Page 35 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Winter

“ S he’s sooooooooooo cute!” Lyric squealed as he got into Miles’s truck. “Can I pet her?” I could only assume Lyric meant Sola because I wasn’t inside the car yet.

“I hope you’re talking about Sola in there and not, like, a person,” I called out.

Miles snorted, and Lyric stuck their hand out the door to flip me off.

With a laugh, Miles said, “If you hold out your hand, I’m sure she’ll let you. She’s my familiar. We bonded last night.”

“Oh, My-my, that’s amazing. Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

I got in and was gifted with a huge smile from my man. As soon as I was in my seat, I leaned over, grabbed Miles’s collar to pull him closer, and lightly kissed his tasty lips. He looked surprised but pleased by the move.

Lyric said, “I’m so happy you two finally kissed last night.”

Miles leaned back. “And you know this, how?”

“Win called me as soon as he got home.”

I cringed and shrugged because it wasn’t like I could change it now. “Sorry.”

Miles shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s kind of a relief to know they know. Now I don’t have to feel like I’m hiding a secret or something.”

Reaching over, I took his hand in mine and gave it a kiss. “I absolutely do not want to hide you, sugar butt.”

He snorted.

“Oh my god, Win, you can’t call him that!” Lyric yelled from the back seat. “That’s a horrible pet name.”

I shrugged.

Miles laughed. “I agree with Lyric wholeheartedly.”

With a sigh, I leaned back in my seat. “I don’t know what you two are talking about. I have wonderful naming abilities.”

Miles let out a “Ha!” and put the car in drive.

“You named your dog Goliath,” Lyric said.

“Hey! There’s nothing wrong with his name. It’s amazing.”

Lyric sighed dramatically. “You know I love that dog like he’s my own, but, Win, you are not good at naming things. Do you remember what you named your cat in high school?”

I hung my head in shame. “Stinky.”

“You named your cat Stinky?” Miles chuckled and tried to cover it up with his free hand.

“He was a street cat who smelled awful when we brought him in. I gave him a bath and kept calling him stinky—because he was—and it just sorta became his name. He didn’t even stink after that, but the name stuck.”

I missed that cat. My parents kept him when I went to prison, and supposedly, he passed away when I was in there.

I kinda had the feeling my parents put him down so they didn’t have to deal with him.

But when he passed away, my parents didn’t even tell me.

Lyric went over there to check on the cat and found out, then came for a visit to tell me about it.

Thinking about that sweet cat always made me feel so guilty. He probably thought I’d abandoned him.

And I had. It wasn’t my choice, but he didn’t know that.

“Hey,” Lyric said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him up.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled over my shoulder at them and patted their hand. “I’m good.” Then because I knew Miles was curious, I said, “Stinky passed away when I was in prison, and I always felt like I abandoned him.”

“Oh, Win, I’m so sorry.” Miles reached over and gave my hand a squeeze before letting go and focusing on the road.

Lyric said, “Okay, moving on to happier things. How did your date go last night?”

When I glanced at Miles, his face was blood-red, taking away some of the grief from sad memories and making me smile a tiny bit. Just seeing him helped my mood.

The rest of the drive was spent talking about lighter things, and by the time we pulled into the mansion’s driveway, I was in a good mood again. How could I not be when Miles was with me?

I was hoping to convince him to hang out with me later, either at one of our homes or possibly tagging along with Lyric to the cookout they were attending at their cousin’s. I’d kinda prefer to spend more time alone with him, but if he wanted to go to the party, I’d definitely go with him.

Chaos and Aeson were already there, waiting for us in their car, so we wasted no time getting out and getting ourselves ready for our next scary-gnome-infested-mansion-adventure.

Miles already had his coveralls on, so I wasn’t surprised when he took Sola over to meet the teens.

I watched them, warmth bubbling in my chest at the sight.

I didn’t know what it was about those kids, but I really hoped they’d let us help them out after this.

If we found out where they lived, we could drop food off or even send over a delivery or something every now and then.

I’d even send it anonymously if it’d help.

They both pet the firebird and looked happy and excited that Miles brought her with us.

“Do you think Clucky will be okay with Sola here today?” Miles asked Chaos.

The kid nodded. “Of course. She loves other familiars. Let me get her out of the car.” He opened the back door, and the cockatrice came fluttering out, making chicken noises.

Sola let out one of her trills, and Clucky froze, turned toward her, then started clucking and hopping around all over the place. The sight made me laugh.

Sola jumped off Miles’s shoulder and soared to the ground, landing directly in front of the other familiar.

They both froze and stared at one another for a few long beats.

Then they were clucking, cooing, trilling, and clacking away, almost like they were having a conversation of their own.

After about thirty seconds, Sola stepped closer, and I thought she was going to rub her cheek against Clucky’s cheek.

But nope. We couldn’t be that lucky.

Sola let out an awful scream, right in Clucky’s face, and Clucky made almost the exact same sound back.

Their screams turned into more clucks and clacks, and then Clucky opened her giant wings, trying to intimidate the other familiar. Sola reared back and spread her wings too.

“What the actual hell?” Lyric said, almost in awe.

“Clucky! What the hell, dude?” Chaos asked, running over to her. He didn’t hesitate to pick her up even though she was in a threatening pose.

Miles did the same with Sola, scooping her into his arms.

Chaos and Miles stared at each other with wide eyes.

After a few seconds, Chaos said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what her problem is. I’m sure they’ll be fine once they get used to each other.”

Miles nodded. “I’m sorry too. Is Clucky okay?”

“She’s fine.” Chaos gave her a good pet. “Is Sola?”

“Yep. She’s good.”

Lyric marched over and put one hand on each bird, petting them, as they said, “You two are gonna be nice to each other, okay? You don’t have to be best friends, but you do need to be kind. Got it?”

To my surprise—and delight—both familiars gave Lyric a loud affirming chirp. Good . But then Clucky stuck her nose up in the air and made a tiny chirp, and Sola sort of grumbled before turning away.

Well. They both had attitudes, and it was actually kind of cute.

It made Chaos and Miles laugh, and the tension left the group.

When I walked over to Miles, he asked, “Do you mind holding Sola for a minute?”

“I’d love to hold her.”

He grinned, passed her to me, then walked over to Chaos and gave Clucky some attention. That seemed to appease the cockatrice, although it didn’t make Sola happy at all.

“Aww, pretty girl, you’re still his favorite. I promise.”

She trilled at me and rubbed against my cheek, and I hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

Miles came back over and gave Sola a kiss on the top of her head without taking her from me. I puckered my lips and mumbled, “Don’t I get one too?”

His face flushed, but he snorted out a laugh and pecked my lips before shaking his head at me. “I can’t believe you got me to do that.”

“What? Why?”

“Because we’re technically on a job right now.”

Oh. Right. I frowned at him. “Sorry.”

He waved me off. “No, it’s fine, I’m just…

” He trailed off with a laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever kissed someone while I was at work.

” He took me in for a beat. “I liked it.” Then he turned on his heel and marched toward the others, calling out, “Let’s get this over with. Chaos, what do you need us to do?”

I had a little pep in my step as I carried Sola over to the group.

F inding myself back in the basement of the creepy mansion with a group of overly angry people, fighting off a horde of gnomes, was not my idea of a fun time.

But here we were.

Again .

I couldn’t wait for Chaos to finish breaking this damn curse so my friends and my Miles would go back to normal.

Everything had been so peaceful and fun outside only twenty minutes ago, and now, it seemed like Aeson, Lyric, and Miles were ready to throw fists.

And to make matters worse, Sola was perched on Miles’s shoulder, squawking and trying to bite anyone—including me—every time we got too close to Miles.

Luckily, I could nullify her too, but like the others, I had to be touching her.

“What did you just say?” Lyric asked, trying to puff out their chest as if anyone in the entire world had ever been intimidated by their cute face. “Say that again, Miles, I dare you.”

“You’re such a—”

I cut him off with a hand over his mouth, stopping whatever nonsense was about to spew from it and simultaneously giving him a break from the curse magic. Sola nibbled at my hand, but as soon as she touched me, she started rubbing against the nibbled spots as if in apology.

After giving the two of them a few seconds to calm down, I released Miles and took a step toward Lyric, who was still spewing nasty shit at my guy.

Since Chaos began working on the cursed seal, it’d amped up its magic, so everyone was even more high-strung than before, including the gnomes.

“Oh fuck!” Chaos yelled. “Incoming!”

I had no idea what he was talking about until I felt a giant wave of the curse magic brush past me in a swell of red anger. It was obvious when it went through the others because their eyes glowed red and their faces became stern and super pissed-off. Oh boy.