Page 12 of Amaros
Chapter Seven
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AMAROS KEPT HIS EYEon Gracelyn as he followed Zoe’s directions.The teenager’s soul was far from pure.While he wasn’t shown visions of people’s pasts like Zoe, he could sense how they’d lived their lives.The young woman in the back seat had lived on the edge of good and evil.Her crimes had mostly been petty, but she’d committed enough of them for it to have stained her soul.
“Tell us about yourself, Amaros,” Zoe said.“I saw visions of you and others of your kind fighting in a bunch of wars.It looked like you went to a foggy nowhere land after you either won or lost.”
“That’s correct,” he confirmed.“Order created knights to fight the Soldiers of Chaos.Our foes’ goal is to cause havoc and misery.Our task is to eradicate them and restore balance to the world.Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.”
“What do you do when you’re in the foggy place?”Grace asked.She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and was hunched forward to listen in.Zoe handed her a box of cookies and the teen dug in.
“We sleep in a place called the Void,” he said.
“Do you dream?”Zoe queried curiously.
“No.We merely exist.”It wasn’t easy to explain the nothingness of his existence in between the endless battles he’d fought.
“No offense, but that sounds as boring as hell,” Grace said, then shoved another cookie into her mouth.
Amaros was about to mention the choice Fate had given him, then decided against it.It would be wiser to ponder about the ramifications before discussing it with them.“There’s no sense of time passing,” he said instead.“We don’t think or feel.We’re kept in stasis.”
“Like robots that have been switched off when they’re no longer needed,” Zoe said.“Go left up ahead,” she instructed him.
“Good call,” Grace agreed as the car veered away from the interstate.They could hear shouts and screams of pain.“Someone had an accident and it sounds like it’s about to turn ugly,” she figured.
“Should we help them?”Zoe asked, twisting in her seat to peer through the back window.
Amaros shook his head.“Stopping to help everyone in trouble will slow us down too much,” he denied.“I need to establish a base, then find my knights.Once I’ve gathered my team together, we’ll start hunting down Chaos’ minions.”
“What part do we play in your plan?”Gracelyn asked, gesturing at herself and Zoe.
“I’m not sure yet,” he lied, avoiding looking at them both.Zoe narrowed her eyes and stared at him hard.He pretended he couldn’t see her and adjusted the rearview mirror.“Fate told me to search for your kind,” he told them.“I’m to determine whether you’re good or evil.”
“If we’re good, you’ll add us to your team, but if we’re bad, you’ll kill us,” Zoe surmised.
“That’s cold,” Grace said in disapproval when he didn’t deny it.“We don’t even get a trial first.”
“Our enemies will be searching for their offspring as well,” he said.“Pray my knights and I find them first.”
His grim tone had the females exchanging looks.“What will happen if our fathers find us?”Zoe asked.
“They’ll turn you into their servants,” he said.
“How?”Grace asked skeptically.“Do they have some kind of power over us?”
“In a sense,” he said.“They can convince you to join their side.If you do, you could become as evil as they are.They’ll use you in our war.”
“Won’t you and your knights be using us, too?”Zoe pointed out.
He cast a glance at her to see she was frowning.“We won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do,” Amaros vowed.“You’ll always have a choice.”
“Unless we’re bad, then we’ll just be executed,” the kid said dourly.“Now that I’m with you, does that mean my pops won’t be able to find me?”