Page 38 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?! (Carry A Faerie #1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Miles

O h my god, the shield’s gonna burst.

I waited.

And waited.

But nothing happened.

I released my lungs, staring at the shield.

It was still standing. It was still there.

It was still gold, but now there was a little bit of purple mixed in.

Right . My magic was purple. A picture of some chart we’d had to memorize in school flashed through my mind’s eye, and I remembered learning about the different colored magics.

Necromancers were always gold, empaths were purple.

We’d learned about other magical colors too, but I couldn’t remember them at the moment, and since it wasn’t important right now, I pushed the thoughts away.

Winter was breathing heavily when he came over, but he knelt down beside where I sat on my ass and right before he touched my neck, Chaos said, “Don’t touch him or the shield might come down.”

Sola chirped in agreement.

“Shit. I didn’t even think of that.” Winter scooted back and gave me a sad smile. “Sorry, sugar butt. Don’t want to risk it.”

We could honestly probably find a workaround if we needed to—at least I hoped so, if I ever needed to do this in the future—but in the middle of a gnome and poltergeist attack wasn’t the time to test it.

“It’s fine.” I tried not to let the curse’s anger push to the forefront, but it was difficult not to let it when Win wasn’t touching me and I was no longer scared for my life and the lives of my friends.

Winter tilted his head to the side, examining me. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I… I can apparently hold a shield.”

“You can make one too,” Chaos said as he continued doing… whatever it was he was doing.

I shrugged at Winter because I wasn’t sure about that at all. I… thought maybe I could after following along with Chaos, but that was something I’d have to practice on my own later.

I absently petted Sola. “I think I might be able to, but I’ll have to practice a lot first.”

Winter nodded, then looked at Chaos. “If you could do this, why didn’t you do it sooner?” He didn’t sound accusatory. He simply sounded curious.

“It takes a lot of energy, and I can’t hold a shield and work on this curse at the same time.

I knew Miles could hold it, but there’s no way he—or anyone, for that matter—could hold it for the entirety of my spellwork.

He’s got five, maybe ten minutes before he’s flat on the floor, drained of energy.

I didn’t want to do that unless we had to.

” He pointed to the ghosts banging on the shield. “This was a had-to situation.”

Winter nodded. “Agreed. Is there anything else we can do to help you?”

He smirked at him. “Leave me alone and let me concentrate.”

Winter winced. “Right. Sorry. Leaving you alone now.”

Chaos gave him a nod, and Winter refocused his attention on me. “Can you feel the drain?”

“A little, but only because I’m concentrating on it. I think I’ll be fine.”

He gave me a nod, then leaned, looking like he was about to kiss my forehead. Luckily, he aborted the movement with a grimace. “Sorry. It’s gonna be hard not to touch you for five minutes.”

He wanted to touch me so badly that even five minutes was difficult? That was… probably one of the sweetest things someone had ever said to me.

He winked. “I’ll be right back. I need to break up yet another argument.”

I snorted as he got up and marched over to Aeson and Lyric, who were fighting about who whacked more gnomes before the shield went up. I rolled my eyes. As if any of us had been paying attention to how many we were knocking back. That was ridiculous.

As soon as Winter touched both of their backs, they sagged and apologized to each other.

Honestly, I didn’t even know why we bothered to keep apologizing. All of us knew it was the curse, and we’d all apologized so many times today it was outrageous. We should’ve just told one another that we were waiting until the curse ended before we apologized at all.

I shook off those thoughts because they were unnecessary, and I glanced outside of the shield.

The gnomes were so angry, they were riding each other’s shoulders, climbing on backs, and just generally piling up so they could bang on our shield. Their eyes were red and beyond pissed-off. They looked like they were out for blood.

And I had no doubt that was some nightmare fuel right there.

As if I wasn’t already terrified of gnomes enough, I now had a firsthand view of them with red eyes and carrying weapons. I shuddered as I watched them outside the shield. They looked like an angry mob of bearded demons ready to knock us out and chop us up into bite-sized pieces.

Ewwww . Blech. Blech, blech, blech.

I was going to keep this shield up until Chaos broke the curse no matter what I had to do. Even if it was the last thing I ever did.

Sola let out a little chirping noise, telling me I’d be fine.

I was surprised and excited that I could already interpret most of her little sounds. I would’ve thought it’d take a lot longer, but maybe since I could feel her emotions through the bond, it was easy for me to figure out what she was telling me.

“Guys, come sit near Miles while we wait. Relax for a few minutes while we still can. I need to sit, and I need to keep a hand on both of you,” Winter said, nudging Lyric and Aeson over to me.

I examined the shield while they got situated. I was pretty sure I really could rebuild a shield like this on my own. Chaos was a good teacher. I even had an idea of how I could block out the curse from myself, the way Chaos was. Maybe. I’d have to ask Chaos later.

I snorted to myself.

Apparently, the teenager was the expert, and I was the clueless ass who didn’t know how to use his own magic at all.

I probably could’ve used some of the kid’s knowledge at my old job.

Scratch that. I definitely could’ve used it.

With a sigh, I pushed away the painful memories that always came when I thought about my old life and the people in it. When I thought about Laney. When I thought about Higgins.

When I thought about what’d happened.

I couldn’t let my mind travel there or I’d wind up stuck there, unable to come back out. And I didn’t want that. Not one little bit. The pain of those memories was too heavy to bear.

“You alright, My-my?” Lyric asked me, their head tilted to the side, taking me in. I had a feeling they’d been staring at me for a lot longer than I realized.

“Y-yeah. I’m good. Sorry, my mind was wandering.”

“No need to say sorry.” They shot me a smile and nudged my foot with theirs. “Wanna talk about it?”

My eyes widened. I was way too aware of the fact that everyone else was listening to us. Well, Chaos might not have been since he was working magic, but Aeson and Winter were. “No. Absolutely not.”

They snorted and shrugged. “Well, alrighty then. No worries.”

“Sorry. It’s been a stressful day.”

“That it has, my friend. But if you ever need to talk, I’m here.

” They furrowed their brow. “Oh my god, I don’t think you even have my number yet!

How is that possible? I feel like we’re best friends for life after all this.

” They circled their hand in the air, encompassing the entirety of the basement and of the house itself.

It really had been a day—well, two days. No, actually three.

Okay, it’d been a weekend.

Geez . I’d really forced all of them into some shitty stuff this weekend.

I snorted. “Not sure about that, but I… I’d like to, um, stay connected. You know, after this…?” Why did that sound like a question? Good grief, I was so freaking awkward.

But Lyric simply smiled at me, a soft expression on their pretty face. “I’d like that too.”

I hesitantly smiled back.

Then Aeson leaned in, butting into our conversation with, “Can I get in on this friendship thing? You guys are cool, even if you’re old, so you can take my number too.”

“Excuse you, Mr. Tall. We’re not old.” Lyric shook their head at him, but the kid grinned and kept talking like he hadn’t been interrupted.

“You already have Morty’s, so now you just need mine. You can call anytime you need help with your exterminator stuff or anytime really.”

I sent the kid a wide grin. “Sounds like a plan, Ace.” I wrinkled my nose. “Um, am I allowed to call you that?”

He waved it off, then reached over to pet Sola. “Yeah, for sure. I don’t care either way.”

“Cool.”

We fell silent for a few minutes before Chaos said, “I’m almost done. Prepare yourselves.”

“Prepare for what?” I asked, anxiety already kicking in.

“A blast of the curse,” Chaos said, then pointed at the ghosts and gnomes. “They’ll come out of it almost immediately, so if you lose control of the shield, don’t worry about it, m’kay? They’ll likely be freaked out by everything, so they’ll run away from us.”

“Even the ghosts?”

“Yep.”

“Got it.” I gave him a nod and hunkered down.

I had no idea what a curse would feel like when it was broken, but I had an idea it was going to be rough. Really, really rough.

Pressure built around us so thickly, so fast, my ears popped. I met Winter’s worried gaze, and I saw the fear in his eyes. It was the first time he’d truly looked afraid during all of this. At least the first time I’d seen it.

“Brace yourselves!” Chaos yelled a moment before he slashed his hand down an inch away from the seal, his gold magic following the movement and making a cut through the metal.

The seal cracked right down the middle.

A force of pure power blew out of the seal and rushed over us.

It hit like a tidal wave, knocking the breath from my lungs as I flew backward.

I crashed into a hard chest, making me—and the chest—lose our breath for a moment, and then a much smaller body—Sola—crashed into my chest, and I couldn’t catch my breath at all.

I felt the shield drop, immediately alleviating the drain on my power, but I couldn’t be happy about that when the power continued to whip past us with the force of a typhoon.

We were caught in the middle of a windstorm, only instead of wind, it was pure necromantic magic slapping us in the face and blowing us backward.

My eyes watered, and my breath was completely gone.

I was unable to suck in any air, the power was sinking into my skin like tiny biting teeth, and my hair was blowing around and smacking my forehead like a hundred little whips.

I grabbed onto Sola as best I could, trying to block her from some of the blast with my arms, but it was too powerful for me to hold them up without crushing my sweet familiar. So I tucked her under my chin, hunched my shoulders, and tried to protect her as best I could.

She was scared, I could feel it, but she wasn’t panicking the way I was. She seemed to understand that this would pass.

I really fucking hoped she was right.

Luckily, an arm wrapped around my body, keeping me from being blown straight across the room and into the horde of angry gnomes.

Even though I couldn’t turn around to check, I knew it was Winter, which was a relief.

And not only because he wouldn’t accidentally set off my empath abilities in the middle of all this, but because it was him, and I yearned to be near him.

I wasn’t sure how long the blast lasted, but by the time it was finished, my lungs hurt, and I had to suck in a deep breath. Winter’s chest moved behind me, his own gasping breath loud in my ear.

No one said anything or even moved for a good full minute, too busy trying to reteach their lungs how to breathe.

Sola let out a loud squuuuawwwwk! And I was so glad to hear, to know, that she was alright.

We were all strewn around the room, except Chaos. Somehow, the kid had managed to remain standing the entire time. He was facing the no-longer-cursed seal, either spacing out or concentrating on it really hard.

Maybe because it was necromantic magic that had been released, he’d been able to let it fly past him, or maybe he’d made himself a personal shield or something. Who knew? Frankly, I didn’t really care as long as the kid—and everyone else—was okay.

There were gnomes all over the place—the little things had been blown around the room like debris—but most of them were dazed or just lying around like we were. A good number of them were retreating through the holes in the ceiling, so at least we knew they weren’t about to attack us again.

I hated them and didn’t want to be near them, but I didn’t have the energy to freak out or stand to get away, so I just… ignored them.

Or at least, I tried to.

“You okay back there, Win?”

He nodded against me. “Yes. You?”

“I’m good.”

“Sola?”

That made me smile. “She’s completely fine.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Thanks for catching me before I was blown to Oz.”

He snorted and kissed my temple. “Anytime.”

I looked over at Aeson and asked, “What about you, Ace?”

He nodded. “I’m fine.” He was still panting, just like me.

“No injuries?”

He grinned. “None at all. You?”

“I’m fine too.” I found Lyric, and for a split-second, I was scared they were seriously hurt because they were lying on their back with their arms and legs splayed out, but I could see their chest moving. “Lyric? You alright?”

They lifted a hand and waved it around. “I’m fine. Just thanking the magical universe I still have lungs. For a minute there, I didn’t think I did. You guys okay?”

Winter said, “We’re all good.” He turned his gaze back to Chaos, who was still just standing there. “What about you, Chaos? You okay?”

He didn’t reply, but his shoulders and back were moving with every deep breath he took. He was breathing hard and kinda fast, and it honestly looked a bit creepy from here.

Clucky was on his shoulder, but she looked to be in the same weird, frozen state as her practitioner.

Aeson made a face and got to his feet, approaching his brother. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before he rested a hand on Chaos’s free shoulder. “Morty? You good?”

Chaos took a few more deep breaths, then rolled his shoulders. When he turned around, everyone tensed, and fear made my heart race.

Chaos’s and Clucky’s eyes were glowing bright gold—just like the gnomes had been red earlier.

What the hell?

Gold?

The curse had been made with necromantic magic—gold magic.