The Arrow (Children of Brigid Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

would have tried to run. His mother would have caught him eventually, but he would have run anyway. Without the dream he kept in that file, he would have welcomed death.
    Except that his mother would make his death slow and unbelievably painful. She would get much more pleasure from his agony than his death. Cain shuddered again. If he thought too much on reality, he lost his nerve. It was time to think about his dream, instead.
    He opened a photo of a long beach with sands as fine and sparkling as snow. He’d already bought an estate in the Maldives beside pristine turquoise waters.
    He knew the coordinates to the estate. When the time came, he would fly them there himself in one of his planes. He would need to remember to reserve a couple of employees from getting sick when the time came. They would need servants. Fynn wouldn’t have to do any work. Once she was Cain’s wife, her life would be pure paradise.
    When he could stand the waiting no longer, he opened the final image. It was from a recent news article. It came from a photo of Fynn with Mother Brigid and her sister Liadan accepting an award for some kind of breakthrough in infant medicine. Cain had never read the article. He knew that Brigid’s Keep was a world-renowned birthing center, among other things. Cain and his three brothers had all been born there, but he didn’t care about that.
    He had cropped the photo to cut Mother Brigid out. He didn’t care about what happened to Fynn’s sister or her mother. Mother Brigid, Liadan, and Fynn together possessed an unimaginable power. Cain’s mother was a witch and their coven of four was strong, but they were only human at their core. The kind of power that he witnessed in Fynn’s family while growing up in Brigid’s Keep was horrifying. Fynn’s healing touch was only part of the story. She could send an arrow to its mark from a quarter mile away. As for Lia, she cried so hard when her pet wolf died, that the skies above the Keep darkened with a thunderstorm and funnel cloud. He ran to the cellars below the fort in terror. No one should have that kind of strength.
    Destroying the power of the Three was the right thing to do.
    Fynn’s face took up the entire screen. He had to be content to just watch for now. Soon he would get to touch her in person every single moment of every single day.
    It could never be soon enough.
    He studied Fynn’s profile. A messy ponytail pulled her strange metallic-colored hair off her face. He would never let her wear a ponytail. He would always make her wear it down over her shoulders. At the beach, he got full few of the cabled muscles of her arms, legs, back, and stomach. Those would soften once she belonged to him. She would have no interest in surfing, swimming, or archery then.
    It was her smile that made her so special, he realized. It was the smile of someone who had no need to be afraid. Then he
was
touching the screen, his fingertips tracing the pixels of light. She was so unchanged. She was a grown woman now, but he could see the young girl in that smile.
    When he closed his eyes, he could still see her unkempt metallic auburn hair, her skin the same brown as her father’s, her eyes the improbable dark green of her mother’s. What fascinated him most was her slow way of moving, as though the tides of the sea would wait for her word. He could not imagine Fynn ever being afraid.
    Even when they were children together at that commune in the mountains, he felt her quiet power. She was kind to him.
    Mother took them from the Keep when they were kids, but Cain never forgot Fynn. His love for her had only grown over the years. He’d seen her since, but only from a distance. Cain wondered if she would recognize him when they met again.
    He watched her whenever he could steal a chance. He loved driving out to St. Cocha and following her around town and on campus, lying in wait for the hope of even just one glimpse of her.
    He had a sweet memory of Fynn running while he