Chapter Twenty-Five
Winter
When we walked up to the ticket booth, it was obvious that Chaos was relieved to see us. Not gonna lie, that was kind of a nice feeling. Especially coming from him.
He was starting to trust us.
At least I hoped so.
I got a closer look at him, and my eyes widened in surprise because his black eye was completely healed. How in the world had it healed so fast? I would’ve thought he’d have that bruise on his face for a couple of weeks, or at least have that yellowy discoloration for a while.
Huh.
Or… was it magic?
I’d had my suspicions about Aeson having magic… could he be a healer?
But I was happy he didn’t have to deal with it anymore. It had to have been painful.
He waved us over and joined us at the door.
“Thanks for coming. Again.”
“No problem.” Miles shot him a smile. “How can we help?”
Chaos sighed. “Honestly, I’m not sure. I know the museum board people don’t want to get rid of the pixies because they’ve always been a big draw for the gardens, but something needs to change so they stop hurting people.”
Miles hummed, clearly thinking through options as Chaos and Clucky came out of the booth to take us inside—without paying for a ticket this time.
Chaos led us straight over to the manager. The man turned, looking grumpy but also relieved to see us. What a far cry from the other night.
“Oh, thank goodness. Thank you for coming,” Dexter Sharp said.
“Of course,” Miles said, and when the guy held out his hand to shake, I intervened, stepping in front of Miles and offering my own hand.
As we shook, I asked, “Why don’t you show us where the problem is?”
He was so flustered he didn’t seem to notice that I’d blocked his handshake with Miles. Miles shoulder-bumped me with a smile, a silent thank you. I winked at him.
Sharp led us back over to the same spot where we’d put the dragon egg fossil the other day, but we stopped down the walkway where someone had put a cone and caution tape to keep the patrons out. At least they were trying to take precautions this time.
“This is about as far away as we need to be. Any closer, and the damn pixies start attacking.”
Chaos said, “They’ve been purposefully dusting people, pushing them, flying into them, and cutting them with their little talons. I’ve lost count of the number of people I had to refund today because they got hurt, and I had to leave the booth a few times to help with first aid.”
That made me wince. “Really? It’s been that bad?”
Chaos nodded. “Yep, and we’ve only been open for three hours.”
Damn. That really was bad. No wonder he’d called us.
Miles had been quiet, so I turned to him and noted the frown on his face. “What’s up? What’re you thinking?”
“I’m just wondering how we’re going to stop them from doing this. Either block off this entire area more permanently or get rid of the egg fossil altogether.”
The manager gasped. “We can’t do that.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you can leave it out here or put it back in the museum’s storage.
Not without having pixies invade the museum again in their search for it.
They’d be able to smell it or follow the magical trail or whatever since they’ve clearly marked it as theirs.
There’s no way you can hide it from them. At least not anywhere nearby.”
The manager’s frown deepened, and he let out a long sigh. “Isn’t there anything else you could do?”
“Not unless you want us to remove the pixies themselves.”
He gasped again, as if that was the most shocking thing he’d heard this century. Wow. He needed to get out more.
Miles added, “We’d take them to a sanctuary far away from here so they can’t find their way back.”
Sharp looked scandalized, but Miles shrugged.
“I’m honestly not sure what else to do. Unless you have a different area you’d like the egg to be moved to, and then block that off, I’m kind of at a loss. I’ve never seen them this aggressive before.”
“Me either.” I shrugged. “They do tend to get a little more active and territorial in the fall when they’re getting ready for winter, but they’re not usually harmful to humans. This is all very strange.”
“Agreed.”
Chaos opened his mouth to add something to the conversation, but a big swarm of pixies suddenly flew out of a nearby bush and headed right for us.
All four of us let out yelps—and a scream in Sharp’s case—as we ducked and covered our heads with our arms. The pixies buzzed right over our heads, spraying us with their dust. A few ran into my arms, leaving tiny cuts and making me hiss, but it wasn’t too bad.
I was more worried about the amount of dust covering our skin.
After they passed by, I slowly looked up, and my nose immediately started to itch.
Chaos sneezed a second before I did, and Miles did right after.
Sharp was on the ground, curled up in a fetal position, whimpering and sniffling—I was pretty sure it was from an itchy nose and not from crying, although I couldn’t see his face.
“What the hell?” Chaos asked. He had his arms spread out, clearly afraid to touch anything and risk contaminating it with dust. “Why’d they do that? We’re nowhere close to that stupid—oh shit! Duck!”
I listened without hesitation, covering my head with my arms again, even though pixie dust got on my face and my eyes started watering. The swarm rushed us again, sprinkling us with even more dust and hitting my arms with their sharp talons.
Ugh. It was like getting hundreds of tiny paper cuts. They weren’t horrible, but they stung and were incredibly annoying. And the dust was dangerous with all the open cuts. It could get into your bloodstream and cause some real damage.
As soon as the swarm was gone, I jumped to my feet, pulled Chaos and Miles to their feet, and said, “Run inside.” As soon as they were headed for the museum, I reached back for Sharp and helped him up. “Get inside. Now!”
He was slow-moving, but at least I didn’t have to carry him. Although, that probably would’ve been quicker.
Aeson’s voice yelled, “Win, duck!”
I pulled Sharp down beside me, covering his body and my head as the swarm flew past us again. More dust and more cuts.
Fuck. This was really going to suck when I got home.
Cleaning everything and making sure nothing got infected was going to be rough. We might even have to run to the doctor’s to get some special cream. Sigh.
Well, maybe not. With Miles’s giant first aid kit, hopefully, he had some oh-shit-you’re-covered-in-pixie-dust cream on hand.
Once that swarm was gone, I pulled Sharp to his feet again, and we ran the rest of the way to the door. Aeson held it open for me and said, “Morty said you guys were behind them, but when you didn’t come right in, I came out to help.”
“I’m glad you didn’t come all the way out there. You’re probably going to have to help all of us since you weren’t dusted.”
He nodded, shut the door, locked it, and put a sign on it saying Garden Closed Until Further Notice.
Good. “Smart thinking.”
He grinned. “Thanks.”
He led us to the manager’s office, and I was relieved that Miles and Chaos were already in there, doing their best to clean the pixie dust off with some wet wipes. It wasn’t a perfect solution—we all needed showers—but it was better than nothing.
I helped Sharp sit in his chair, passed him a package of wipes, then moved over to Chaos and Miles and shared their package. Aeson put a mask and gloves on and started helping his brother.
Surprisingly, Sharp didn’t yell at him to go back to work.
We were wiping ourselves off for a long time.
After a while, Sharp said, “I’m going to run to the bathroom to wash my face and change my shirt. I have an extra here.” He gestured to the shirt hanging on the back of his door. He got up, grabbed his shirt, and left the room.
Miles said, “You guys need to take off for the rest of the day so you can take showers and put cream on. Do you have pixie dust cream at home?”
The twins shook their heads.
Miles nodded. “I have plenty at my house. You guys can come back there and use the shower or whatever if you want. Or you can go home first, then come over, and I’ll give you a tube. Whatever you want to do.”
They did their twin thing, and Aeson said, “You don’t mind if Chaos uses your shower?”
“Not at all.” Miles offered a tired smile. “We can eat lunch too.”
That made Chaos snort and roll his eyes, and Aeson let out an amused huff. “Of course you’d mention food.”
Miles blushed, but he shrugged since he obviously couldn’t deny it. Every single time we saw the kids, he tried and succeeded in feeding them.
When Sharp came back, Miles said, “We’re going to take Aeson and Mortimer home so they can clean up and treat their wounds—”
“But Aeson—”
“Aeson has dust in his hair from helping us. He needs to shower, and his shift is almost over anyway, isn’t it?” Oh, a demanding Miles was… kinda hot.
The man harrumphed—he seemed to do that a lot around us. “Fine.”
Miles gave him a nod. “I’m going to do some research and see if we can figure out a better way to handle the pixies. I’ll give you a call either later tonight or tomorrow so we can make a plan.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“Please keep the garden closed until we figure this out.”
Sharp’s eyes went wide as he nodded. “Yes, definitely. No one’s going out there anytime soon. Not even the garden caretakers.”
“Good. Talk to you soon.”
Miles waved the rest of us out and shut the door behind us before we left the museum. I was surprised the kids hadn’t put up a fight about leaving their shifts early, but I was glad they hadn’t. They must’ve realized how badly Chaos needed to get treated.
We reached our truck, and Miles asked, “Your car’s working now?”
Aeson grinned. “Yep. It’s all good. Picked it up this morning.”
“Good.”
The kids opened their car doors, and Miles winced.
“Hold up, guys. Put a tarp on the seat before Chaos sits down or you’re gonna wind up with pixie dust in your upholstery. And trust me, that’s a pain in the ass to get out.”