Free Knights of the Wizard (of Knights and Wizards Book 2) by A. J. Gallant Page A

really wasn’t. He continued to be nervous being so close to such a beautiful girl. He thought she was awful forward but hopefully not like his sister.
    Ryxa giggled. “Marcus I think she wants a kiss.”
    “No she doesn’t.” Now he was really nervous, not that he didn’t want to kiss her but he felt like heading for the hills. Even though he was in no danger he so wanted to flee and his throat was so dry.
    Raina nodded as she waited for a kiss.
    He summoned all his courage and kissed her on the cheek, but then she tapped her lips indicating that’s where she wanted the kiss. One kiss on the lips turned into two and then three. The wizard liked it a lot. Ryxa bent down to stare at them with her big eye, not knowing a heck of a lot about humans she found it fascinating.
    “How rude,” said Raina. “Do you mind?”
    “No, I don’t mind.” Ryxa continued to watch, waiting for them to kiss some more. “Are you gonna make a baby now? I’d like to see how humans make a baby.”
    Raina laughed. “Certainly not!”
    Marcus shook his head. “Ryxa you shouldn’t say such things.”
    “I want to see how humans mate.”
    “Ryxa stop it,” said Marcus, who felt like digging a hole and crawling in. He was also bothered that Raina was kissing a stranger. Did she kiss every boy she met?
    Ryxa was excited. “I want to be able to tell other dragons how humans mate. Do it, do it! Come on! Learning new things is a big part of being a dragon.”
    Raina shook her head. “What a rude dragon.”
    Ryxa thought about it. “Will you mate if I pretend not to look?”
    “No!” they said simultaneously.
    Ryxa turned away from them. “I’m not looking.”
     

FOURTEEN
    THE RAVEN KNOCKED THE CUP OUT OF ABBY’S HANDS, making her cry and spit up the poison. The king picked up the cup and smelled it, even though he hadn’t seen the crow drop the poison in the cup he was now suspicious. There was no way to say for certain that the crow was king Chromos but he suspected as much. And then he saw the small poison berries on the floor. “That son-of-a-bitch! Berhtram go kill that damn crow!”
    Darius picked up Abbey to check on her and she appeared to be okay, but poison in such a small body might have been enough to kill the child. The king decided that he would have a bow and a quiver filled with arrows in his chamber at all times and if the crow returned he would have an arrow with his name on it.
    Berhtram flew out the window in pursuit of king Chromos, over a field of daisies and then an apple orchard where several young boys were picking apples that they shouldn’t be picking, throwing them at one another, with one deflecting off the other’s head. An old white haired man appeared from between the trees waving his walking stick at them and watching them run. The raven pursued the crow for several miles, an arrow barely missing him from two young girls that were playing with their father’s bow. Chromos glanced back as he realized Berhtram was gaining distance; he was deliberately leading him to a briar patch with lots of thorny plants and more than dozen other crows. The crows paid close attention to Chromos, as if waiting for his orders.
    Berhtram touched down in a nearby tree thinking that he might be in trouble, wouldn’t be able to survive a fight with all those birds. Chromos cocked his head and smiled as best he could with a beak, looking at Berhtram and then back at the murder of crows. It had become unnaturally quiet and the raven felt like he should flee but would it trigger an attack? Chromos commenced to nod his black head.
    The raven took to the air but so did the crows, attacking him; he did his best to dodge the attacks but there were too many of them. Berhtram headed towards the castle, making it almost a mile before he was overwhelmed, defending himself as best he could, diving and twirling but was no match for a dozen crows that had been warriors before being transformed; he fought valiantly but ultimately