Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Winter
Surprisingly, this time, when we got interrupted during a gnome cage pick-up, we got a call from the manager of The Museum of Supernatural History himself… instead of one of the twins.
“The pixies are hurting people again. I thought you took care of it!” he yelled into the phone as soon as Miles picked it up. He was so loud, I could hear him too.
Miles grimaced and put it on speaker so he didn’t have to listen to the man yell into his ear. “Have you checked on the artifact? It should still be working.”
It was true. I didn’t know a ton about artifacts, but I knew that once they were filled with magic, it took years for the magic to run out. It had only been a few weeks.
The man on the other line was quiet for a full thirty seconds before finally admitting, “I can’t find it.”
That made Miles sit up straighter. “What do you mean you can’t find it?”
“I mean that it’s missing. I went to check on it after the pixies pushed a patron down on the sidewalk, and she ended up with scraped-up knees and palms, and… well, it’s not there. It’s not anywhere.”
“What happened to it?”
“I don’t know!” he yelled, then took a breath and spoke at a nicer volume. “I think someone stole it.”
Miles and I exchanged a look before he spoke again. “Well, I suppose I can make another one if Chaos—Mortimer—is amenable, but I don’t know how to ensure it doesn’t get stolen again. That’s something you’ll have to figure out, sir.”
The man sighed. “Honestly, that sounds like a temporary solution. I already had to call the authorities about the artifact, but I highly doubt they’ll be able to recover it, and even if they do, it won’t be anytime soon.
That doesn’t help me right now. Do you know another way to get them to calm down?
I don’t want to have to remove them from the gardens, but I will if we need to in order to keep our patrons safe.
We can’t keep doing this. The museum is going to get in so much trouble if word gets out, and I really don’t want to see anyone else get hurt. ”
“Like I said before, we can try removing the dragon egg fossil altogether and see if that helps. I wouldn’t recommend keeping it anywhere in the museum, though. They’ll just break in again, and we’ll be back to square one.”
The man was quiet for a few seconds before he let out a frustrated growl. “Alright, fine. Do it. Take the damn dragon egg away. I hate losing a fossil like that, but there’s no way we can keep it. Not when the pixies are acting like this over it.”
“I thought the board wouldn’t let you?”
He let out a long sigh. “I’ll handle it. I’ll get permission as soon as we hang up. We’ll probably send the egg to another museum. But how soon can you get here?”
Miles and I looked at each other, and he checked the schedule on his phone. After a few seconds, he said, “We have one more job on the schedule, but it shouldn’t take us long. I have to take our current faeries to the sanctuary before we can come out. We can be there in about two hours or so.”
“That would be perfect. I’ve closed off the gardens again, but I’d still like to get this taken care of as soon as possible.”
“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Great. See you soon.”
Miles hung up with a sigh. “Guess we better hurry.”
I gave his shoulder a squeeze, and we quickly finished loading up the traps we’d collected, shut the truck up, then we went on our way to the next house.
By the time we made it to the museum, I was exhausted from a long day of work—it was after five, and we’d started at seven this morning—and I was starving. It’d been too long since we ate lunch.
But Miles and I wanted to get this over with so we could go home and relax. So here we were.
Sola decided to ride on my shoulder today, which was unusual, but I definitely didn’t dislike it. She kept rubbing her cheek on me and giving me affection, which I appreciated and returned by petting her.
When we walked up to the ticket booth, Chaos seemed surprised to see us. “Um, hi, guys. What are you doing here?”
“Sharp called and asked us to remove the dragon egg because someone stole our artifact,” Miles said.
Chaos straightened. “What? Someone stole our artifact? When?”
Miles glanced at me in surprise before facing the teen and answering.
“Um. He called us almost two hours ago and said the pixies were attacking people again. So sometime before that, I guess? I’m not sure how long the pixies were acting up or whether it would’ve taken time for them to start behaving like that again or what. ”
The kid crossed his arms over his chest, looking really pissed. “Why the hell didn’t he say anything to me about it?”
“I don’t know. You’d think he’d ask you since you helped make it.”
Chaos sighed. “Well, he thinks I’m trash, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”
That made me grimace, and Miles looked pissed off as he asked, “Did he say that to you?”
Chaos shook his head and moved his hair out of his face. “Not with words, no, but I can tell by the way he treats me. He’s not much better to Ace, but he does at least act like he’s a person and not someone without a brain or emotions.” Chaos grinned, but it wasn’t a happy grin at all.
“Is he treating you badly?”
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“No, Chaos, it’s not. If he’s treating you like shit, then you should quit.”
“Can’t. I need the money.”
“I’m sure we can find you something else where your boss isn’t an asshole. Maybe I can hir—”
“It’s fine, Miles. But thanks for your concern.” Chaos shot him a look I couldn’t really interpret, but I was pretty sure it was fond exasperation.
Obviously, at this point, both the kids knew my boyfriend just really wanted to take care of them. Honestly, if he could, he’d probably adopt them on the spot. But I didn’t think their guardian would be happy about that.
Although, if they didn’t care if the kids ate, and they needed money this badly, then maybe they wouldn’t even notice.
Shaking off that terrible and sad thought, I stepped forward, put my hand on Miles’s lower back, trying to convey support and comfort, and said, “Tomorrow’s a holiday, isn’t it? You guys have off from school?”
Sola let out a screech like she was adding to the question.
Chaos looked like a deer in headlights for a few seconds before he nodded. “Yeah, we have off. And neither of us is working tomorrow. Why?”
“Let us take you out for breakfast tomorrow morning. I’d say dinner tonight, but I’m starving already, so I don’t think I can wait until you guys get off work to eat.”
He snorted. “Make it brunch so we can sleep in, and you’ve got a deal.”
“Perfect.”
“Go ahead inside. I’ll text you in the morning.”
“Awesome. Thanks.” I leaned over as close to the glass as I could and caught the end of a tail, so I said, “Nice seeing you, Clucky.”
The cockatrice let out a chicken-sounding buck-buck-buck that made all three of us laugh before Miles and I waved and walked in. By this point, most of the other kids working at the museum recognized us and didn’t seem to care that we’d walked in without tickets.
We went straight for Sharp’s office, but Miles stopped me outside the door.
“Do you think Chaos would want to work with us? Like, as an office manager or something like that?” He frowned.
“No, I guess that wouldn’t work since he’s in school during the day.
But surely I can find something for him to do so he can quit this awful place. ”
God, I wanted to hug him. “You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, and I’m dying to hug you right now.”
His gaze softened. “I’d take it, but we should probably hold off until we leave.”
I let out a sigh, sounding completely put out. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
He grinned and nudged me, then gave Sola a scratch.
“Anyway, what do you think? Could we find something for him to do? Or… maybe we can volunteer to go to his necromancer appointments as backup or something. Then he could do that more and quit working here. Ugh. I don’t know. But we need to think of something.”
“Sugar butt, we’re already helping them with food and stuff.
We’ve been making sure they’re getting food several times a week lately, which I know isn’t enough, but it’s something.
You know how independent they both are, and how proud they can be, especially Chaos.
They’re not going to want us doing too much, not at once.
Let’s just focus on making sure they’re eating for now.
Once they’re used to that, maybe we can revisit the job thing. ”
He sighed. “I know you’re right. He won’t accept anything else from us right now.
I’m honestly considering making them lunches—or dinners or whatever you want to call it—and dropping them off here every day after work.
I could even get some of those heated lunch boxes so they could have hot meals too. ”
That made me grin. I could just picture Miles walking up to the ticket booth with two lunch boxes in hand, trying to convince Chaos to take them.
He probably would in the end—Miles seemed to get his way with them when it came to food—but I doubted the kid would act happy about it.
He’d grump, but then he’d thank Miles and eat every last bite in what I was sure would be an overfilled lunch box.
“I can totally picture that.”
He snorted, then sighed. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
He knocked on the office door, and Dexter Sharp’s voice called out, “Come in!”
We walked inside, and Miles tensed. I wasn’t sure if it was simply because he was now mad at the guy after what Chaos said, or if he was sensing his emotions and didn’t like it.
Just in case it was the latter, I put my hand on his lower back for a few seconds, out of sight of Sharp.
I let Miles take a few breaths, and when he stepped forward, I let my hand fall.
If he needed me again, he’d scoot back, I was sure.