Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Winter
The manager—Dexter Sharp—was being a pain in the ass, and there was no way we were getting that egg out of the museum anytime soon.
As if just as exasperated as I was, Aeson blurted out, “What if we did it after hours? It shouldn’t take long, right, Miles? So we could stay and do it after everyone leaves. Then no one has to see people in pixie dust gear walking around.”
The manager stared at him for a long moment, then finally sighed. “Fine. After hours. And you have thirty minutes.”
That didn’t give us a lot of time at all, but we’d take what we could get at this point. I couldn’t exactly blame the guy for not wanting us trooping through the museum in pixie gear—it would scare people away—but having innocent people get hurt was worse. At least in my opinion.
“Fine.” Miles peeked at his phone, probably checking the time. “Okay, great. You close at nine, yes?”
“Yes, sir. You can start then.”
“Alright. We’ll come back. For now, I believe it’s time for Aeson and Chaos’s dinner break.”
The manager stared at Miles blankly.
Aeson cleared his throat. “He means Morty and me, sir.”
Dexter Sharp blinked, looked at his watch on his wrist, then gave a nod. “Fine. Go eat and be back in thirty minutes.”
“We will, sir.” Aeson gave the man a nod, then turned on his heel and fled in the direction of the front doors without looking back. Even from here, I could see how tense he was. He really didn’t like that man any more than his brother did.
Miles, Lyric, and I followed him out the doors and to Chaos’s booth, with Sola riding on Miles’s shoulder.
The necromancer was already opening the door, looking like he was escaping prison as he came out with a huge sigh of relief, stretching and breathing like he hadn’t felt fresh air in years.
Even Clucky looked relieved to be out of there as the kid picked her up and let her wrap herself around his neck.
“I didn’t have the chance to order anything, so can I take you to the pizza place across the street?” Miles asked the boys.
They glanced at each other, then looked at Miles, and both said, “Sure. That sounds good.”
It was a little bit freaky and one of the first times their twin-ness had shone through. It made me snort.
Miles gave them a grin and waved us all on. “Let’s hurry so you guys can sit down for a few minutes. Thirty minutes isn’t enough time when you have to wait for your food to be cooked.”
I agreed but refrained from saying anything since, from the look of the skinny teens, they didn’t really have the option of cooking at home and bringing a packed lunch—or dinner, as the case may be.
I had a feeling Miles and I were about to become very familiar with this museum. From the glint in his eyes, I knew he was making plans—probably to drop off food for them regularly.
I was totally on board.
Lyric would probably offer to bring food too once they heard Miles’s plan.
The five of us hurried across the street, and after Miles asked the teens what they wanted to eat, he went off to order while we snagged a table.
“So what have you guys been up to lately?” I asked after an awkward moment.
Aeson shrugged. “Nothing much. Mostly just trying to get in as many hours as Sharp will let us.”
Chaos scoffed. “That guy’s such an ass. He doesn’t like me. I’ve been trying to build up my necromancer business when I’m not there since I make a lot more doing that.”
Aeson frowned at him. “You know I don’t like it when you do those jobs on your own.”
Chaos sighed. “Yeah, I know, but we need the money.”
Without thinking, I said, “You could always call one of us if you need backup. Miles and I—”
“And me too,” Lyric added.
I continued, “—would come help you as long as we’re not working.”
The twins stared at me like I’d grown three heads. Finally, after what felt like forever but was probably only thirty seconds, Chaos said, “I’m not making you guys go on jobs with me.”
Aeson sent his brother a glare. “Why not? They’re offering.”
“Because it would be ridiculous, and I can’t pay them for their time—”
I interrupted. “You wouldn’t have to pay us. We wouldn’t be doing anything but making sure you’re safe.”
Lyric nodded in agreement. “Seriously, it’d just be helping out a friend.”
Chaos rolled his eyes. “If I get into a bind, I can just raise the dead to get me out of it. It’ll be fine.”
My eyes widened, and Miles sat down beside me, dropping a metal number on the table as he asked, “Why are you raising the dead? And also, you can do that?”
Sola nudged my cheek, then pecked at my hair affectionately like she was upset I’d been apart from her for five minutes.
Lyric looked so excited. “Seriously? Like… you can make zombies? Oh my god, you can totally take over the world.”
Aeson snorted, and Chaos rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched like he was holding back a smile.
Miles asked, “Why do you need to raise the dead?”
“For protection, if I needed it—which I don’t.
And yeah, I can do that. I mean, they basically come back as zombies if I’m in a bind and just need their bodies.
But if I’m actually trying to pull someone back, I can bring their soul back into their body.
It won’t stay there, I can’t like… bring them back to life, but I can bring them back long enough to speak to their families or whatever. ”
“Wow,” Lyric said in awe. “That’s freaking mind-blowing.”
Miles looked as shocked as I did. I’d known the kid was powerful, but I hadn’t realized just how powerful he was.
Miles cleared his throat. “Is that one of the services you do when you’re doing your necromancer stuff?”
He nodded. “Yep. A lot of people want to speak to their loved ones one more time. Most of the time, it’s just to say goodbye, but sometimes it’s to ask where their jewelry is or something like that.”
Huh. I… never really thought of that before. “I thought you mostly did curse-breaking?”
The kid shrugged. “I do that too. Sometimes I do one more than the other, but both of those are the things I do most.”
“What else do you do?” Lyric asked, but before Chaos could answer, our number was called.
Aeson said to Miles, “I’ll help you carry everything.”
Miles grinned at him. “Thanks.”
The two of them—and Sola—got up, and I leaned forward, quietly telling Chaos, “I know you don’t want the help, but please know that Miles, Lyric, and I are here if you need it, okay?
If you have a client you’re unsure of, and Ace can’t go with you, please, please, please call me.
” When he didn’t say anything for a long beat, I asked, “Can you do that? Please?”
He let out a long sigh, then finally gave me a single nod, staring at the table, not meeting my eyes. I watched him for a long time, wishing I could read his mind so I’d know if he meant it or not. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to this kid.
Hell, it looked like things had already happened to him and his brother.
They didn’t look healthy, but I didn’t know what else to do besides give them food.
When we’d met them back at the gnome house, I’d thought they looked underfed. But unbelievably, they looked even worse now.
What in the world were they doing with their money? Why weren’t they feeding themselves? They were clearly working really hard, so… why were they starving themselves?
Before I could open my mouth and possibly offend the kid, Miles and Aeson came back with Sola on Ace’s shoulder this time. They placed three giant pizzas, five large drinks, breadsticks, french fries, and some chicken strips on the table.
It looked like Miles was trying to feed an army.
As usual.
Definitely went a little overboard, but I knew he was feeling guilty that we hadn’t come out to see the kids sooner—see them and feed them, obviously.
I honestly felt bad too, but there was nothing we could do to change the past. All we could do was be better about making time for them in the future.
Clucky let out a small hissing sound, aimed at Sola when Aeson sat beside Chaos, and Sola ignored her, pecking away at Aeson’s hair.
Ace gave Clucky a few pets, which made Sola pause and make an unpleasant cheep.
Aeson rolled his eyes good-naturedly and petted both familiars, although neither looked happy about it.
I wasn’t sure why they didn’t like each other. Maybe it really was because they both wanted to be loved on by everyone and got jealous? Who knew what the faerie familiars were thinking?
Chaos looked at all of the food, then lifted an eyebrow at Miles—I really wished I could do that—and said, “Really?”
“What?” Miles was trying to look innocent, but he couldn’t quite pull it off. He was the worst liar ever. But it was cute when he tried.
“And what exactly are we supposed to do with all this food?”
My boyfriend shrugged. “Take it home with you for later or tomorrow.”
Lyric snorted but surprisingly stayed out of it, quietly fixing their own plate.
Chaos stared at him for a long moment before Aeson punched his shoulder and rubbed his hands together. “I, for one, am starving, and this smells delicious. Let’s dig in before we run out of time.”
The other teen sighed and grabbed a plate.
I nudged Miles with my shoulder and sent him a small grin that he returned before he went back to worrying his bottom lip.
He was nervous the kids wouldn’t take the food, but even though they were obviously prideful—especially Chaos—I was pretty sure they’d take the food anyway.
At the very least, I was sure we could convince Aeson to take it.
Although, where they were going to put it all was another question. Hopefully, they had their car with them.
I grabbed my own plate and dug in.
We came out of the little pizza place with a ton of boxes, and I wasn’t surprised in the least—no one was—that Miles managed to get the twins to agree to take the food.
We walked them to their car, stuffed the food inside, then headed for the front of the museum.
“Thanks for dinner,” Aeson said with a grin. “I’ll see you guys at nine, right?”
“Yep.” I glanced at Miles and Lyric, saying and asking at the same time, “I guess we’ll just walk around the museum until then. We already have the tickets anyway.”
“Works for me,” Lyric said with a small smile.
Miles nodded, and Aeson said, “Awesome. Make sure you check out the pixie section. It’s weird to me that the pixies didn’t set up there when it’s right by the back door that leads to the gardens. I don’t know how or why they flew all the way to the fourth floor.”
“That really is odd. We’ll check it out.” I gave Aeson a fist-bump, he gave Lyric one, and the kid shot Miles a smile before heading inside.
Chaos said, “Back into my little tunnel of doom.”
“I don’t know how you can stand it in there. I’d get claustrophobic,” Miles said, walking the teen to his ticket booth.
He shrugged. “It’s not so bad as long as I have Clucky in there with me.”
The cockatrice gave a little chirp of approval, and a rare smile formed on Chaos’s lips as he opened the booth door and stepped inside.
Miles and I gave him waves, then headed back into the museum and straight for the pixie history area.
Unsurprisingly, the area had an indoor garden with a few real plants and flowers blooming, but there were a ton of fake plants and flowers throughout as well.
Likely because they didn’t have actual pixies tending to this garden, so depending on the season, many of the flowers wouldn’t be in bloom.
There were also life-size figures of pixies all over the place, on flowers, hanging from string, making it look like they were flying around the whole area, or drinking from a pretend pond.
According to one of the information plaques, all the fossils and whatnot that’d been found, pixies really hadn’t changed much. They’d always been tiny, always been the smallest faeries in the world—that we knew of—and always shed dust wherever they went.
“Do you think they didn’t like it here because of the little pixie figures?” Miles asked as he poked one that was resting on a fake flower.
I thought about that for a minute. “You know, that’s a good point. They probably didn’t appreciate all the fake flowers either.”
“Definitely not.” Lyric poked another fake pixie that was hanging close to their face. “Pretty much all faeries hate anything plastic. At least that’s what I read…?” They looked at Miles for confirmation.
“True.” Miles hummed. “I don’t think we’ll know anything unless someone figures out how to speak pixie.”
I snorted. “Agreed. Want to look at the next area? I think it’s gremlins.”
“Ohhhh. I like gremlins.” Lyric turned and started walking away.
Miles said, “As long as we avoid the gnome area, I’m game with whatever.”
I barked out a laugh. “Don’t worry, Sidekick, I wouldn’t do that to you.”
He smiled and nudged me. “Good.”
I held out my hand, giving him the option. Even though my touch helped ease the empath noise, sometimes when he got overwhelmed, he didn’t want to be touched, even by me.
That was fine. I wouldn’t lie and say it didn’t suck when he got like that, but mostly because I knew he was suffering, and yeah, I missed his touch.
But I understood too. I didn’t want to pressure him or make him feel bad at all.
So I left the option up to him.
To my utter delight, he pulled off one glove, then slid his bare hand into mine, laced our fingers together, and gave it a squeeze.
My smile was huge. I couldn’t help it. He was so sweet and so trusting, and just… absolutely adorable with his little shy smile.
Leaning over, I kissed his cheek, then pulled him along to follow Lyric to the gremlin exhibit.