Page 3 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Two

Miles

W ith the traps set, I was finally able to head to the sanctuary. This was a different place than I normally used because my usual sanctuary didn’t take firebirds. It was going to be a bit of a drive, but it’d be worth it to get the little miss to safety.

I turned down Main Street and sighed in exasperation when I had to stop.

Right on the side of the road were two large vans blocking half the street. Vans from Faerie Be Gone Pest Control.

My enemies.

Okay, wow, that was super dramatic. They weren’t really my enemies.

But they were my rivals.

They killed anything and everything they came across, no matter how big or small the faerie was. It was inhumane, gross, and cruel. And I definitely hated them.

And they hated me too, even though I’d never done a thing to them.

At least not until they started messing with me.

I wasn’t sure what I ever did to gain their hate, but maybe they thought I was stealing business from them. Which was ridiculous. We weren’t the only two faerie exterminators in this city, and there were still plenty of pests to go around.

But they started giving me shit a couple of years ago, and I wasn’t one to keep my mouth shut for long.

Now I pestered them as much as they pestered me.

Maybe it wasn’t mature, but did I really have to be mature all the time?

Sighing in frustration again, I said to the firebird, “Why the hell are they blocking traffic like this? They could’ve pulled into that driveway, for fuck’s sake.”

She let out a little squawk, and I could’ve sworn she was agreeing with me.

“Right? It’s so rude.”

She squawked in agreement again, and it made me grin.

“You’re such a good girl, yes you are.”

This time, she let out a little trilling noise that sounded happy. Damn, she was so adorable. I really did wish I could bring her home with me. But that would be illegal. Firebirds were wild faeries, not pets.

As the firebird and I finally made it up to the Faerie Be Gone vans, I rolled down my window, and when the jerkface known as Tommy came into view, I yelled, “Stop killing faeries, asshole!”

He turned and sneered at me, flipping me off. “Get the fuck outta here, you hippie dickhead.”

I flipped him off right back. “Fuck you.”

“Fuck you more!”

I wrinkled my nose. Did that even make any sense?

Before I could retort, another man walked out from behind the van, and my mouth went dry.

Winter Montgomery stood there, holding a canister, and I all but swooned right there in my car on the side of the road. Winter was taller than me by at least two inches, broad-chested with wide shoulders, toned muscles from walking his dog every day—

I wasn’t a stalker.

Winter lived in my neighborhood, so I saw him with his dog every day.

And if I drank my coffee on the porch each morning at a specific time just to see him walk by, well, no one needed to know that. He didn’t even know it because I sat in the corner that was hard to see from the sidewalk.

But not in a creepy way.

Ugh . That totally sounded creepy. Shit, was I a creep?

No, the guy was just… hot. And I had eyes.

Eyes that liked to eat him up.

I couldn’t help it. Even in the jumpsuit he was wearing now, he looked yummy. But I knew what was under those clothes because I’d seen him shirtless from afar, and phew-ee, I’d had to fan myself.

I swear I’m not a stalker.

Winter’s eyes met mine, and I just about melted on the spot.

Fuck, how did someone have eyes that pretty? They were ice blue, like his name implied, and filled with so much… depth. His shaggy blond hair flopped in his face, and he always did this head flip thing to move it out of his eyes, and for some reason, that just really did it for me.

He was gorgeous. He always had been, even as a teenager.

“Hey, Miles,” he said, eyeing me with an almost teasing smile.

“Winter.” I managed to get it out without choking, so I called it a win.

“You know you’re holding up traffic?”

“Me?”

“Yes, you.”

I opened my mouth to remind him that he was the one holding traffic up by parking in the freaking street, but a car honked behind me, so I just said, “Stop murdering faeries.”

He frowned, and if I wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of guilt on his face, but it went away before I could fully contemplate it.

He said, “We’re exterminators. What else are we supposed to do?”

“Sanctuaries exist for a reason.”

Someone honked again, so I just sighed, rolled my window up, flicked Tommy off one more time, and ignored the look Winter was giving me. I didn’t have time to analyze it, nor did I want to.

We weren’t friends and never had been, but we were… acquaintances, I supposed. We went to the same high school together, but he’d been popular and a jock. I’d been the lonely emo kid who had no friends.

Our paths never crossed.

Well, except that one time…

I shook that off and concentrated on driving my little friend to her new home. I pushed the blanket to the side, revealing a small section of the cage so I could look at her and make sure she was okay.

To my surprise, she moved her cute little face to that side and stared at me with these pretty brownish-gold eyes.

We drove for about forty-five minutes peacefully, with me telling my sweet firebird friend all about Winter and the horrible place he worked. He’d always been kind to me in high school, despite his friends being asshats, so it surprised me when I found out he worked for Faerie Be Gone.

To be honest, I’d been kind of disappointed.

I supposed I’d always put Winter up on a pedestal, and seeing him work for that horrible company didn’t go with the image in my head.

Which wasn’t really fair to him, if I really thought about it.

I understood why people needed all the faerie pests out of their homes. Hell, I wouldn’t do what I did if I didn’t get it. They were annoying, they ruined belongings, put holes in the walls, and some of them risked spreading disease and illnesses. They needed to be removed.

But killing all of these… magical creatures didn’t sit right with me, and I wasn’t the only one.

There were people speaking out about the cruelty against faeries these days, groups I could get behind.

When the public found out that some extermination practices were inhumane and they realized there were plenty of people who did terrible things to the little creatures, some people stepped up. I appreciated those groups.

But it seemed like there were more people who just didn’t care at all.

It was gross.

The things people did to faeries made my stomach churn.

Like the things people did to creatures like my little firebird here who brought good luck. There were plenty of other faeries that faced the same—or worse—horrors she did.

“Sooo,” I said to the firebird. “He’s cute and all, but I just could never be with someone who hurts faeries, you know?

Not that he wants me or anything.” I let out a small laugh.

“I don’t even know if he’s gay or bi, although there were rumors he was bi in high school, so I guess that got my little gay heart a-fluttering.

But how could I possibly like a guy who works for a company like that? ”

I sighed, and my GPS told me to turn, so I followed the directions, pushing Winter out of my mind the best I could. The second I was on the street that led to the sanctuary, the firebird went wild.

She screeched and flapped her wings and made the cage wiggle around so much, it nearly fell off the seat, even though I had the belt around it.

Not knowing what else to do, I pulled over off the road, put the car in park, and removed the blanket from the cage completely so I could look at her. Had she somehow injured herself in there or something?

She’d been so calm and pleasant this entire time. What happened to make her react this way?

She continued squawking like an absolute maniac, so I shushed her and sent my empathic magic out, doing my best to calm her. It only worked a little, and the poor thing stopped flapping but continued making this wailing noise that broke my heart as she stared at me, panting heavily.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

I wanted to reach out to pet her, but my gloves were too thick to fit my finger through.

After staring at her pretty eyes for another minute, I sighed, took my glove off, and reached through the cage.

Maybe it was a mistake, but I needed to know what was wrong.

Feeling her emotions would help me figure it out.

If she was injured, I’d need to find a vet or see if the sanctuary had one. But I needed to know what was wrong first.

How bad could a bird’s emotions be?

Well, that was a stupid fucking question.

Because bad didn’t even cover it . Her emotions could be overwhelmingly horrid.

The second I touched her feathers, unadulterated fear hit me so hard, I gasped and ripped my hand away. My gaze caught hers, and my eyes welled up with unshed tears, her emotions so strong they still sat within me. “What are you so afraid of?”

After a breath, I reached through again, better prepared for the onslaught, and I managed not to flinch when the terror hit me.

For a moment, that was all I could feel, but then a sudden assault of images raced through my mind.

A cage, much like the one she was in now.

Confusion. Fear.

Too small to spread her wings.

Alarm.

Need to get out. Need to get out.

Panic.

Wires and big machines hooked up to her.

Tired. Scared. Can’t keep her eyes open.

Another firebird being ripped away from her.

Heartache.

Humans grabbing her, hurting her, pulling out her feathers.

Terror.

The door left open, and she took her chance and fled.

Yearning.

The open sky out in front of her, and a building behind her.

Hope.

A big sign in front of the building she escaped from.

Whispering Pines Faerie Sanctuary.

Freedom.

I blinked as awareness came back to me, and I couldn’t help but stare at the firebird in shock. I’d never had that happen before. I’d never seen someone else’s memories when I connected with them. Heard their thoughts? Yes.