Page 17 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Thirteen

Miles

I stumbled and grabbed onto Winter’s back to right myself, then a, “Holy shit!” fell out of my mouth when I saw flying gnomes.

I yanked Winter back, just in time. The gnomes fell to the ground, missing us completely, but I dismissed them because we had other things to worry about.

Gnomes were filling the shelves of the bookcase, their tiny bodies climbing up and then turning to face us. Their beards were all different lengths, and luckily, most of them were fully clothed with at least little loincloths on—a small victory in this horrible situation.

Seeing that many gnomes gave me the heebie jeebies, but what really freaked me out was the fact that they were all facing us and staring.

Every. Last. One.

I shuddered and pulled Winter back farther, scanning the room as I did so.

“Oh fuck,” Winter breathed out, gesturing wildly. “They’re everywhere.”

He was right. The little creepers had surrounded us, filing into the room from who knew where—likely a hole in the wall behind the bookcase—and were all peering right at us.

“Can you maybe send out calming energy or anything like that?” he asked quietly.

I shook my head. “There’s too many of them, and something in this house feels strange. Almost like it’s… overpowering my empathic magic.”

He nodded. “Yeah, it feels off in here for sure.”

Before I could contemplate that further, the gnomes moved as one, coming even closer to us and creeping me out and filling me with terror. A few more moves like that, and we’d be covered in the gross critters.

“Winter,” I murmured, a tremor in my voice.

“It’s gonna be okay. I’m right here.” He suddenly whipped off his glove—which didn’t seem very smart right now because the little creeps apparently liked to use their teeth—then reached for my hand.

When he began pulling off my glove, I started to protest, but he said, “If I’m touching you, their emotions won’t get through.

I’m not sure my presence alone is enough with this many of them. ”

Oh. Oh my god. Yes, please.

I pulled off my glove, pocketed it, and grabbed Winter’s hand.

To my surprise, he slid his fingers in between mine in a much more intimate hold than I’d expected. Immediately, his touch brought a peace to my head that I’d never had before in my entire life. All of the emotions that I had to mentally block out disappeared, and my head was quiet.

Peaceful, lovely, amazingly quiet.

Before I could bliss out too much, one of the gnomes yelled a war cry, and suddenly, all the horrible little creatures joined in on the yelling— meeeeeeeeep! —and ran at us.

“Oh my god!” Winter yelled as he kicked out and tried to push us toward the door.

As I kicked and dodged tiny arms wielding sticks, I squeezed Winter’s hand as tightly as I could so he didn’t let go in all of the commotion.

One of the fuckers attached itself to my leg and started climbing up, making me scream out in horror because I couldn’t get it off me.

“Oh my god! Get it off! Get it off!”

Winter spun around, saw the little thing, then grabbed the back of its makeshift shirt and hauled it off me, flinging it into a group that was heading our way. It tumbled and knocked them over like a tiny, creepy bowling ball.

“Thank you.” Before I could do more than take a breath, more gnomes were coming at us.

I grabbed Winter’s arm, this time more determined than ever to get to the damn door. I stepped over the tiny terrors, pushed them out of the way with my boots, and dragged my friend across the room.

When we finally reached the door, I was scared for a moment that the gnomes figured out a way to lock us in here since this seemed like a planned attack, but as soon as I twisted the knob, it opened up.

We barreled through the door, and I almost ran Lyric over.

Their eyes went wide. “I heard screaming. I was coming to see if you’re alright.”

Before I could answer, Winter slammed the door shut, pulled me into his arms, and breathed into my hair. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m… I’m okay.”

“You’re trembling.”

“I’m fine. Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m good.” He kept hold of me as he spoke to Lyric. “The gnomes attacked us, but it was like they planned it. They shut the door, surrounded us, and… and holy shit, we need to get out of here. Come on.”

“Wait. What? They surrounded you? A planned attack? What the hell, Win?” Lyric said, but Winter ignored them, ushering me down the hallway with Lyric trailing after us.

I wasn’t about to complain when I had a sweet and hot guy’s arm around me, protecting me from evil little creepy crawlies.

“Win?”

“Get outside, Lyr. Right now. We’ll talk when we’re out there.”

“Yeah, okay.”

It only took a minute or two to get outside and beside my truck.

Winter let go of me and gently pushed me against the side of the truck so I could lean on it.

To my surprise, he grabbed my still-gloved hand, removed the glove, and stuffed it into my pocket.

He held that hand with his ungloved one and used his teeth to remove his other glove.

Once he had that one in his pocket as well, he grabbed my free hand in his.

Since he was holding both of my hands, he was standing directly in front of me, staring at me with an intensity that made my face flame. He was already a few inches taller than me, but with me leaning like this, I had to tilt my head back to meet his gaze.

His ice blue eyes stared back at me for a long, intense moment before he asked, “Are you alright?”

I sighed and let some of the tension out of my body. I was still shaking a little, but it was already starting to settle. “Yeah… I think so. You?”

He nodded, then moved to stand beside me, and without letting go of my hands, he whipped his arm around and over my head so he could rest his arm across my shoulders, hands still clasped to mine. He gently tugged me into his side, and I went without question.

No one ever touched me this much in my entire life.

I’d never wanted anyone too.

But Winter was different, and I was planning on soaking it up as long as I could. Who knew when this might happen again, if it ever did?

I still couldn’t believe the guy I’d had a crush on since I was a teenager was holding me like this. I couldn’t believe I wanted him to.

Once I was settled there, Winter turned to his best friend. “Are you okay?”

Lyric nodded, though they stood in front of us with their arms crossed. “I’m not the one who got attacked.”

“Just checking.”

Before I lost my nerve, I said to Lyric, “I’m really sorry about earlier. I believe you, and I apologize. I… I’m not used to people… being, um, considerate.”

Lyric’s entire face softened. “It’s alright. We don’t really know each other, so it makes sense that you don’t trust me… yet.”

The yet caught my attention. It was a nice notion that we might become friends, even if I didn’t truly believe it. No one ever stuck around. Never had, and I highly doubted anyone ever would.

But I wasn’t about to say anything like that, so all I did was nod. “Thank you for understanding.”

It was thrilling yet strange not being able to pick up any emotions from him. Was this what other people felt like when talking to another person?

They waved me away. “Seriously, don’t worry about it. We’re good, My-My.” I blinked at the random nickname that I’d never heard anyone use before in my life, but I didn’t have a chance to comment because Lyric said, “I think I know why the gnomes are acting so crazy.”

That took me aback. “You do?”

“There’s dark magic here, and I think I know where it’s coming from.”