Free Silver (Wicked Woods #3) by Kailin Gow Page B

stronger.”
    Fal on gave his brother an unpleasant look. “Wel , I’m not afraid.”
    “We have to get Aunt Sophie back,” Jake added.
    Together, they ran for the gate’s swirling mist. To Briony it looked like they ran into a brick wal , the insubstantial vapors hardening even as they touched them, insubstantial vapors hardening even as they touched them, so that Fal on and her little brother sprawled backwards onto the grass.
    “It’s rock solid,” Fal on said, standing and putting his hand against the mist. He threw his shoulder against it, the way he might have put it to a stuck door, and bounced off once more.
    Jake growled in a way that was more wolf than teenager and threw himself at the portal. He ended up back on the grass in a heap, bounced to his feet, and tried again.
    Repeatedly, he ricocheted off the hard surface of the portal, but it didn’t seem to slow him down.
    “It’s useless,” Kevin said. “There’s no way through.”
    “We don’t know that,” Briony insisted. “Maybe one of us wil have better luck.”
    “And then what? We end up on another world with no idea of whether we’l be able to get back?”
    Was that what was bothering him? The thought that this portal that had appeared so conveniently might leave them stranded just as easily? Some part of Briony shared that concern, yet she wouldn’t let herself give into it. She wouldn’t abandon Aunt Sophie like that.
    “I’m going in,” she declared, reaching out just briefly to touch his arm. “I hope you wil too, Kevin.”
    She started towards the portal, only for a young man to step past her and place himself in front of it. He either spent a lot of time somewhere that got more sun than Wicked, or his skin was simply natural y golden tanned. His eyes were amber, while his pale blond hair was close cropped above angular features. He wore clothes that might have been more suitable for a summer day, in the form of a loose white shirt and slacks. His feet were bare.
    Briony couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere.
    As she watched, the man crossed his arms before him. His voice, when it came, was rich, and carried the kind of echoes that made it sound like it came from someone much larger. “I am sorry, but you wil not pass. Not here. Not now. And certainly not with them .”
    Briony watched his gaze sweep around the rest of the group.
    “But we have to,” Briony insisted. “My great aunt is in there.”
    The man just stood there. “Do not attempt to pass.”
    Kevin stepped past Briony, his finger jabbing out towards the newcomer. “Look, I know what you are, but if you don’t move… ”
    The young man moved. Specifical y, he moved his arm up and around, catching Kevin’s hand. He turned, drawing Kevin in a half circle, before reversing direction and cutting down on the inside of Kevin’s elbow with his free hand. The movement threw Kevin to the floor as though he weighed nothing.
    Jake and Fal on attacked in one movement, but it seemed that the man was expecting it. He moved in towards Fal on, feinting with a low kick before sidestepping as Jake threw himself at his back. Jake’s momentum sent him crashing into Fal on just as the man they were attacking dropped low and swept Fal on’s legs out from under him.

    dropped low and swept Fal on’s legs out from under him.
    Kevin was on his feet now, and aimed a thunderous punch at the man’s head. Rather than block it though, the transformed dragon just stepped inside it, driving his shoulder into Kevin and knocking him back.
    Briony knew she couldn’t just stand by and watch the people she cared about get hurt. She lifted the sword she held, coming on guard as her great aunt had shown her.
    “Stop,” she said. “Stop or I’l … ”
    She didn’t get chance to complete the threat, because the young man did the one thing she hadn’t been expecting. He charged her. Desperately, Briony thrust her blade towards him, only to find him already spinning