Fey world that separated from the human realm centuries ago to preserve its magicks. Her best friend Marco, a musician and bartender from Philadelphia, leaped into the portal at the last moment. The story opens as all three travelers, including Keegan O'Broin, the taoiseach (leader) of Talamh, crash-land on a dirt road near the family farm.

Marco is shaken and sick from the crossing. Keegan's brother Harken, a farmer, and Morena, Breen's childhood friend and a faerie with silver-tipped wings, help settle him in. Breen reunites with her grandmother Marg, a powerful witch and former taoiseach who lives with her partner Sedric, a Fey shape-shifter who takes cat form. Marg explains the central threat: Odran, a fallen god and Breen's paternal grandfather, once infiltrated Talamh by deceiving Marg, married her, and secretly drained power from their infant son Eian. Though cast out, Odran eventually murdered Eian and now seeks Breen, whose unique bloodline makes her a source of immense power. Marco refuses to leave, declaring he will stay until the threat is ended.

Breen and Marco establish a routine split between a cottage in Ireland, where she writes and Marco manages her online presence, and Talamh, where she resumes training. Morena teaches Marco horsemanship, and Breen studies magicks with Marg while enduring combat sessions with Keegan. Her swordwork improves, though archery remains a weakness. She crafts a protection bracelet for Marco and works on both a children's book about her loyal dog Bollocks and an adult fantasy novel.

A journey to the Troll mines earns Breen crystals for magical crafting. In the trading post, she discovers a labradorite globe that triggers a vision: Odran and his witch Yseult performing blood sacrifice at a waterfall portal to breach the barrier into Talamh. Shortly after, a prophetic episode overtakes Breen during training. She describes Odran's followers slipping through cracks to join "the white robes," identifying the Pious, a religious cult in southern Talamh that has secretly aligned with Odran. The attack is planned for Samhain (Halloween). Keegan recognizes that foreknowledge transforms an ambush into a trap and begins covertly positioning troops.

Keegan's mother Tarryn arrives from the Capital with soldiers. At a ceilidh (social gathering), Marco meets Brian Kelly, a dragon-riding Sidhe warrior and Breen's distant cousin, and a romance sparks between them. Preparations reveal a second front: while visiting her father's grave, Breen senses spirits stirring inside nearby ruins, where Yseult has cast a spell to raise an Undead army on Samhain night. Breen and Tarryn break the enchantment. Meanwhile, Keegan infiltrates the Pious Prayer House disguised as an elderly holy man, discovering that their leader Toric plans to sacrifice a kidnapped girl and that three young initiate boys have already been murdered.

On Samhain, Breen serves as one of seven Wise to cast the ritual circle and hears her dead father's voice encouraging her. The gathered Fey watch the southern battle through the balefire, a ritual flame that reveals distant events. Keegan springs the trap: an elf rescues the captive child, Fey forces ambush Odran's soldiers as they emerge from a portal, and the battle is fierce and costly. Keegan orders the Prayer House razed, declaring a memorial will stand in its place.

The group travels east to the Capital for Breen's formal Welcome and the Judgment of the captured Pious. En route, Breen slips into a vision and throws power across the barrier to save a young faerie girl from sacrifice, briefly locking eyes with Odran. At the Capital, she meets Shana, Keegan's former lover, an elf whose father sits on the council. Shana attempts to intimidate Breen with lies about an ongoing relationship with Keegan, but Breen refuses to be diminished.

At the Judgment, Toric drains a fellow prisoner's life to break his bindings and attacks Breen with dark power. She rises glowing, cages him in bars of light, and delivers a thundering declaration of her identity. Keegan sentences the accused to banishment in the Dark World, Talamh's harshest realm of exile.

At the Welcome feast, Breen and Keegan share an intense first dance. That night, Shana brews a forbidden love potion using ingredients stolen from her lover Loren Mac Niadh, intending to enslave Keegan. When her best friend Kiara discovers the plan, Shana strikes her and flees. Bollocks senses Kiara's distress through a locked door, leading Breen to find and heal her. Shana later ambushes Breen with a knife on a terrace; Breen sets the blade ablaze in Shana's hand, and the elf escapes into darkness. A finding spell reveals Shana reaching the waterfall portal, where Yseult pulls her through a breach into Odran's world. Breen and Keegan seal the breach.

Keegan takes Breen to Dragon's Nest, the highest peak in Talamh. There she bonds with Lonrach, a red dragon tipped in gold, and rides him for the first time as the community celebrates. Keegan then reveals that Shana's father disclosed the secret locations of Talamh's 12 portals, information now in Odran's hands. A new council forms, and Sedric mentions a possible dead portal in the Capital's forest.

A prophetic dream shows Breen the hidden portal: a tree with coiled, slithering branches. She flies to the Capital on Lonrach and leads Keegan to it, but as she reaches toward the tree, Odran pulls a fragment of her across the barrier and cuts her palm, using her blood to open the portal. His forces pour through: demon dogs, dark faeries, gargoyles, and corrupted Fey.

A desperate battle erupts. Breen fights with fire, wand, and sword. Phelin McGill, Morena's brother, is killed. Loren steps between Shana and Breen, taking a poisoned knife; he dies acknowledging he loved Shana but could not save her. Yseult isolates Breen and lies that everyone she loves is dead. Instead of breaking, Breen erupts with fury, attacking Yseult with barbs of searing light that shred through her defenses and send the witch fleeing. Marco, who refused to stay behind, arrives with valley warriors on dragons and horseback, turning the tide. Breen, Marg, and Tarryn combine their power to drive the enemy back, and Breen seals the portal with her own blood, realizing Odran lacks the power to enter Talamh himself.

In the aftermath, Breen tells Keegan she knows who she is, demands more training, and recognizes their bond strengthens them both. They walk toward the castle to honor the dead.

In the epilogue, Odran punishes a wounded Yseult for failing to capture Breen. Shana, now pregnant with Odran's child and fully corrupted, shows no remorse for killing Loren. Yseult silently vows to heal, find another way through, and drag Breen back. The war is far from over.