Braving Fate (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 1) by Linsey Hall Read Free Book Online

grimaced at the memory of her looking at him as though he were the same as the demons who had chased her across Edinburgh. What the hell had made Boudica’s soul choose the small redhead? Boudica had been an excellent strategist, but you wouldn’t know it by her choice of Diana for her next life. Hell, did Boudica even get to choose? Or was it just fate that had made Diana a reincarnate? He had no idea, but whatever she’d been reborn to accomplish, Diana wasn’t nearly strong enough to do it.
    “Huh. Well, I guess you canna expect her to be exactly like Boudica,” Warren said as he landed a punch to Cadan’s cheek that made lights burst behind his eyelids.  
    Aye, she was nothing like what he’d expected. From her lithe form and rounded curves to her fine features, she was nothing like the woman that he had known. Boudica had been magnificent—strong and tall, beautiful in a harsh way. Her passion and dogged commitment had shone like a beacon, drawing those around her to her cause.  
    The woman he’d just rescued was a mouse. A delicate, intriguing mouse, but a cowering mouse nonetheless. Despite the difference, something deep within him had recognized her. It had clutched at his insides and been impossible to ignore. It made him want, but his world would eat her alive unless he could keep his cock in his pants and his mind on protecting her.
    “Have you heard anything new? This is worse than it seems, isn’t it?” he asked Warren.
    When Warren had said that the tragedy that haunted Boudica’s first life could follow her to this one, he hadn’t wanted to believe it. Hell, he still didn’t want to believe it.  
    But after seeing three demons stalking her, he didn’t have a choice. Tragedy, that spectral wraith with the crimson claws, had most certainly stalked Boudica in life. And now Boudica had returned, destined to perish. Yet again.  
    What the hell was his withered heart supposed to do with that? Fate was a bastard. It gave him back the love of his life, twisted into a totally different person, and then threatened to take her away almost immediately.
      “Aye, Cadan, someone like Boudica isn’t reborn for a picnic. That’s why she hasto remember who she was as soon as possible.”
    “Gods damn it.” That’s what he was afraid of. He didn’t want her to remember the horror of that night. To have to suffer that pain again.  
    To suffer with her. Her suicide had broken him. She’d left him. With one quick plunge of the knife, she’d just left. It had taken centuries to get over her. He’d vowed to himself that he’d never fall for a woman like that again, and he hadn’t. Whenever the loneliness became too much, or he’d just wanted to lose himself in someone else, it was easy to find someone for the night. But it ended there.
    And now she was back. He couldn’t let the past repeat itself. He was supposed to be able to protect his woman, and his failure two thousand years ago had been eating at him like a poison.  
    “You still care for her, do you no’?”
    “Nay.” Losing his heart to her again was not an option. He wouldn’t survive losing her again. Oh, his body would, but the rest of him wouldn’t. His soul and mind would be done.
    Warren’s brow scrunched, and seeing his opportunity, Cadan delivered a punch to his jaw that made Warren stumble backward.  
    Warren shook the pain away. “Good, so I suppose you doona mind if I have a go? Even terrified out of her mind, she was a looker.”  
    A red fog of rage rolled across Cadan’s vision and he charged. The force of his blow took Warren to the floor in a tangle of limbs. The feel of flesh and bone beneath his fists was as satisfying as whiskey down his throat.  
    “Stay the fuck away from her.” He punctuated the words with blows that made his fists ache.
    Warren hit back and they rolled in a tangle of flailing fists and limbs across the black mat. As Warren whaled on his midsection, the red haze of rage dissipated