Page 49 of Amaros
“I call shotgun,” Camriel said, pulling the saying out of his new vocabulary.
“Your legs are too long to sit in the back anyway,” Zoe said in agreement.“We’re ready to go if you are.”
Amaros glanced into the back of the truck.“What’s under the tarp?”he asked.
Grace gave him a challenging look.“Books and a bookcase to keep them in,” she said.
“What sort of books?”Camriel queried, opening the back door for the tiny cambion.
“All sorts,” she said excitedly.“I can’t wait to start reading them.”
Zoe shared a look with Amaros.They were both glad to see she was happy.Their gazes locked and he had to tear his eyes away.The knight would miss having Zoe sitting next to him during the long drive home.At least he could see her in the rearview mirror once they were all safely buckled inside.
“Spacious,” Camriel said in approval, smoothing his hand over the leather seat.His head almost brushed the roof, so he slumped down a bit to give himself more room.
“Wait until you hear the engine roar once we hit the freeway,” Amaros said with a grin as he drove out of the garage.
“Boys and their toys,” Grace said mockingly.
“You have your books, we have this beast,” Camriel said defensively.“Can I get one of my own?”he asked, giving Amros a pleading look.
“We’ll see,” the knight replied.
“That means no,” Zoe confided in a loud whisper, then the girls snickered in unison.
Camriel was instantly crushed.“Aw,” he said in disappointment.
“I just meant we might not be able to find another truck as big as this one,” Amaros said, flicking the females an exasperated look.
“We’ll find one,” Camriel said with supreme confidence.“And it will be mine,” he vowed.
“I like him,” Grace decided in amusement.“He already feels like a big brother.”
Camriel turned to flash her a grin.“I like you, too, shorty.”
She made a face at the nickname, but Amaros couldn’t sense any animosity.He hoped the rest of his warriors and the cambions they gathered together would get along as well as these two.
“I’ve been thinking,” Zoe said as Amaros made his way back towards the mountains.He gave her an enquiring look in the rearview mirror.“We need to raid a library and gather as many books as we can,” she suggested.
“You’re my new God,” Grace said, putting her hands together in prayer.“I’ll worship you until the day you die.”
Zoe gave her an amused look before continuing.“Our base needs a lot of work.We’re going to have to add plumbing, get some form of electricity going and figure out how to build furniture.We’ll also have to learn how to hunt, butcher animals and use their hides for clothing and other things if we have to.”
Amaros nodded in agreement.“That’s a good idea,” he said.“I’m sure there must be a library in Manhattan.”
“Getting to it and transporting a lot of books out of the city might not be easy,” Zoe said.“I wish the internet was still running.It has everything we need to know stored on it.”
“Physical books are going to be a necessity,” Camriel figured.He’d never even seen or heard of books before Fate had infused him with the knowledge.He even knew how to read.
“We’ll also need tools,” Grace pointed out.“We should find a construction site and steal everything we can.”
“Hardware stores will have supplies, too,” Zoe added.“We might even be able to find heavy machinery in the construction sites that will help us.”
“I can’t wait to find the rest of our unit,” Camriel said.“We should be able to get most of the repairs done fairly quickly.”
“You haven’t seen our base yet,” Grace warned him.“Did Amaros tell you it doesn’t have a roof?”
“Only part of the roof is missing,” Amaros corrected her.“I gave Camriel a full description of the three wings.”
