Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Winter
The manager glared at Chaos but didn’t say anything, and after a minute or two, he walked back inside.
Miles and I both caught Chaos’s sigh of relief.
“God, I hate that guy.”
“Have you thought about finding somewhere else to work?” I couldn’t help but ask.
Chaos eyed me and shrugged. “It’s easier if Ace and I work at the same place since we only have one car. Relying on the bus sucks, especially because the closest station to our, um, house is a forty-five-minute walk.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Ace loves being a tour guide here.” He said it with finality. Like that was the end of this discussion and that only Aeson’s happiness mattered.
If Aeson knew how much Chaos hated working here, I highly doubted he’d keep his job. He loved Chaos as much as Chaos loved him, so I had a feeling this sweet teen who tried to pretend he cared about no one—but actually had a heart as big as Miles’s—had been hiding his discomfort from his brother.
Ace had sounded amused on the phone about his brother not liking his job, but there was no way he knew how bad it really was.
“Yeah… okay.” It was all I could say. Chaos’s hackles were already up, so I didn’t want to make it any worse or he’d shut down and stop talking to us entirely. “How’s school going?” A subject change was in order.
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“What grade are you in this year?”
Instead of answering, he nodded toward the doors. “You should probably go find Ace. He texted me a minute ago asking if I’d seen you guys yet.”
Right. I guess this wasn’t exactly a social call, but I couldn’t help but worry about the kid. “Alright. We’ll see you at seven for dinner. Send Lyric to us when they get here, please.”
“Will do.” He gave me a nod, then waved us toward the door overly dramatically.
Miles laughed a little, but once we were through the doors, he sighed. “I think something’s wrong with the kids.”
“Yeah, I got that impression too.”
“Do you think… do you think they’re not going to school or something? He avoided all my questions about school too when you were on the phone.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“How do we help them?”
“I don’t know that either.”
He was quiet for a moment as we walked over to the first exhibit and stared at the skeleton of a gremlin. It was kind of surreal after saving some gremlins last week.
Finally, he said, “Do you think we could sit them down and talk to them about things? Maybe… ask them what’s going on and tell them we want to help?”
“I… I’m not sure. Chaos clams up so easily, but… it might be worth a try. But not until after we take care of the pixies. Maybe we can take them out to dinner or something, talk to them when they’re not working a job.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah… let’s try that. But maybe we can get more out of Ace today.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Aeson was obviously busy touring a group at the moment, so we had to entertain ourselves for a bit while we waited, but that gave Lyric enough time to arrive. I clocked them as soon as they walked in.
They grinned when I waved, and when they reached us, they pulled me into a hug before standing in front of Miles.
I knew it was hard for Lyric not to hug Miles whenever they saw him—my best friend was a huge hugger—but they respected the fact it was difficult for him and respected his boundaries with ease.
Miles held out his fist, and with a wide grin, Lyric fist-bumped him—that was a good compromise they’d come up with because Miles always wore gloves, and he knew Lyric was a hugger.
I also knew there was a big part of Miles that wanted to accept that affection from them, but he was scared of what emotions he’d feel from them.
He’d been disappointed and hurt by so many people in his life that he was afraid Lyric didn’t actually like him.
He’d never said that out loud, but after hearing so many things about the way his own family treated him, the way he knew his parents were disgusted by him, I’d put two and two together.
I really wished I could take away his hurt, but learning to accept the love and friendship of other people would take time.
“Thanks for coming,” Miles said with a genuine grin as Lyric greeted Sola with a few pets. He might’ve been afraid that Lyric didn’t truly like him, but it was clear that he really did like them.
“Of course. Chaos told me a little bit about what’s going on with the pixies. Crazy stuff.” They gave a shiver. “This place is overloaded with magic. Like… so much fucking magic.”
I held my hand out to them, and they took it without hesitation, letting out a sigh when my null-ness made it all go away.
“That’s so much better.”
Miles was frowning at them, and for one second, I thought he was mad they were holding my hand, but then he said, “If searching for cursed objects is going to be too much, maybe you should wait outside or something. I don’t want you getting a headache or anything.
” Miles would understand all too well how too much magic could overwhelm a person.
Lyric shot him a grin. “I’ll be okay as long as Win lets me take breaks.” They shot him a wink. “And you don’t mind me holding onto your boyfriend.”
I sighed, and Miles turned pink. Of course I’d told Lyric all about the boyfriend thing and about seeing my sister and all of that. It was the whole reason I’d invited them over to our cookout this Friday night.
“Of course I don’t mind,” Miles said, pinkening further and making me grin at him. “Do whatever you need to stay comfortable.”
Lyric’s gaze softened, and they turned a fond smile my way. They really liked Miles for me, and I had to agree. I grinned back.
“Hey! You came!”
I turned toward the happy voice with a smile of my own. “Ace!”
To my surprise, the teen moved in for a quick hug before stopping in front of Miles. I could tell he wanted to hug him too, but he didn’t because he knew how much that could affect an empath.
But then my boyfriend surprised the hell out of me—and Aeson and Lyric—by stepping forward and pulling the teen into a quick hug.
“Hey,” Miles said, letting go and stepping back to my side. He pressed his shoulder to mine, and since I figured he was overwhelmed with others’ emotions right then, I did my best to push my null magic toward him, and Lyric too.
My magic worked without my trying if we were touching—especially skin-to-skin, not that our shirts were much of a deterrent—but just in case, I gave it an extra boost.
From the way the tension around Miles’s eyes slowly faded away, I figured it was working.
Aeson grinned widely at us. “You came.” He held his hand up to Sola, who immediately rubbed her cheek against him. Aeson laughed and petted her before looking at my bestie. “And Lyric too—hey.”
Lyric smiled. “Hey, Ace. Nice to see you.”
“You too. Thank you all for coming to help.”
“Of course.” Miles sent him a soft smile. “You know you can call us anytime, for anything. It doesn’t have to be faerie related.”
Aeson eyed him for a moment, then gave a short nod but didn’t say anything for a few seconds. He looked like he felt a little awkward but also appreciative, which was an odd combination to pull off.
So I asked, “How are you doing, kiddo?”
His grin came back, and he started bouncing on his toes excitedly. “I’ve been great. Giving tours is so much fun!”
Okay. So… I could see why Chaos didn’t want to take this job away from his brother. Aeson seemed to love it. A lot. And I’d only seen him talk about it for less than five seconds.
“That’s great. I’m glad you like it.” Miles took a breath. “What about school? How’s that going?”
Some of Aeson’s joy melted away. “Um… it’s fine. I mean, it’s school, so…” He cleared his throat. “Do you want to see where the pixies are staying? They’ve been flying all over the place, but they made a home base in the dragon history exhibit.”
My brow furrowed. “That seems like a weird place for them to camp out.”
He led us toward the giant staircase. “Yeah, I thought so too, but there are some live plants up there because it’s on the top floor under the dome skylight, so I figured that’s why.
I don’t think any of the other exhibits have live plants, except a few in the pixie one, now that I think about it.
Everything else is artificial since there isn’t a lot of natural light in the other areas.
Even the pixie section is mostly artificial plants. ”
“Hm. Makes sense, then.” Miles nodded.
“Yeah, unfortunately, it’s right at the top of the main staircase, so that’s where a lot of the injuries and stuff have been happening.”
“That’s not good,” Lyric murmured under their breath, still holding my hand.
I was having flashbacks of the gnome house when I was trying to keep Lyric and Miles from killing each other by keeping the cursed magic away from both of them at the same time. It sort of made me want to laugh.
“Aeson,” a deep voice called out from the left of us.
Aeson stopped and made a little grimace before turning toward the incoming man—the manager we’d seen outside—and pasting on a very fake smile. “How can I help you, Mr. Sharp?”
“Where exactly are you taking these gentlemen? It doesn’t look like you’re giving them the tour.” The way he spoke made the hairs on my arms stand up straight. He was… beyond rude and a little bit creepy, if I was being honest.
Before Aeson could respond, Miles said, “Hello, sir. We asked your tour guide to take us to the dragon exhibit first. That’s the one thing we’re all dying to learn about. Sorry for taking him off course, but we’d really like to go there first.”
The man harumphed. “Alright then. Proceed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aeson said with fake cheer, then led us up the stairs.
None of us said anything until we were on the second floor.
Miles sighed. “That guy is a real piece of work.”
“Ugh. Tell me about it.” Aeson flattened his shirt down with his hand. “I hate when he talks to me, but I’m usually good at staying away from him. Sorry about that.”
“You shouldn’t apologize,” Lyric said. “That guy’s the dick, not you.”
That made Aeson snort. “Truth.”
So apparently Aeson wasn’t as unaware of the manager being a jackass as we thought. He didn’t seem to realize just how uncomfortable the guy made Chaos.
Miles shook his head. “Seriously, Ace. Don’t worry about it.”
Aeson sent him a strained smile. “We have two more floors to go. Will you guys make it? There’s an elevator if you want to take it instead?”
I gave the kid a small push. “We aren’t that old, you little turd.”
He laughed, looking like the lanky teenager he was as he walked ahead of us.
Miles shoulder-bumped me, shooting me an amused and exasperated smile, before following him, and Lyric dragged me along.