01_-_The_Alchemyst

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Scathach was waiting by the enormous open doors when Sophie and
Josh returned to the tree. The pterosaur hopped along behind them, and the
other two circled low in the sky over their heads, the downdraft of their
wings setting eddies of dust circling and dancing around them. Although
nothing was said, the twins knew they were being gently—but firmly—
herded back toward the house.
In the gloom, Scathach’s face was unnaturally pale, her cropped red hair
black in the shadows. Although her lips were set in a grim line, her voice,
when she spoke, was carefully neutral. “Do you really want me to tell you
just how stupidly dangerous that was?”
Josh opened his mouth to reply, but Sophie caught his arm, silencing
him. “We just wanted to go home,” she said simply, tiredly. She already knew
what the Warrior was going to say.
“You cannot,” Scathach said, and turned away.
The twins hesitated at the door, then turned to look back at the pterosaur.
It tilted its snakelike head and regarded them with a huge slit-pupiled eye,
and its voice echoed flatly in their heads. “Don’t worry too much about
Scathach; her bark is much worse than her bite.” The creature opened its
mouth to show hundreds of triangular teeth in what might have been a smile.
“I do believe she was worried about you,” it added, then turned away, ran in
a series of short hops and took to the air with a crack of wings.
“Don’t say a word,” Sophie warned her brother. Josh’s quips and
comments were always getting him into trouble. Whereas Sophie had the
ability to see something and keep her mouth shut, her brother always had to
make a comment or observation.