Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Miles
Winter and I stared up, continuing to push the other pixies away, for a long moment before he finally turned to me. “Um, so… you might not like this idea, but… do you think your empath magic could work? Can you make them calmer and make them feel like we’re safe?”
Oh.
Oh shit.
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
What an absolute dork.
“Um… worth a try, I guess.”
He sent me a smile that I could barely see through his mask since it was getting foggy after breathing heavily for so long. My mask wasn’t any better.
Since bonding with Sola, my empath abilities had been… enhanced. So maybe this would have a chance of working, even with this many pixies in the room.
Winter had noticed how strong I was getting before I had, but I hadn’t really played around with it too much.
After all, who wanted to feel every single emotion of the people around them?
The pixies were far away now, but I was pretty sure I could reach them from here.
Ignoring the irritating pixies around us, I closed my eyes and concentrated on my magic.
I could tell that Winter was doing everything in his power to keep his null-ness to himself, which I appreciated for this task.
Where he stood was almost like a black hole, a big space where no emotion existed. I sorta wanted to fall into that space.
But I’d have to wait until we were home for that.
As I pushed my magic outside of myself, I knew that those who could see magic would see purple mist swirling out of me, reaching out to every being in this room, and wrapping around them.
I picked up the emotions of every pixie around me.
Anger.
Fear.
Fear, fear, fear.
Anger.
Terror.
Horror.
Those emotions were awful and amped up my own natural anxieties, but I ignored that as best I could. Instead, I focused on a soothing calm, one that said we were friends, one that said we could be trusted.
Once I had that centered, I pushed it out slowly.
As my magic hit each pixie, their emotions were replaced with my calm, and they stopped attacking us.
Thank goodness.
It took a few minutes for me to reach the pixies carrying the egg since there were so many on the ground level. But eventually, those pixies began to calm as well.
Once they were in my thrall, so to speak, I decided to push my luck a little.
I pulled magic from Sola—she may’ve been across the room, but we would always be connected, no matter the distance—and put the command come back down into my magic.
I’d never tried to control anyone like that before, so I wasn’t sure it would work.
It felt a little… icky, like I was controlling other beings, but I had to remind myself that this was for their own good. If Winter and I didn’t get them out of here, some other exterminator might come along and poison them all, just to get the job done.
I wasn’t about that life, and I wasn’t about to let these pixies suffer simply because they were inconveniencing people. Well, they were injuring them too, but they couldn’t help their protective nature.
Come down.
Please come down.
We won’t hurt you.
We want to help you.
Come down.
Slowly, the egg carriers descended toward us. I kept up a steady stream of calm and trust as they did so.
When they were within reach, I lifted my hands to grab the egg, and that seemed to snap them from their spell.
One of the little critters screamed in their bell-like way, and the others followed before they began lifting the egg again.
But I was prepared this time.
I grabbed the large net from my back and swiped it in the air, aiming for the whole lot of them.
My aim was true, pixies, dragon egg, and all. Yes!
“Hell yeah!” Winter yelled.
As soon as I scooped them up, I tugged on the button that cinched the top of the net closed so they couldn’t escape. Then I let out my own, “Whoop!”
Winter laughed, then grabbed my hips so I wouldn’t fall as I balanced the pixies and egg. They were very, very, very angry now, so they were flying all around, trying to escape, trying to rip open the net, yelling with their bell-like voices at me, and making the net sway in my grasp.
Winter collected as much of the pixies’ nest as he could manage, throwing it in a net, but he let go of me so his null-ness didn’t make me lose the thrall of the rest of the pixies.
The ones in the egg net were flapping around like maniacs, so I held it with two hands as we slowly made our way out of the exhibit.
The other pixies were still under my spell, and they easily followed behind us, no longer attacking, only wanting to be with their fellow pixies and the egg.
As we walked around the huge dragon skeleton, I called over to the others, “Head down in front of us so the pixies don’t dust you.”
“Do you need help?” Aeson called over.
“We’re good, but thanks.” I sent him a grin that he probably couldn’t see because of the distance and my mask.
He grinned back, although it was hard to see since I could only see his eyes. I’d convinced him, Chaos, Lyric, and Sharp to wear masks, just in case the pixies got close to them.
“I guess the elevator’s out of the question?” Winter asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m positive there’re a few stranglers behind us, and I don’t want them getting lost on the way down. They need to be able to follow the trail.”
“Makes sense. To the stairs we go… for the millionth time today.”
I snorted. “Our legs are gonna be in great shape after this.”
He chuckled. “Truth.”
We went down the first set of steps, and I was out of breath. Holding the damn net up and fighting against the little boogers inside was no easy feat.
At the top of the next set of steps, Winter asked, “Want me to take it for a little bit?”
I almost said no. I was strong and capable of doing this myself. But then I realized how stupid that sounded, even in my own head, and my arms were hurting, so I relinquished control of the net, passing it to him.
Our fingers brushed, and we both gasped as my hold on the pixies dropped away faster than an anchor at sea.
“Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” Win yelled as he ducked out of the way of dive-bombing pixies.
His expression was so horrified that I couldn’t help but laugh at him. It bubbled out of me before I could stop it, and Win froze, staring at me in shock.
“Are you laughing at me?”
I snorted. “Nope.”
“Miles! You butthead!”
That made me laugh harder. “I’m sorry!”
“Oh my god. You’re laughing at me.” He tried to sound affronted, but he was laughing too as he dodged another swarm. “Can you please calm them again?”
With a few more chuckles, I sent out my empathic magic, calming the pixies.
Win straightened up and brushed his suit off. “Well… that happened.”
I snorted out a few more chuckles and scooped up the net with the nest pieces that he’d dropped. “Come on, Mr. White Knight.”
He sighed, but I could tell he was amused too.
This net was so much lighter, I could swing it over my shoulder without worry, thank goodness.
I kept sending out calming vibes through my magic so the other pixies didn’t attack us. Again.
It took a while to make it down the steps with Winter and me passing the nets back and forth—and Win was super careful not to touch me and break my spell again—but we finally made it into the garden outside in the back of the museum.
The gardens were one of the biggest draws of the museum.
They had a few acres with flowers, rare and common, with walkways and ponds and gazebos and all kinds of things.
The gardens here were beautiful, they always had been. But under the care of the very large pixie mischief, it had flourished to unbelievable levels. Honestly, I could spend my entire day here with ease. It was gorgeous and felt… peaceful and welcoming.
Which was a far cry from the dragon egg pixies.
Maybe that was why they’d left their mischief in the first place. Maybe they hadn’t fit in or something.
I had no idea if pixies worked that way, if I was being honest, but I supposed it was a possibility.
“Over here,” Aeson called out. “We have a spot in one of the gazebos. We put a few things in there already, but Win can put the nest stuff there, and we’ll close it off to visitors. There are plenty of other spots they can sit in the gardens.”
“That sounds perfect, Ace,” I said, holding tight to the net.
“You good?” Winter asked quietly.
I nodded. “Yep. Go ahead and put the nest down for them.”
He gave a nod before walking ahead of me. It only took him a minute or two to get things situated.
“We’re ready.”
“Ace, Chaos, Lyric, and Sharp, you guys need to move away from the gazebo. As soon as I release these pixies, they’re going to go nuts and attack us. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
It was another minute before Winter popped his head out of the gazebo, his pixie gear looking worse for wear. “They’re gone. It’s just me and you, baby.”
I rolled my eyes but walked into the gazebo. My eyes widened at the beauty of this gazebo—I was surprised Sharp had been willing to sacrifice it in order to keep the pixies—but I quickly put the netted egg in the center of the new nest.
“You ready? We need to make a run for it when I open it.”
Winter nodded. “I’m ready. Count of three?” With my nod, he started the countdown. “Three… two… one… go!”
I opened the net, then let go of it—part of it was stuck under the egg, and I’d rather lose the net than fight the pixies again for it—and pushed Winter toward the exit.
I was hot on his heels, the sound of furious bell voices ringing behind us and following us through the garden.
When I saw the others up ahead, I yelled, “Run! Go! They’re still chasing us!”
There were looks of shock all around, but it only took them a brief moment to get their wits about them and start running.
All six of us ran all the way to the outdoor garden exit. Sharp had to pull out his keys to unlock the gate, and Chaos kept going, “Hurry, hurry, hurry. They’re coming! They’re right behind us!”
Finally, Sharp got the gate open, and we ran out, shut it behind us, and locked it up tight.