Page 40 of Amaros
Chapter Twenty-One
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“WHAT DID YOU SEE, ZOE?”Amaros asked when Zoe snapped out of her trance.His tone and expression were expectant.
“I saw one of your warriors,” she replied.“He landed in one of the rivers next to Manhattan.I’m not sure which one it was.”
Amaros squeezed her wrist lightly in gratitude before releasing her.Grace was rubbing her back soothingly.Zoe didn’t think she even knew she was doing it.“Did he drown?”the knight asked in alarm.
“Nah, he surfaced and swam to shore,” she said.“A few idiots thought it would be a good idea to attack a huge naked dude who just climbed out of the river.I saw him take them down.”
Grace snickered and stepped away from her.“How huge is he?”she asked.
“Camriel is two inches taller than me and broader across the shoulders,” Amaros said.
“How do you know he’s the first to arrive?”Zoe asked.
“My second in command is always the first of my men to appear.”
“What does he look like?”Grace asked.She was excited to meet another Knight of Order.
“I only saw him from behind, but he’s blond and looks just as muscular as Amaros.”The warrior frowned at Zoe’s description.Was the flicker of jealousy in his eyes real, or just wishful thinking on Zoe’s part?
Grace’s eyes danced with wicked humor as she flicked a look at his groin.She wisely refrained from wondering if his second in command was just as well-endowed out loud.“When will we head to New York to pick him up?”she queried instead.
“That depends on the storm,” Amaros said, glancing out at the torrent.“The hail might make it treacherous to traverse back down the mountain.”
“Do you think it could trigger more landslides?”Zoe mused.
“It’s possible,” he said with a nod.“We should leave at dawn.I’ll have to drive slowly around the bends, just in case there are any new obstructions.”
Zoe figured driving at night in a storm like this would be suicide.He might get sent back to the Void and return in another five thousand years rather than dying, but she and Grace wouldn’t be so lucky.
The rain hammered down for hours, flooding the room where the roof was missing.It was leaking in the rooms that had trees growing inside them as well, but not as badly.The girls set up their cots and went to bed early.Amaros did the same, but Zoe could hear him getting up to patrol every now and then.The storm finally ended sometime after two and she drifted off.Amaros woke them up four hours later.
“It’ll be dawn soon,” he said.“I want to be on the road at first light.”
“Ugh,” Grace complained.“I hate dawn.”
Zoe wasn’t a fan of it either, but she got up anyway.Washing with bottled water, they ate cereal and powdered milk for breakfast and washed it down with water.They’d both kill for a shower, but that wasn’t on the cards.
Their precautions to cover the black truck with tarps had paid off.It didn’t even have any dents in it.The trees had taken the brunt of the storm.Plenty of branches had been broken off, but none had landed on the vehicle.
The women helped the knight to remove the tarps.He folded them up, then stuck them behind the back seat.They had spare fuel in case they needed it and had brought some provisions along.
“Buckle up,” Amaros ordered when Grace took her usual position in the back between their seats.
“I’m hard to kill,” she said with a pout, but obediently sat back and used the seatbelt.
“A crushed skull if the truck rolls can kill you easily enough,” Zoe told her, remembering how much it had hurt when her head had slammed into the window.
