Shifter by Kailin Gow Read Free Book Online Page B

his head. “Briony would never do that. She wouldn’t agree to marry him.”
                “She might if it would save her entire kingdom,” Steve said.
                “And maybe she won’t get much of a choice,” Maisy added. “You did history at school, right? Princesses never got a lot of say in who they married. If it’s like that with the Hugtandalfer…”
                “Then it could already be too late,” Steve finished for her. “And it isn’t like you’d actually need to marry Carol. Just kind of announce the engagement, at least enough that Josh will believe it and come back.”
                “It would have to be a long engagement,” Kevin said, shaking his head as he said it. Was he really considering this?
                “It would have to be a short engagement,” Maisy countered. “Josh won’t come back if he doesn’t think there’s an immediate threat.”
                Kevin thought about that for a moment or two, trying to think of a way around it, but he knew that Maisy was right. It was only when he was married that he would be in a position to declare himself the werewolves’ king officially, and it was only the threat of that which would bring Josh back.
                “Okay,” he said at last. “I’ll do it. But this is strictly pretend. There is no way I’d actually do something like this. It would hurt Briony too much.”
     
     

 
Chapter 6
     
     
    B riony looked over at Josh and said the only thing she could think of. “I need time to think about all this.”
                “Every moment you waste is a moment when there are still vampires in the world,” Josh pointed out.
                “And I need time to decide what I want to do about that,” Briony replied. “Don’t try to pressure me any more than you have Josh. You’ve done enough.”
                Josh nodded, almost to himself. “I hope so.”
                Sophie stepped over to him and Fallon. “I think that for now, boys, my niece would like some time alone. Come on, I don’t know about you, but I want to get to know the layout of the Cloud Palace.”
                Josh started to shake his head. “I don’t…”
                “It wasn’t a suggestion,” Sophie said, her hand clamping down on his forearm. The three of them left. Briony guessed that her great aunt was planning to have a talk with the two of them, but right then, she couldn’t think of anything Sophie could say that might change anything. Josh knew what he wanted, and he’d put her in a position where she didn’t have many choices. As far as she knew, he was right. Without the full power of the scepter, she wouldn’t be able to control the gates enough to either leave or bring Kevin into Palisor. Not that she knew that much about the gates, even then. They were just things that had been in the way when she’d been trying to get Sophie back or get back home.
                But she could think of someone who probably knew a lot more.
                Briony found Archer in an enclosed courtyard garden, with climbing flowers covering the walls and sunlight streaming down between the towers of the palace to reflect off a deep pool set in the middle. The dragon was in his human form, that of a gently, almost mischievously good looking boy around her age with white blond hair and golden tanned skin. Today, he wore a white tunic decorated with designs picked out in gold, which seemed to ripple as he turned to her.
                “Briony, there you are. You’re just in time.”
                “In time for what? Archer, I wanted to talk to you.”
                But Archer put his finger to his lips then and pointed to the pool. He might be the dragon bound to her, but that didn’t always mean he did what she told him. On the other hand, so far, he’d