Page 65 of Ramiel

Chapter Thirty-Eight

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ZOE WAS HIT WITH Avision just as she sat down in the great room after dinner.Amaros put his arm around her tense shoulders.He listened intently for any noise coming from the south wing.Arak always got upset whenever he was awake when his mom’s magic rose.

“Here we go,” Queegly said, seeing the same vision his fellow mystic was viewing.He was visiting his friends for dinner again.Grace put a hand on his shoulder to brace him.He respected the teen too much to pry into her past through their contact.One glimpse of what she’d been through during her traumatic childhood had been enough.

“What’s happening, Zo?”Vic asked.Everyone sat on the couches and armchairs rather than playing any of their games.

“The newest knight and his cambion have had a rough day,” Zoe said, coming out of her short daze.“They barely escaped from that horde of raiders Queegly warned them about and they were just attacked by some bandits.”

“Are they okay?”Amaros asked, scanning the answer from her mind, then relaxing minutely when he saw the answer.

“The cambion was shot in the back, but she’ll be fine,” the Mad Prophet said.They’d all heard him warn the couple to flee from the bed and breakfast on their ham radio that morning.Fate’s tips had saved most of them from death or torture by now.

Grace had retrieved a pair of slippers from her bedroom earlier.She picked one up to examine it.

“Isn’t it a bit warm for you to wear your crocodile slippers, short stuff?”Sin joked.

“Very funny,” the kid said with an eyeroll.“I tore one of the croc’s eyeballs off during winter and just remembered it.”

“Here,” Sin said, holding out her hand.Grace tossed the one-eyed croc to her and she duplicated it.

“Thanks, Sin,” Grace said with a grin.She caught both slippers when her sister tossed them to her.She left the great room long enough to dispose of one and stored the intact pair in the closet in her bedroom.

“Do you guys remember how Ziegel died during our last war in Egypt?”Cam asked in a musing tone just as Grace returned.

“I remember,” Urzra said with a smirk.“He was eaten by Nile crocodiles.”

“How did that happen?”his mate, Bria asked.

“Can you fill us in, boss?”Urz asked.“I can’t remember the details.”

Amaros cast his mind back to their previous war.“Zee saw some soldiers hiding in the reeds.They were getting ready to ambush me while I was fighting some of their comrades,” he recalled.“Ziegel raced over to intercept them and managed to defeat all of his foes.I finished off my enemies and turned around just in time to see a crocodile clamping its jaws around Zee’s ankle.It pulled him down and dragged him into the water before I could go to his aid.”

“A whole bunch of them munched on our brother’s body until he returned to the Void,” Jac said, then the knights snickered.

Queeg saw how tense Grace had become and frowned.The teen glared down at her hands, hiding her emotions from the others.“Ziegel saved your life, Amaros,” he pointed out.“That sounds pretty noble to me.”

“Zee always dies after he saves our commander’s life,” Braqel said almost dismissively.“There’s nothing noble about smothering to death in dinosaur dung,” he joked.Ree cracked up and the females laughed with her.Grace remained silent and unamused.

“I’ve seen some visions of your past wars,” the Mad Prophet drawled, shifting into a more comfortable position in his armchair.“I recall seeing Amaros almost being killed by an enraged pterodactyl once.The bird came close to tearing his arm off.”

“What?”Zoe exclaimed in surprise.“How did that happen?”

Amaros scowled and rubbed his chin.“I stupidly accepted a dare from Jacquin to steal a pterodactyl egg,” he confessed.“The bird swooped down from out of nowhere and grabbed hold of my arm.Its beak cut me all the way to the bone.I probably would have died if I’d been on a taller cliff when it dropped me.”

Zoe snickered, then the females all cracked up.Amaros gave Queeg an annoyed look and the Texan grinned back at him.“Remember the time you fell into a mostly frozen river at the tail end of an ice age, Camriel?”the mystic said next.“You got stuck in the ice and none of your brothers were nearby to help you.”

Cam immediately flushed as Vic grinned in delight.“I don’t know this story!”she exclaimed.

“He managed to climb most of the way out, but one of his feet froze in the ice,” Queegly said.“It almost snapped off while he was using his sword to dig himself free.”

“It took ages for it to thaw out,” Cam muttered.“My entire foot turned black with frostbite until it healed.”Vic shrieked with laughter, sending the other females into gales again.

Grace’s bad mood had lifted and glee had taken its place.She was loving every second of the knights’ embarrassment.Finally, they were getting a taste of their own medicine and it was just as bitter as she’d hoped.

“Then there was the time young Jacquin thought it would be funny to tease a triceratops,” Queeg said.