Page 37 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Miles

W ell, I couldn’t say that the kid hadn’t warned us, now could I?

He’d said that cursed objects tried to stop him from breaking the spell, and well, it was obviously doing that. In spades.

“Winter!” Chaos yelled over the oooooohhhhhh-ing happening all over the place.

“What?”

Instead of answering, Chaos threw one of the big salt canisters he’d had us buy. Winter caught it and looked at the teen like he was crazy. That made Chaos roll his eyes.

“Do you guys know nothing about ghosts? They hate salt. It keeps them away. Put a line of it in front of you all, and you can throw it at them when they get close.”

“Okay, then.”

Winter didn’t have time for more than that.

Four ghosts, looking like nothing more than glowing blobs of mist, came barreling toward us.

Some ghosts could take their human shape, but these guys seemed way too angry to hold it.

Win quickly threw a bunch of the salt at the ghosts.

It only hit two of them, making them scream and somersault backward through the air.

The other two came flying, and we all had to duck as they swiped at us. Maybe they were arms, I wasn’t sure, but it looked like the blobs grew limbs and were reaching for us with clawed fingers.

It gave me chills, and I wasn’t sure if they could scratch us or not, but I didn’t want to find out.

I hugged Sola to my chest and bent over her as they passed by, not wanting to risk her.

“Use the salt!” Aeson yelled as he pulled another salt canister out of his pocket—he must’ve been prepared for something like this.

Aeson expertly threw salt at the two ghosts floating over our heads, making them fly a few feet away, screeching as they went. Their screams were like nails on a chalkboard, giving me chills and making me wish I could close my ears.

One of the ghosts regained its senses and came rushing right for Chaos. Clucky let out a roar that was way louder than any being as small as her should be able to make, but even that didn’t deter the ghost.

Winter leapt in front of the kid and familiar, using his body as a human shield, and the ghost flew right into him.

“Win!” I shouted, trying to grab him and missing entirely.

“Squaaaaawwwwkk,” Sola screamed in alarm.

Winter let out an oomph as he staggered back a few steps and bumped into the baby gates. Lyric and I managed to stop the gates from toppling over. As soon as I released the gate, I grabbed Winter.

“Holy shit, Win, are you okay?”

Please let him be okay, please let him be okay.

He turned to me, grimacing and rubbing his chest. “Yeah. Yeah, that, uh… that hurt.”

“What do you need? Let me see. I can maybe—”

Win grabbed my wrists, stopping me from pulling his shirt up. “Hey, Miles. Look at me.”

I met his gaze.

“I’m okay. It might bruise, but I’m fine.”

I sucked in a breath and gave him a nod.

After kissing my knuckles, he dropped my hands, and I glanced around the space. Aeson was keeping the other three ghosts back with salt, throwing it over and over at them.

“What do you need me to do?” I asked Win.

He shook his head and furrowed his brow. “I’m fine, but where’d the ghost go? I didn’t see where it went when it hit me.”

I glanced around the space, now a little frantic because I hadn’t seen where it went either. I’d been too worried about Winter.

As if sensing my growing panic, Sola trilled and rubbed against my cheek, trying to calm me, but I didn’t think anything could calm me after that damn spirit just attacked my… person I was dating or whatever.

Chaos said, “Your nullness made it dissipate. It’ll be a minute before it can reform.”

Win and I exchanged a look because that was kind of awesome he could do that, but also a little scary. From the look on his face, he agreed with me on both accounts—it was still weird to me that I couldn’t feel out his emotions.

Lyric added, “It looked like it exploded as soon as it touched you. Kinda badass, Win.”

Winter shot them a small smile, but Aeson was still battling the other ghosts, and gnomes were running at our feet, tripping us up, so Lyric and I refocused on knocking gnomes back.

Sola flew off my shoulder, grabbed a gnome that was attempting to climb my leg, flew up in the air, and chucked the little pest into the crowd, then she aimed for another critter.

And Aeson and Winter surrounded the group with a line of salt, so hopefully the evil things would stay back.

The second the ghosts realized they couldn’t cross the barrier, they started sending the gnomes after us in an even greater wave than before.

But the gnomes didn’t attack us. They attacked the salt, messing up the line, and I was sure this was the seal’s doing as well. It wanted the ghosts to stop us, so the gnomes were trying to help. Shit . This was bad.

“Morty, the gnomes are messing with the salt,” Aeson yelled.

“Fuck!” Chaos yelled.

“What do we do?” Lyric asked, looking as panicked as I felt.

“Miles!” Chaos shouted over the noisy as hell ghosts.

“What?” I ducked when a can of corn came sailing straight for my head, and I turned horrified eyes toward the ghosts. They’d discovered that the basement was absolutely filled to the brim with potential projectiles.

“Holy shit, they’re throwing crap now!” Lyric yelled. “Everyone, watch out.” They ducked another canned food bullet, then used their stick to knock a few gnomes off the salt line.

Sola had to dodge out of the way of a few cans as she flew to me and landed on my shoulder again.

Glancing around at my new friends, I realized that everyone was in the same predicament. Dodging missiles and fighting off gnomes. This was a disaster.

Chaos grabbed my attention again. “Miles? Can you shield us?”

I jerked back. “Can I… what? I’m an empath, not a regular practitioner.”

His brow furrowed. “Dude, empaths are more powerful than regs, especially now that you have Sola.” He shook his head like he was dismissing his thought, meanwhile, I was over here like what the actual fuck are you talking about? Empaths are more powerful than regs? What?

Chaos said, “I’ll create the shield. You watch the path I take. Our magics aren’t that dissimilar. I can’t hold it and concentrate on the curse spellwork at the same time. Once I have it set, you can hold it yourself.”

I had some serious doubts about that, but I’d give it a shot.

The others were screaming and objects were flying off the shelves, aiming right for us, but Winter, Lyric, and Aeson grabbed some old picture frames and a random large piece of metal.

They were knocking flying objects off course or blocking them with their makeshift shields.

Books, tchotchkes, trophies, empty flower pots, canned goods, and who the hell knew what else were flying everywhere.

But the three of them were keeping it away from Chaos and me.

“Ready?” Chaos was asking for my help, so I trusted the others to keep the two of us safe while we figured this out.

I gave him a nod, and he sucked in a breath, and as he slowly released it, I used my inner-eye, for lack of a better word, to focus on his magic.

And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Sola was watching just as closely.

She was planning on helping me with this, I could feel it, and my affection for her grew.

Examining another’s magic wasn’t something I did often—I didn’t know any practitioners, so it wasn’t like I could easily practice—but it didn’t take long for me to remember how to do it.

His magic had a golden hue to it, and I watched as a few runes I recognized were woven into his magic, like smoky gold symbols floating in the air.

The rune for protect was woven in over and over and over again. I could see how Chaos was asking his magic to do his bidding, how he was making it form those shapes, those symbols.

And then finally, I watched the magic sift and flow until it was in a perfect dome around our group. As soon as it was in place, a pulse of necromantic energy rushed through the entire dome, making it turn into an almost solid entity.

He breathed out again. “Okay. There we go. That should keep the ghosts and any flying objects out while I finish up. I’m almost done.”

“That… that was amazing, Chaos.”

To my surprise, he sent me a tiny smile. “Thanks. Can you take it over?”

“H-how? I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of me.”

“You can do it, Miles. Just… close your eyes and let your magic reach out to mine. Sola’s magic will help you too.”

I stared at the teenager for a beat before I gave him a nod and closed my eyes, putting a hell of a lot of trust in this kid. This necromancer.

Funny how just yesterday morning I’d been terrified of even meeting one, and now, I was wishing I could work with him more… and wishing I could protect him from whatever was keeping him and his brother from eating enough.

Shaking away those thoughts, I pushed my magic out, and Sola didn’t hesitate to push her energy into me, powering me up. I was immediately hit with a quiet rage coming from Aeson and red-hot anger from Lyric. But I ignored those emotions as best I could and pushed my magic past them.

The second it touched Chaos’s shield, I expected to feel something… gross, maybe? Something that horrified me because it was death magic?

But I didn’t.

Chaos’s magic felt soothing and inviting, peaceful even.

Once I realized it wasn’t going to horrify me or make my mouth taste like ash or something, I pushed even further, reaching out with everything I had—which was a hell of a lot more now that Sola was bonded to me—and trying to grab onto his magic.

“There you go. You got it.” Chaos’s voice sounded like he was smiling. “I’m going to release it slowly, okay?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I opened my eyes and caught his gaze.

He gave me a nod. “You’ve got this, Miles. Promise.”

How it had come to having this sixteen-year-old kid—and I still wasn’t sold on that age—comforting me and teaching me more about my magic in five minutes than literally anyone else had in my entire life, I didn’t know. But I appreciated it more than he could possibly understand.

Sola gave me an encouraging trill, so I sent Chaos a nod. “Alright. I’m ready.”

He sent me another of those tiny smiles that was almost a smirk, and I felt him pulling away from the shield.

As he did, I made sure I was clinging to every single inch of the thing.

I could feel the ghosts banging on it and objects flying and hitting it, but I didn’t let that stop me from holding on.

My heart raced, and sweat formed on my temple from my anxiety as I waited for him to let go completely. Oh fuck. Fuckity, fuck, fuck a duck, fuck.

It’s not gonna work. It’s not gonna work.

Sola trilled, and I somehow knew she was telling me it was going to be alright.

Please, please, please let it work.

He let go of the last thread, and I held my breath, waiting for the shield to drop and everyone to be hit with a ghost, a gnome, or a flying object.