Page 16 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Twelve

Winter

O nce we were in our coveralls and loaded up with our tools, we headed inside. Maybe I was nervous because of what happened to Miles yesterday, or maybe I was picking up on something in the air, but it felt… creepy and not at all like the house we’d entered yesterday.

“Why is this so creepy?” Lyric asked as soon as they stepped through the door. “Did you guys bring me to a haunted house to play a trick on me? ‘Cause if you did, I’m going to murder you both… and then you’ll be stuck inside this house as ghosts forever. Muhahahaha.”

Miles let out a strangled laugh, and I turned to my best friend with what I was sure was an incredulous expression. “Your mind is a scary place.”

They shrugged. “Probably why I became an artist.” They shooed me. “Now go on. Lead the way so you’re the first one to get ax-murdered.”

I rolled my eyes but trudged ahead. “No one’s getting ax-murdered.”

“I mean, Miles and I definitely aren’t—unless they come up from behind and grab Miles—but you probably are. I’m the safe one, sandwiched between you.”

“You wish you were sandwiched between us.”

They chuckled. “Truth.”

“I… don’t even know what’s happening right now,” Miles said.

I sighed. “No one does when Lyric’s involved.”

Lyric sighed. “Also true.”

I snorted and headed to the first room we’d left traps in last night, and froze as soon as I was through the door.

The traps were still there, of course, and they were filled, but… but the noise coming from them was maddening, and there were more gnomes running around the room. Everywhere. Holy crap, I didn’t think I’d ever seen this many gnomes in one place, let alone this many running around like maniacs.

“What the fuck?”

Lyric ducked under my arm so they could come into the room and see what was going on, and Miles stopped right beside me, his shoulder pressed into mine.

I was almost— almost —too distracted by the gnomes to realize what a big deal it was for him to casually touch me, but my insides did a big ol’ cheer.

Miles is touching me! Woot!

“What in the actual hell is happening?” Miles asked, his voice and face astonished.

As if on cue, nearly all of the gnomes stopped what they were doing, turned toward Miles, and let out a war cry as they came running.

“Holy shit!” I screamed as I pushed Miles out of the way, grabbed the back of Lyric’s collar and pulled them, cleared all three of us out of the door, and slammed the damn thing shut.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound of tiny bodies banging against the door filled the hallway, and all I could do was stare in horror as I held the doorknob tight so the bastards couldn’t get out.

“Holy shit,” Lyric said. “Why’d they attack us?”

I grimaced. “I don’t think they were attacking us .” Miles met my eyes, and he grimaced as well. “They were after Miles.”

“What? Why?” Lyric looked between us both before blowing out a breath. “You think they remember you from yesterday?”

Miles shrugged, and I sighed, saying, “Yeah, I think they might.”

Miles cleared his throat, glancing up and down the hallway. “This isn’t the room they attacked me in, so… they’re probably going to come at us no matter where we go.”

“Okay, yeah.” Lyric sounded out of breath even though we hadn’t done anything more than walk a few feet. “My question is why are they attacking in the first place? Maybe if we can figure that out, we can stop them. That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen gnomes do. They’re never vicious.”

“They really aren’t. I have no idea what’s going on here.” I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, staring at my best friend and my… Miles.

Lyric huffed, glancing around the hallway. “Maybe it’s the magic. It feels… off.”

I was about to respond, but Miles stepped closer to us with a furrowed brow, saying, “Wait. What do you mean? What magic?” He shook his head. “I mean… you can feel magic? How? Why?”

Lyric shot him a grin. “I’m a sentire.”

Which, at the most basic level, meant they could sense all magic and typically identify it.

Miles stared at them with a blank expression for a long time before he closed his eyes and groaned. “Does that mean you knew about me in high school?”

They nodded. “I did.”

He huffed and turned toward me. “So you already knew then?”

Before I could answer, Lyric shook their head and said, “No. He didn’t know. I never told anyone.”

Miles turned a skeptical look their way. “You didn’t tell anyone? Yeah, right.” He huffed.

Lyric crossed their arms over their chest and glared at Miles. “I didn’t. I don’t give away other people’s secrets.”

“You really expect me to believe you didn’t even tell your best friend?”

“Yes, I expect you to believe it because it’s true.

” They sighed. “Listen, I know it’s hard to believe this, but I learned at a very young age to never give away other people’s secrets—especially the magical kind.

I… I told someone something I shouldn’t have, and it cost my friend their…

freedom. I was nine at the time. So yes, Miles, I kept your secret.

I would never tell anyone something like that without permission.

” Before either of us could respond, Lyric looked at me.

“I’m going outside to get some air. I’ll be back in a minute. ”

“Okay.” I watched them go before stepping closer to Miles. “They’re right. I didn’t know before yesterday.”

“Really?”

“I swear it.”

Miles stared at me for a long time. “Yeah… okay.” He blew out a breath, then sighed and glanced down the hall where Lyric had disappeared. “I… I should probably go apologize.”

When he turned to go, I grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Wait. Give them a minute, okay?”

He winced. “I really upset them, didn’t I?”

I shrugged and shook my head at the same time. “They’ll be fine.”

He swallowed audibly. “I don’t want your friend to hate me.”

That made me smile, and since I hadn’t let go of his wrist yet, I slid my hand down to his and gave it a squeeze. “They don’t. You’ll be forgiven the second you apologize.”

“Then I should go now.”

I shook my head. “They don’t like getting upset in front of people, so just wait a minute, okay?”

“Yeah… yeah, okay.”

I shot him a grin and squeezed his hand again before reluctantly letting go. “Do you want to check the next room?”

“Uh, yeah. You can go down one, and I’ll go across the hall.”

Had this man lost his mind? Like hell was he going off by himself. “I meant we should check the next one together. It’s not safe for you to go off by yourself.”

For a moment, I thought he was going to be stubborn, but then he sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Yeah, okay, let’s go to the next one.”

With great reluctance, I walked down to the next door, checked that Miles was right beside me, and opened it. After seeing how active the last room was, I was surprised to find this one rather quiet.

Were there really not a lot of gnomes in this room, or were they hiding from us?

For some reason, I sort of felt like the quiet was… fake or something. Ominous. But since I didn’t have a real reason to stop us from entering, I walked in with Miles only a step behind me.

“Is it just me, or is it even creepier in here than it was in the hallway?” Miles asked quietly.

I shot him a grin. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

He snorted. “It’s weird. How are they so active in the next room over, but there’s nothing here?”

“No idea.” I headed toward the trap in the corner. “You wanna grab that trap”—I pointed to one of the other corners—“and I’ll grab this one?”

“Sure.”

He headed to the other corner, so I knelt in front of my trap.

I set a new, empty one on the ground so I could switch them out, then picked up the old trap.

My brow furrowed because it felt hella light, and it shouldn’t.

With how many of the damn little critters there were in this house, it should be full and heavy.

So I peeked inside and blinked, then looked again to be sure.

“Uh, Miles?”

“Yeah?”

“There’s not even one gnome in this trap.”

He sighed. “Yeah, there isn’t any in this one either.”

I turned to look at him. “What the hell? How is that possible?”

He shook his head, looking as confused as I felt.

“I… I have no idea. Nothing about this damn mansion makes any sense. These should be filled. There’s no way they just skipped over this room.

I mean, there are signs of them everywhere.

” He gestured at the gnome droppings and scraps of fabric everywhere—a sign that they’d been foraging for things to make clothes out of.

I put the trap back, grabbed the unused one, and stood with a sigh. “Agreed. This makes no sense whatsoever. I think we—”

Crreeeeakkkk.

Slam!

Miles and I both jerked toward the door that seemingly slammed shut by itself, then we turned to each other with wide eyes.

“What the fuck?” he whispered before his eyes widened impossibly further as he lifted his finger, pointing at something behind me.

I twisted around, my heart pounding against my ribcage, and a small yell fell from my lips.

Three gnomes were on the top of a bookcase, sticks in their hands and held like weapons, and as soon as I faced them, they jumped at me.

I leapt out of the way, and Miles let out a yell of his own.

Whipping around to face him, I took in the scene.

Miles had a gnome on his shoulder, and he was freaking the fuck out.

“Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!”

He started jumping around, his feet going a million miles an hour as he wiggled and shook and tried to brush the little bastard off of him. But the thing had a good grip and wasn’t letting go. Miles looked like a person who was afraid of bugs or spiders.

As soon as the thought struck, my eyes widened.

Holy shit.

Was Miles afraid of gnomes?

How the hell could he, of all people, be scared of them?

I watched him freaking out for another beat.

Miles really was afraid of gnomes.

Oh my god.

And now they were attacking him.

I leapt into action, grabbing his arms to stop his freak-out dance. Then I brushed the gnome off of him with the back of my hand, and the little beastie went flying across the room, landing on a laundry pile.

Poor Miles had his eyes closed and let out a strangled scream that turned into a whimper, so I cupped his cheeks with my hands and calmly said, “It’s gone. You’re okay. You’re safe.”

He opened his eyes and whispered, “I hate gnomes. They’re creepy and gross and horrible and they always have their bits out, which who the hell wants to see that?

I don’t know how anyone can think they’re cute.

They’re so, so, so freaking gross. I’ve seen so many gnome bits.

” He shuddered. “They’re the worst, and I hate them, and I never, ever, ever want another one to touch me. Ever .”

Biting the inside of my cheek, I was able to hold in the laugh that wanted to escape. “It’s okay, Sidekick. I’ll protect you.”

His head snapped up, eyes narrowing. “Did you just call me Sidekick?”

“Sure did.”

“What the hell? How am I your sidekick?”

I chuckled. “I’ve had to save you twice now, so I think that makes me the hero, which means you can be my sidekick.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay, White Knight.” By the way he said White Knight , he clearly meant you asshat .

That made me laugh, and I booped him on the nose. “I like the sound of that.”

“Of course you do.”

Movement behind Miles caught my attention. A gnome.

No, multiple gnomes.

A lot of gnomes.

I grabbed Miles and tugged him behind me just as four of the bastards launched themselves at us.