Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Miles
By the time nine o’clock rolled around, we’d walked through the entire museum and ended in the dragon area. I was annoyed that we had to go all the way back to our car to get our gear now that we were up here—it was late, and I’d had a long day, so I was tired.
As if reading my mind, Winter said, “Let’s go get our gear now so we don’t have to be here forever.”
“It’s like you’re inside my head.”
He snorted.
“Do you have gear for me too, or am I standing by with the kids?” Lyric asked.
Win said, “I think it’ll be better if you stay with the kids. You can get them out of the way if something goes wrong.”
“If I get dusted and end up in the hospital, I’m kicking your ass, Win,” Lyric said, but they were smiling and caught my eye. “I’ll keep the kiddies safe.”
“Thanks.” After sending them a grateful smile, I pulled out my phone and sent a text in the group chat with the twins, Lyric, Winter, and myself.
Me: We’re going to the truck to get our gear on. Meet us at the front doors after the museum closes so you can let us in.
Aeson: Sounds good. We’re ushering the last group out now.
Me: Great. See you in a few.
I sent a smiley face, a pixie emoji, and a dragon emoji. Why? No one knew.
Probably because I was the biggest dork to ever dork.
I cringed at my last text, but there wasn’t much I could do about it, so I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket.
“Let’s go, lovey.” Winter pulled me along, still holding my hand with Lyric clinging to his other arm. We probably looked like a throuple to others, but I didn’t really care what anyone thought.
Win held my hand almost the entire time, only letting go once in a while to point things out or look at his phone.
I’d never in my whole life had someone who wanted to touch me that much. Ever.
I’d never even held hands with any of my past boyfriends. At least not without my gloves on, and even then, I could only do it for so long before their emotions came through.
“Soooo… Sola,” Winter said. “What are you going to do while we’re getting the egg?”
“Hm. I hadn’t even thought of that.” I gave her a pet with my free hand. “Maybe Lyric or Aeson can hold you while I’m working? What do you think, baby girl?”
She let out a happy trill that made Winter, Lyric, and me laugh.
“Sounds like she likes that idea.” Winter gave her a pet too.
“Sure does.”
“I’m happy to hold that cutie pie anytime.” Lyric smiled. “But I’m pretty sure she’s gonna want Ace again.”
I laughed and shrugged because what could I say to that? They were likely right. But only because it’d been so long since we’d seen the kids, and Sola loved kids to begin with.
We made it outside and to my truck in no time.
Luckily, I kept my pixie suits inside one of the bins in the back.
I tried to stay organized, keeping all my coveralls in one bin, my pixie gear in another, and my other specialized things in other bins, with everything labeled clearly.
My crates were stacked according to size—and sometimes species—and everything else was packed and labeled, leaving room for the crates, cages, and traps we used on a daily basis.
The first time Winter got a good look at my truck, he was impressed, which made me feel warm… or something.
Some people hated how anal I could be about certain things, so I was happy Winter didn’t seem to mind.
In fact, he hadn’t minded any of my quirks. Sometimes it seemed like he even liked them.
Which was weird, but maybe his weird matched my own… at least for now.
I was sure I’d get annoying to deal with eventually.
I pulled out the correct bin, and the two of us slipped the gear on over our clothes.
Because pixie dust was dangerous, we wore something that looked a lot like a beekeeper’s uniform, minus the net on the hat, although we had a hood over our hair.
The main difference was that we also had to wear a mask to keep us from breathing in the pixie dust and to protect our eyes.
We kind of looked like we were wearing all-white HAZMAT suits.
When we were finished and ready to go, Winter stood up and faced me. Since the masks were clear around the eyes, I could see his pretty blue ones when they met mine. We stared for a beat, then both of us burst out laughing.
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen him in a pixie suit, but every single time, I couldn’t help but laugh. He looked ridiculous, like he was ready to go into battle with some giant alien beast, yet I knew we were only going up against little tiny faeries the size of bugs.
And I knew I looked just as ridiculous.
It took a minute, but we were finally over our laughter, so we grabbed some equipment we might need. I passed Lyric some extra masks and gloves for everyone, and we headed back for the front doors of The Museum of Supernatural History.
Chaos, Aeson, and the manager were all standing at the doors waiting, and the twins both chuckled at the sight of us. Although, they held it in because Dexter Sharp was so grumpy.
“You really think you can get the pixies out of the museum?” Sharp asked.
I lifted my mask, placing it on top of my head.
“I do. I think they’ll follow the egg. Pixies can be very protective of their homes and of their young, so they’ll do wild things like push people around to protect their nests.
Right now, those pixies are acting as if that egg is real and they’re protecting a baby dragon. ”
He blinked. “Why in the world would they think it’s real? That fossil is at least two thousand years old. Surely they can tell there’s nothing alive inside.”
I shrugged. “I’m just telling you what I see. I have no idea why they’d choose that egg over anything else in the museum, but they did.”
He pursed his lips. “I… suppose letting them keep the egg is better than a lawsuit.”
Because obviously a lawsuit was more important than protecting people from getting hurt.
Before I could blurt out something rude, Winter stepped in, saying, “You’re right, sir. This shouldn’t take too long, but maybe we can get started now?”
The man’s mustache moved with his harumph, but he nodded in agreement and led the way to the top floor where the dragon section was.
I passed Sola over to Aeson, who lit up like a Christmas tree when my firebird trilled and cuddled into him. It was adorable.
Winter and I checked each other over, making sure no skin was showing and that we had all our other pixie stuff—pixie repellent and multiple large nets on our backs—and then we headed into pixie territory, leaving the others on the opposite side of the exhibit.
“You ready for this, sugar butt?”
“Nope. But let’s do it anyway.”
“That’s the spirit.”
I snorted at that, and even though this wasn’t going to be fun, knowing Winter had my back made it so much better. It made me happy to be here, despite everything else.
We approached slowly, but honestly, we shouldn’t have bothered because the second we stepped over that pixie dust line, the pixies lost their minds.
Suddenly, I was being dive-bombed from all sides, little pixie missiles hitting my body over and over again, their dust so thick it was hard to see through.
Every little hit felt like someone was stabbing me with a pin, like a paper cut. They were such small creatures, but they knew how to fly fast and make themselves hit like a bullet. We were going to be covered in bruises.
Our gear wouldn’t allow them to penetrate through the fabric, but it wouldn’t protect us from the force of their hits, either.
“Oh my god!” Winter yelled. “I can’t see anything!”
“Me either! Use the spray bottle!”
As I said it, I lifted my own spray bottle and began spraying the area directly in front of my face.
The bottles were filled with a mixture of water and cayenne pepper, peppermint, and a spelled cinnamon stick—obtained from a practitioner store—because they couldn’t stand the smell of it.
As soon as a good amount was in the air, the little things began screaming as if they were dying. I would’ve felt bad, only I knew it wasn’t actually hurting them. It was unpleasant, and they deserved it for attacking us.
Although, I supposed I couldn’t blame them for protecting their nest. We were huge predators after all.
But I knew this was one of the only ways we could keep them back because the worst thing for a pixie would be to be sprayed and covered in the repellent scent. So even though they remained near, they didn’t dare come within our spray radius.
“Holy shit, there’s a lot more of them in here than I realized,” Winter said, sounding as if he was coming up for air.
I snorted. “Tell me about it. I knew they’d attack us, but that’s way more than I expected.”
“God, it’s not gonna be easy to get to that egg. They’re going to fight us whether we’re spraying them or not.”
I grimaced in agreement. “They sure will, but let’s get as close as we can.”
He nodded, and we continued to spray the area in front of us as we slowly moved farther into their territory.
The pixies followed us, just on the outside of the spray perimeter.
They were shouting in what could only be described as high-pitched bell sounds, shaking their fists and throwing things at us from a distance.
Thank goodness they hadn’t figured out how to make real weapons or I figured we’d be covered in tiny arrows or little swords.
When we were about five feet from the nest and the egg fossil was almost within reach, the pixie mischief rallied and attacked us again.
I screamed as my finger pulled the spray handle as quickly as possible, but the pixies ignored my assault altogether. From the sounds coming from Winter, he was having the same issue.
The spray wasn’t working anymore—they clearly cared more about protecting their nest and egg than they did about smelling like repellent—and I didn’t know what to do.
I didn’t want to hurt the little critters, but we had to get the pixies out of here before someone ended up with something more serious than a broken bone.
“Fuck!” Winter yelled out. “We need to make a run for it. I’ll try to wave the little buggers off while you grab the egg. As soon as you have it, run. I’ll catch up.”
“Are you sure?” I called back. “I don’t want to leave you and you wind up hurt.”
“I’m sure! I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it, sugar butt.”
I took a breath and reluctantly agreed since there wasn’t really another option. “Alright. On the count of three, run for the nest. I’ll yell when I’ve got the egg, and we both run for the stairs.”
“Got it!”
“One… two… three! Go!”
I ran as fast as I could through the cloud of pixies and their dust, waving my hands in front of my face to try to see where the hell I was. My shins hit the side of the exhibit, and I let out an oomph.
But I didn’t waste any time. Reaching forward, I pushed the nesting materials out of the way—flower and plant matter, along with what looked like a few stolen clothing items likely taken from the lost and found—and grabbed the egg.
The second my hands touched the fossil, the pixies went even more insane. Every single one in the museum screamed out in agony, making me feel awful for about half a second before they all dive-bombed me. So many of them hit me at once that it knocked the breath out of me.
I fell forward, releasing the egg and catching myself on my hands before I faceplanted into the exhibit.
“Miles!” Winter shouted as he reached for me and pulled me up. “You okay?”
Before I could respond, movement caught my eye.
A huge group of at least twenty pixies had surrounded the egg and were slowly lifting it into the air.
“Oh my god!” I shouted, reaching for it.
The pixies zoomed away before I could reach the stupid thing, and I yelled something unintelligible.
“What the fuck?” Winter said, swiping at the pixies still dive-bombing us. “How are they carrying that thing?”
Honestly, the answer was likely simple. They were using their magic.
As much as scientists and people much smarter than me had studied faeries over the years, much of their magic was still a mystery to us, and it likely would be forever.
“Magic,” I murmured as I grabbed Win’s shoulder and used him to help heave myself up into the exhibit.
“What are you doing? You’re gonna get hurt.”
I ignored him for the moment, carefully climbing through the pixie nest and the plant life all around it, ignoring all the damn pixie bullets hitting me over and over.
Seriously, we were going to be absolutely covered in bruises.
I swatted a group out of my face, then jumped toward the egg.
The pixies saw me coming and dodged with an ease that was almost embarrassing—for me.
“Oh, come on.” I sighed. “Win, help me.”
He grumbled but climbed up into the exhibit as well, using his spray bottle like a pro. Thank goodness I’d brought the big bottles for this job. Never thought I’d need that much pixie repellent at once, but here we were.
I stared at the pixies, watching them lift the egg higher and higher until it was above the dragon skeleton’s back.
“Well, shit.” I swatted another pixie away.
“What the hell are we gonna do now?”
“I… have no idea.”