Read Online Finn's Choice by Darby Karchut - Free Book Online Page A

head back home.”
    â€œWe as well.” Gideon stood and carried his cup to the sink.
    As Mac Roth’s red Jeep drove away, Gideon and Finn hurried back to their own house, heads down and shoulders hunched. The wind beat at the large pines that flanked the porch. The trees punched back, flailing their branches in retaliation.
    â€œFirst big storm of the season,” Gideon remarked, toeing off his boots by the front door and pushing them to one side. Finn did as well, throwing his shoes inside the wooden crate they kept there to hold rags and a metal bucket he used to collect
sláinte
nettle leaves. “It will make Kel’s job harder.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œThe Bog-born,” Gideon explained, using the Amandán’s name for themselves, “are more active in the dark of winter days. ’Tis why we hunt them more in the early mornings and evenings ofsummer. Although tracking them is easier with the snow.”
    Finn walked over to the sofa and plopped down. “Wish that was all I had to worry about—how to hunt Amandán in the winter. Instead, I’ve got a crazy goddess to deal with.” He tried not to think about Savannah.
    â€œSpeaking of the
Scáthach
.” Gideon walked over to his desk and opened a drawer. He rummaged about and pulled out his journal. He ruffled through it for a few moments, the pages rustling, then walked into the kitchen. Reappearing with the telephone, he studied the book still open in his hand and began dialing.
    Finn looked at him. “Who are you calling?”
    â€œThe sorceress.” Gideon looked like he had bitten down on something sour. “We need to begin now.”
    Lunch sitting in his stomach like a gut bomb, Finn sat up while the Knight waited for the call to go through. He swallowed when his master spoke.
    â€œIona? ’Tis Gideon Lir. You were correct—the
Scáthach
has indeed invoked the ancient ordeals. Fire will be the first.” He listened a few moments longer, the muscles jumping in his jaw, then nodded. “Right. This evening, then. No, we shall come to you. I would not want you to fly your broom in this storm.”
    Finn could hear the sorceress’ shrill voice through the phone. With a cold smile, Gideon hung up.
    â€œâ€™Twas rather rude of me, and certainly not necessary.”
    â€œBut you don’t really care.” Finn couldn’t help grinning back.
    â€œNo, not really.”

    Dizzy from the flakes swirling about in the headlights of Gideon’s truck, Finn shifted in his seat, too nervous to sit still. As they drove north through High Springs to Iona’s house, the city gave way to middle-class neighborhoods, then to an upscale one marked by large houses on secluded lots, most of which were covered with pine and oak trees. Fancy gates and high walls surrounded most houses, adding to their privacy.
    Finn eyed the passing properties, the dusk’s gloom and the storm masking his view. “Sure doesn’t look like the part of town a sorceress would live in. You’d think she lived in some creepy old mansion next to a graveyard.”
    â€œAll the easier for her to hide her true identity from the humans around her. She may be a sorceress, but she is not all-powerful, especially since her power wanes the farther from Ireland she is. And witch hunts can still take place.” Easing off the gas, Gideon slowed and checked the address. “Here we go.”
    Turning into a wide driveway, they stopped in front of a wrought-iron gate flanked on either side by tall stone walls, its pointy picket tops as menacing as a row of arrows. Before he could honk, the gate rolled sideways and disappeared behind one of the walls. They drove through and followed a graveled drive half-covered with snow and lined with towering spruce standing like guards on either side. Scattered lights shone through the trees ahead of them.
    The trees opened up. The drive ended in a spacious