Chapter Fifteen
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“WE’RE ALMOST THERE,” Zoe said in anticipation just over an hour later.
“Good,” Grace said in relief. “I’m tired of driving all night and day.”
“It looks uninhabitable here,” Amaros said with a hint of doubt. The mountain they were climbing had sheer cliffs and a narrow, winding road. He’d had to veer around rockslides a few times.
“You’ll see,” Zoe told him with supreme confidence. “The turnoff is coming up on the right.”
They’d just passed a familiar sign she’d seen in her latest vision. It warned of a steep climb and instructed trucks to use a low gear. Amaros slowed down, peering ahead. “I don’t see any driveways,” he said.
“That’s because there isn’t a driveway,” she said. “Turn there,” she instructed him, pointing at a huge boulder to the right. “The pathway is just behind that rock.”
Amaros made sure no one was coming in either direction, then drove past the boulder. He turned into what had once apparently been a track, but showed no signs anyone had ever passed this way. “There’s just the edge of the cliff ahead,” he said as he peered over the hood.
“Keep going,” she urged him. “We should be able to follow an old track along the edge of the cliff.”
Grace grabbed hold of their seats. “We’re going to die,” she predicted in trepidation.
Amaros took a deep breath, then gently eased forward. Sure enough, he followed the edge of the cliff around to the left and behind a cluster of boulders. “Someone cleared the rocks from the trail, but it was a long time ago,” he said.
A few shrubs had grown on the ancient trail, but the truck easily mowed them down. Grass covered the dirt and stone track, hiding the fact that it had ever existed. Trees were few and far between, since the area was so rocky. It must have taken a herculean effort to clear the debris out of the way.
“Careful!” Grace said when Amaros came a little too close to the cliff as he eased around another huge rock. He gave her a rueful look for backseat driving, then continued to drive around the sharp bend.
They all let out relieved breaths when the way opened up past the boulder. The side of the mountain receded on the left, leaving a large, flat area ahead. Trees grew densely about three hundred yards away, leaving plenty of room to park the truck.
“Welcome to your new home,” Zoe said, sweeping her hand at the stone structure that was hidden behind the trees. Even knowing it was there, she could barely make it out.
“There’s nothing there,” Grace said, scowling slightly. “Do you expect us to build a treehouse?”
“Is that a building among the trees?” Amaros asked, then opened his door.
“Yep,” Zoe said. “My visions showed me an old stone structure. It has three wings, but they’re probably in pretty bad shape.”
“How long has it been since anyone lived here?” Grace asked as the females exited from the truck. Completely hidden from the road back here, they didn’t bother to remove any of their gear from the vehicle yet.
“From what I saw, early settlers from the 1600s built this place,” Zoe said. “I’m not sure what happened to them, but no one has lived here since then.”
“You’re saying this building is four hundred years old?” the kid asked in awe. “How is it still standing?”
“Let’s take a look at it,” Amaros said, then loped towards the trees.
With glassless windows and no surviving doors, the stone building did indeed have three wings. Time and inclement weather had caused some damage, but the structure was in comparatively good shape. Zoe had expected it to be a lot worse up close, but it still looked habitable.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Grace said in dismay after a few minutes of scouting. “It’s a ruin!”
“It needs a bit of work,” Zoe admitted. “New windows and doors will make it feel homier.”
“It doesn’t have a roof!” the teen exclaimed, gesturing at a large room in the main wing where part of the roof had fallen in. Any furniture that had been in this place had disintegrated long ago. A lot of stones in the center of the floor were missing, leaving a gaping dirt hole.
“It’s perfect,” Amaros decided with a nod of approval. “My team and I can repair the damage. It’ll be easy to fortify and it will be large enough for all of us to be our home.”
“How many knights are there?” Zoe asked. She’d caught glimpses of them, but she hadn’t seen their faces clearly.
“Twenty,” he said.
“Is that all?” Grace asked in surprise. “Does that mean you only have twenty enemies?”
He shook his head grimly. “Chaos spawned far more soldiers than Order created,” he explained.
“They also have the habit of recruiting humans in their battles. That’s why it always takes a few years to win our wars against them now.
Our numbers are slowly whittled down, while theirs inevitably grow. ”
“You win more often than you lose, though,” Zoe said. That was the sense she’d gotten anyway.
“I believe so,” Amaros confirmed. “The details are hazy. I only remember flashes of the battles.”
“Like when the dinosaur ate one of your men,” Grace said with a small smirk.
“Zeigel doesn’t like to be reminded of it,” Amaros said in amusement.
“Ooh, Zoe and Zeigel,” the teen said cheekily. “If he’s cute, you should definitely get him to knock you up,” she suggested to her friend.
The knight snarled something beneath his breath, then stomped off to inspect the other wings.
“I don’t think he likes the idea of his friends getting it on with you, Zoe,” the teen whispered. “He’s into you.”
“Yeah, right,” Zoe said skeptically. Attraction was one thing, but the knight wasn’t about to declare his undying love for her. “He thinks we’re monsters, remember?” she added. They were both speaking too quietly for their voices to carry.
“I bet you a hundred bucks he hits on you as soon as we find his friends,” Grace predicted. “Once they get a load of your hot body, they’ll be lining up to date you.”
Zoe rolled her eyes at that notion. “They can take turns taking me to the movies and out to restaurants,” she said with heavy sarcasm.
“Oh, yeah,” the teen said, mood becoming morose. “I guess romance is going to be a lot harder to come by from now on. There’ll just be evil dudes trying to bash us unconscious so they can drag us off to their basement dwellings.”
Unfortunately, Zoe couldn’t give her any reassurance. “I’ll watch your back if you watch mine,” she offered.
“Deal,” Grace said, holding her small hand out for Zoe to shake. Her grip was far stronger than her frail appearance hinted. “Now we’re besties,” she declared brightly. “Do you think any of Amaros’ buddies will be into an eighteen-year-old woman who looks like a thirteen-year-old boy?”
“Who knows?” Zoe said with a laugh at her friend’s quirky sense of humor. “Anything is possible.” They headed in the opposite direction the warrior had taken to scout the buildings.
“Maybe I should have a kid with one of them,” Grace mused. “They can wear a blindfold, so they don’t have to look at me while we do the deed.”
Zoe hated that the kid was so down on herself.
Stopping, she turned to face her and studied her closely.
“You’re beautiful in your own way, Gracelyn,” she said honestly.
“You have gorgeous green eyes, perfect skin and a striking face.” Her body was harder to judge, due to the oversized sweater she was wearing.
Zoe knew she was slender, but that was about it.
She had an angular chin that made her look stubborn.
“Striking is one word for my face,” the teen said with a sigh. “My mom always told me I took after my pops. I guess he was dog ugly.”
“Your mother was a sick, twisted harpy who only cared about herself,” Zoe said, holding on tightly to her temper.
Just the thought of what she’d seen in her visions of the kid’s past was enough to enrage her.
“She made you feel like you were worthless when the opposite is true. You’re special, just like me and the other cambions.
We all have talents and it’s up to us how we use them. ”
“I’ve always used my skills to do bad things,” Grace confessed, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Amaros wasn’t in sight. “I’m surprised the knight didn’t smite me with his bejeweled sword after he scanned my soul.”
“Who made you do those bad things?” Zoe reminded her.
“Mom, to start with,” Grace agreed. “But I kept breaking into peoples’ houses and stealing their stuff long after she died.”
“Everyone has to make a living somehow,” Zoe said with a shrug. Their eyes met, then they broke into snickers.
“My talents have come in handy a lot over the years,” Grace confided as they continued to check out their new home. “I had to break myself out of jail once. They didn’t search me properly and I managed to hide my lockpicks in my shoe.”
“What did you do to get arrested?” Zoe queried.
“I got busted breaking into a house,” she said. “I didn’t know it belonged to the Sheriff.”
They laughed again and Grace gave Zoe an animated breakdown of how she’d escaped.
For the first time since her mom and everyone else she’d known had disappeared, Zoe didn’t feel so helpless and lost. She’d made two friends and they even had a secluded place to stay.
For now, they were safe and secure. She didn’t know how long it would last, but at least she wasn’t alone anymore.