The Becoming by Nora Roberts
Book 2 of The Dragon Heart Legacy series
Narrated by Barrie Kreinik
*The following recap is made from listening to the audiobook. Character and place names may be misspelled.
The Awakening ended with Marco jumping in the portal with Keegan and Breen. The Becoming starts with all three landing back in Talamh. Marco is ill from the jump, and Breen and Keegan get him in the farmhouse with Maureena and Harkin. They come down and help get Marco settled since he feels ill. The next morning Marco wakes up wishing for coffee and a shower, two things they don’t really have in Talamh. Maureena obliges Marco though and sets him with with a small rain shower outside so he can wash and dress. Breen and him then return to her cottage on the other side back in Ireland and she has him read what she’s written in her journal about Odran.
Marco is unsure about fighting this big bad, but Breen explains he’ll always be there. She wants children but doesn’t feel comfortable having any while he’s around because they will be a target for Odran. He will amass power whatever he needs to get at them. She shows him she’s not entirely helpless with her powers and does a mini demonstration showing control over the elements.
That evening they make spaghetti marinara with a salad. Keegan comes over to see if Breen intends to return to the normal schedule just as Marco and she are sitting to dinner. They invite him to join them for the meal. Keegan talks about how Marco could be of help too. When he asks like what he could do, Keegan asks for a second portion of “like what”. Training is a hard business and they will need to eat, and he’s very good at cooking. Plus, Keegan says how he can set Marco up with Maureena to help train him in battle as well. Breen walks Keegan out later and asks him to help her convince Marco to go back home, that he’s not trained. Keegan goes off on her and how she’s doing what her mother did to her for so many years and trying to make Marco less. Seeing Keegan is right, she somewhat reluctantly accepts Marco is there to stay and help in the coming battles.
Before heading to Talamh the next morning, Marco shows Breen a drafted cover for her first Bollocks book. Then he has her get fancied up some to take some photos for the author bio. When they do go to Talamh, Maureena starts training Marco on how to ride a horse, and Breen watches for a bit before going to her Nan’s cottage to learn magics. She asks her Nan to help her make a protection charm for Marco. Later when Breen is training with Keegan, she has a vision of Odran’s followers attacking on Samhain. Keegan gets excited because they will be able to prepare and what would have been a surprise attack will no longer be a surprise attack.
Breen asks Keegan if part of her training to ride could be a trip to the trolls so she can trade for the stones needed to help fight Odran. Keegan agrees as it would be a long ride. Breen tactfully tells Seul, Mother of the trolls, she is pregnant. Seul is thrilled by the news. Breen while grabbing the stones she needs, is attracted by a Labradorite orb. Grabbing it she gets another vision. She sees Odran’s side and Ischult about to sacrifice other living fey. Realize Odran planning to attack in summer. They don’t know what summer though.
Later, Breen takes Marco to see her Dad’s grave. While there though she senses spirits trying to break free and cause harm. Teron, Keegan’s mother, joins Breen and also senses the spirits. With the two of them and Bollocks they manage to seal the spirits so they won’t be able to get out and join the attack on Samhain.
Keegan with others travels south to stop the attack planned for Samhain. He pretends to be an old man visiting a group called the Pious. On Samhain, Keegan and the others he sent to the south to infiltrate the Pious defend themselves against the planned attack, capturing those who would have killed them and later taking them to be judged at the capital.
Breen and Marco accompany Keegan and the group on their travel back to the capital. Breen meets Shauna, and learns quickly Shauna is jealous of Breen. Shauna is after Keegan so she can have the status that goes with being the mate of the taoiseach. Breen and Marco make friends with another girl named Kiara. She is very good at doing hair for others and enjoys it. Asks to do Breen’s hair for the Judgement, and Breen joyfully accepts. Shauna gets jealous as Kiara is also supposed to be her friend too.
The leader of the Pious tries to attack Breen during the Judgement, but Breen seemingly easily defeats him. This impresses all at the Judgement.
Shauna uses the man she is currently sleeping with. She steals some of his supplies, without him knowing, in order for her to make a love potion to make Keegan fall in love with her. Kiara enters just as Shauna has finished making the potion to do Shauna’s hair before a Welcoming party to welcome Breen to the capital and back to Talamh. Kiara starts to leave after trying unsuccessfully to get Shauna to rethink her actions and to go get their mothers. Shauna knocks a vase over Kiara’s head knocking her out. Knowing she needs to act fast she goes to Keegan to sneak him the potion.
Breen goes looking for Kiara to see about borrowing some pins for her hair before the Welcoming. Bollocks barks at the door because he can smell the blood. Breen and one of the capital volunteers find Kiara. Breen heals her enough she calls for her mother and Shauna’s, and aks for help to get to Keegan before Shauna can give him the potion.
Keegan meanwhile suspects something is up based on Shauna’s movements. Then before drinking the wine she gives him he smells the spices and calls her on her plan. Kiara and Breen enter shortly after, and Shauna runs off to hide since her plans have now been foiled.
Later at the Welcoming, Breen is soon tired from all the dancing and manages to step outside for some air. Shauna uses this moment to try to attack Breen with a knife she stole from one of the dinner tables. Breen just reacts to the attack and ends up burning Shauna’s hand and then Shauna runs off. Kiara and the gentleman she is seeing hear Breen shout and come to see if she is alright. Breen plays it off and asks if they can find and ask Keegan to come out to her. When Keegan comes, she tells him of Shuana’s attack. He summons his dragon and gets Breen to his room in the capital. Asks her to stay there so he knows she will be safe. Keegan goes off to expand the search for Shauna.
Shauna runs to head back to the valley in the west where Keegan, Breen, and Marco came from. She expects to somehow find way to get to Odran. Comes across young boy tending family livestock and his younger brothers. She attacks him with a rock, and steals his clothes and the horse he had gone to feed. This prompts Keegan to gather a large group to do spell to find Shauna. They see her, but it’s too late. Ischult finds Shauna and escorts her through a portal back to Odran’s world. Keegan hurries back with Breen and her Nan to seal the portal in the falls where Ischult and Shauna went through.
A council is formed in the valley to counteract Shauna and the information she likely convinced her father, who had been on the council in the capital, to share with her and she is likely sharing with Odran. They look for any portals Odran may use to come through. Breen says to look for the “Tree of Snakes”. No one, including Breen knows what this means.
After a long time with no clue of where this “Tree of Snakes” is, Breen has a nightmare vision. Wakes up with blood on her hands after seeing Talamh destroyed by Odran and all those she loves are killed. She wakes Marco and tells him to stay in Ireland and not go to Talamh. She summons her dragon and flies to the capital. Takes Keegan to the “Tree of Snakes” but realizes all too late it was a trap set by Odran, and he uses her to open the portal. Odran’s followers pour out of portal and a large battle ensues. Marco had run to the valley in Talamh and gathers more soldiers and dragon riders who are able to fly quickly to the capital and help defend against those coming through the portal. Breen, Nan, and Teran manage to close the portal. Shortly after they are able to kill or capture the followers of Odran now trapped on this side of the portal.
Later Breen learns Fallen, Maureena’s brother, fell in the battle. Breen and Marco stay in the capital for Maureena’s family in the capital, and for the leavings of those lost in the battle.
The story continues in The Choice by Nora Roberts.
