Page 19 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Fifteen

Winter

A ll three of us took in the room, and I didn’t think I’d ever been more relieved to find a space empty of faeries—especially gnomes.

There was another staircase off to the side that presumably led to the upstairs, although where in the house it exactly was remained a mystery.

There were shelves lining all the walls, plus a few free-standing ones off to the right, and a couple of work benches with a scattering of tools to the left.

I could see the water heater from here, straight ahead, plus whatever other maintenance things a large house like this had—I couldn’t identify even half of the crap over there, but I at least knew what a breaker box looked like, and there were four of those lined up along the wall.

Since that was all house stuff, and nothing looked out of the ordinary, I turned my attention back to the shelves. Still no gnomes in sight, which I was thankful for—and I was sure Miles was even more grateful about.

“Alright, peeps, let’s get a searchin’.” Lyric pulled us over to the shelves.

But then I just stood there for a solid sixty seconds before Miles let out a small laugh, looking at me. “You can’t help.”

“Nope.”

He sent me a sort of shy smile, then untangled our fingers from where they’d been pleasantly entwined. I frowned at him because he was the only one I actually wanted to hold hands with.

But then he slid his arm into the space between my elbow and side, stepped closer, and wrapped his hand up and under my armpit so he was holding the front of my shoulder.

The move brought his body very close to mine and felt even more intimate than the hand holding had, and I definitely wasn’t unhappy about that.

He sent me another of those sweet, adorable, shy smiles. “Um, there. Now you have a free hand. Does this help? Can you maintain your, uh, nullness through your clothes?”

I had to clear my throat several times before I was able to get any words out.

“Y-yeah.” My voice cracked. For fuck’s sake, Win, get it together.

Yes, your crush is like right there , but that doesn’t mean you have to act a fool.

“Yeah, this is perfect.” He was close enough, and my power was strong enough when it came to his magic, I could easily extend my nullness to him without our skin touching.

I wanted so badly to lean over and press my lips to his, or even to his cheek or anywhere, really.

I wanted to forget about this horrible house and take Miles out to lunch, then go back to my house and take him to bed.

I wanted to kiss him and strip him naked and get my lips on every part of him I could reach.

I wanted to hold him and sleep beside him and cuddle him and just… be with him.

I just really wanted him, in any way he’d let me have him.

I wanted Miles.

So badly.

But that wasn’t in the cards right now. As much as I wanted him and wanted to take advantage of his proximity, this wasn’t the time or the place for that.

But after… after we got out of here, after we finished this job, after we dropped Lyric off and could be alone… well, all bets were off after.

Miles sent me that sweet smile I wanted so badly to taste, then he went to work, searching for the source of the evil magic.

After staring at the sexy man for another beat, I dove right in—it was still difficult, but at least I could help now—working side by side with him and reveling in his presence.

The faster we got this done, the sooner I could get this sweet and handsome man alone.

Lyric caught my eye, sent me a wink and a knowing smile, then went back to ignoring us.

I wasn’t surprised how much shit they were giving me about my crush on Miles.

When we were in high school, he was practically all I talked about to my best friend.

I’d had the biggest crush on him, but I’d always been too scared to approach him—Miles had been intimidating back then with his all-black emo clothes and get-the-hell-away-from-me attitude.

That crush had come flaring back to life with a vengeance the second I saw him for the first time in years, and it had only grown with every interaction.

Of course, Lyric knew all this and had been trying to get me to talk to the man for years. So they were excited for me… and getting way ahead of themself since I hadn’t even asked Miles out on a date yet.

All three of us pulled one thing after another off the shelves. We examined each thing, trying to feel the magic, before we placed it back on the shelf.

I lost track of how long we stood there, going through each and every thing—there was a lot of shit in that basement.

“How can they possibly have so much junk down here?” Lyric asked with a sigh.

Miles shrugged against me. “To be fair, my basement isn’t any better. Although, my basement is a hell of a lot smaller than this. But shit piles up after you’ve been there for a few years.”

“True enough. But that doesn’t make this any less annoying.”

“Agreed.”

“How long have you lived in that house?” I asked Miles after a bit.

He thought about it for a few seconds. “Uh, about nine years.”

My eyebrows shot up. I didn’t know a lot of people who’d been able to buy a house at the age of twenty-four, let alone a big four-bedroom one, and I was about ninety-nine percent sure he owned the home and wasn’t renting it. “Really?”

“Yeah. My parents passed away, and I guess they never got around to taking me out of their will after they, you know, disowned me or whatever. I had the money, so I decided to buy the house.”

My chest tightened. I didn’t know exactly what’d happened to him or why his parents would’ve disowned him—unless it was because he was gay—but all of that sounded horrible. For a moment, I didn’t know what to say, but I finally settled on, “I’m sorry about your parents.”

He waved me off. “Don’t be. They were kind of horrible people, and I hadn’t spoken to them in years before the accident.” I could tell he was trying to be nonchalant about it, but I could hear the hurt in his voice.

Without thinking too hard, I rested my head on his shoulder and gave his arm a tight squeeze, like I was hugging it. I would’ve liked to hold him in my arms, but I didn’t want to risk letting go of Lyric. To Miles, I whispered, “They were still your parents.”

He sighed, and after a few seconds, he rested his cheek against the top of my head, making me smile. “Yeah, they were… Thanks, Win.”

Hearing him use my nickname throughout the morning made me grin widely. It felt sort of intimate. Like he was a true friend and not simply someone I knew, if that made any sense.

“No problem, My-My.”

He snorted. “You aren’t allowed to call me that.”

“Psh,” Lyric said from my other side, holding on to my hand as they continued their search. “That’s reserved for me only.”

I rolled my eyes even though they weren’t looking at me, then I glanced up at Miles. He lifted his head off mine and sent me a tentative smile, looking like he was unsure whether I’d be upset that he dared to cuddle in a little when I was already cuddling him.

He definitely needed a confidence boost.

Since I didn’t want him caught up in his head or second-guessing my intentions, I leaned over and pressed my lips to his cheek. It was a soft kiss, barely a brush against his skin, but the move made him freeze and suck in a deep breath.

His shocked eyes turned to me, and I sent him a tiny smile. “Was… was that okay?”

He nodded almost frantically and cleared his throat. “Uh, very… very okay.”

I grinned at him, gave his arm another squeeze, then tugged him to another shelf, dragging Lyric along with us.

The three of us focused on the task at hand for a while, and I was starting to doubt we’d find this magic item thing on these shelves. It didn’t feel any closer than it had when we’d entered the basement, and I had no other ideas on how to find it.

As soon as I had the thought, my hand touched a brass candle holder, and I felt a surge of magic fly toward me. With a gasp, I yanked the candle holder closer to examine it.

“Holy shit, did you feel that?” I asked the room.

Miles shook his head. “No.”

Lyric said, “I felt a small surge of magic.” They came closer to me. “Huh. It’s definitely stronger in this area. We gotta be close then.”

It didn’t take long for me to realize the brass candle holder wasn’t what I was looking for. There wasn’t an ounce of magic in it.

So I went back to the shelf I’d found it on. The strength of the magic I felt was undeniable. And it was definitely coming from this area.

The three of us checked everything on that shelving unit with no luck.

“I think… I think it’s coming from behind the shelf,” I said. “It feels the strongest in the back area of the shelf, so maybe it’s behind it?”

“I think you’re right,” Lyric said.

Miles shrugged. “I can feel something, sort of, but I’m not great at feeling out magic. I… I haven’t had a lot of practice with other magic types.”

“That’s okay. That’s what you have Lyr and me for.”

He sent me a small smile.

The two of them didn’t hesitate to help me move the shelf out of the way. It was a little tricky with both of them keeping one hand on me, but we managed.

Miles let out a long whistle. “Well, I think we found the culprit.”

I stepped to the side of the shelf, sticking close to Miles, and got a good look at what he was staring at.

In the middle of the concrete wall, there was a large circular metal seal.

It almost looked like a gigantic coin in the wall, if a coin was twelve inches in diameter.

There was a strange symbol in the center that sort of reminded me of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, although I doubted that was what it was.

I stepped closer and noticed writing in a strange language all the way around the outside of the seal.

I’d never seen or even heard of anything like this before, but it was hella powerful magic.