Chapter 32 #2
I looked over my shoulder at him. “I’ve been practicing my shield since you showed me how to make one, but I can’t make it move with us.”
“That’s okay.” Chaos shrugged. “I can do the shield, no problem.”
I hated that I couldn’t do it myself, but I definitely appreciated our little necromancer friend. “That would be really helpful. Thank you.”
He nodded, a frown on his face—or at least, his eyes looked frowny.
“I won’t be able to throw a shield over the actual nest since there’s so many pixies there.
They’d just get trapped inside with us, which would suck.
But I can take you right up to it, and then one of us can pop out, grab the egg, and pop back in. ”
“Sounds like a plan. Ace, can you help Win while I grab the egg?”
“Sure.”
I nodded at him, then looked at Chaos. “Whenever you’re ready, kiddo.”
He gave a nod. “Ready.” Then I felt and saw a surge of his magic surround us in a golden haze. A shield.
I couldn’t help but poke it.
“Ouch,” Chaos hissed out.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Did that hurt you?”
To my surprise, he laughed. “Nah, I was just messing with you.”
With a snort and a roll of my eyes, I motioned for us to continue. We moved slowly so Chaos wouldn’t drop his shield. When the little jerks started dive-bombing us, they hit the shield instead, and I could see the strain it was taking on Chaos.
“Can I help you?” I asked when we were only a few feet away.
“Grab the egg first. You might have to help on our way out of the gardens.”
“Okay.”
When we were within three feet of the nest, I passed Winter—and Sola—off to Aeson. I felt the kid’s hand brush against my chest briefly, and I swore I felt… warmth there for a moment and my ribs didn’t hurt as bad. Had Aeson… healed me a little?
Shaking that away since I had more pressing issues to worry about, I stood at the edge of the shield closest to the nest.
Chaos said, “I’ll count to three, open up a small space for you to slip through, and then you need to grab that thing as fast as possible and get back inside.”
“Got it.” I took a deep breath and shook out my arms. It wasn’t going to be easy because there were probably two hundred of the little shits flying around the nest, circling it like sharks.
“Ready?”
“No, but let’s do it anyway.”
“Alright. One… two… three, go!”
Chaos opened a hole large enough for me to fit through—even with the bulky gear—which was good for me, but I had a feeling some pixies were going to slip right in and hurt the three of them.
Which meant I needed to hurry.
The second I was out from under the shield, the pixies attacked me, but I kept spraying and spraying and spraying, trying to at least keep a clear line of sight to the egg.
It didn’t work. The repellent wasn’t strong enough to keep a determined—and they were hella determined—pixie away. It did make them slow down, just a tad, but that was all I needed to take two steps to the nest.
When I reached for the dragon egg fossil, the tinkling bell screams went up at least five notches, and I really wanted to cover my ears with my hands. But I couldn’t, so I did my best to ignore it.
The amount of pixie bullets I was getting hit with was so high the air was knocked from my lungs once again.
My hands wrapped around the dragon egg fossil, and I pulled.
But it didn’t budge.
So I pulled again.
Nothing.
Holy shit, did this thing get heavier or did the pixies somehow… glue it to their nest?
My visor was fogging up after all of this, so it wasn’t easy to see. I wiped it off with one hand, then grabbed the egg and pulled again. “Ugh.” Sharp pains spiked through me, coming from my ribs… where the little asses were hitting me over and over and over.
It was like they knew that was where I was hurt.
Chaos was right. These little bastards were a lot smarter than we’d thought.
“Fuck. I’m not gonna hurt your stupid fossil!”
I pulled again, and I finally saw the problem. The pixies had wrapped the egg up with some vines, tying it to the nest the same way they’d trapped Win to a tree.
What a pain in the ass.
I pushed off a few of the vines, then tugged again. It moved a little, but I had to push more vines off.
“Oof. Ick. Ah. Fuck.”
Those little dicks were really hurting me.
Suddenly, the pixies screamed, and I saw liquid raining down over the top of me. I glanced over my shoulder and saw Win standing there, spraying the hell out of the pixies with one hand while wielding a net in the other.
How the hell was he helping me when I’d had to hold him up two minutes ago?
Aeson had been holding him up.
Aeson… who I was sure had some kind of magic.
Was he a healer or something?
“Go! Come on, Miles!” Win yelled over the screaming.
As quickly as I could, I pulled the rest of the vines off the egg, and finally, finally, I was able to lift the damn thing. I cradled it to my chest, curled over it like I was protecting my young, and dashed under Winter’s arms and back into the shield.
A moment later, Win was back inside too, and Chaos sealed off his shield. I glanced at the kids, each with a familiar on their shoulder, each looking determined.
There were about fifteen pixies stuck inside with us, but Aeson was using a net to catch the damn things. Thank god. This egg was a lot heavier than I remembered it being, and I wasn’t sure I could hold onto it with one arm without dropping it, especially if I was trying to catch pixies with a net.
The last thing we needed was me breaking a valuable fossil that belonged to the museum… in front of the pixies who’d been guarding it with their lives.
I turned to Chaos, and the poor kid suddenly looked pale. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Just… push your magic into the shield. I’ll guide it if you can give me a boost.”
I nodded, closed my eyes for a breath, then opened them and pushed my empathic magic out of my body. My magic released from me, surrounding me in a purple haze before I directed it out to Chaos’s shield.
Purple met gold, and as Chaos absorbed the energy I was willingly offering him, the two colors mixed and swirled together around us.
“Wow,” Aeson said. “That looks so cool.”
Well, I guessed everyone could see it then.
Chaos gave me a nod. “Thanks. I should be able to hold it until we get to the car.”
It was slow-going because moving a shield was difficult business, and so many pixies kept rushing us and bouncing off the shield that it was hard to see where we were going. We didn’t want to hurt them, but I was glad Chaos was here and able to use his magic in this way.
Finally, we made it to the gate and paused there. Chaos’s shield would never fit through the gate. Crapola.
“I have to drop the shield. Can we make a run for the truck?”
It was the closest vehicle between the two of us, and could fit us all, so I nodded. “Yeah. That works.” I carefully dug the keys out of my pocket and passed them to Winter. “You two run to the car, and Chaos and I will follow.”
“I’m not leaving you to deal with the pixies.” Win looked so pissed.
I rolled my eyes. “There’s no sense in all of us getting bruised up again. You two go, then I’ll run to the other side of the parking lot with the egg. The pixies will follow me while Chaos runs for the car, and then I’ll circle back and jump in.”
“That leaves you unguarded that whole time.”
I shot him a grin I wasn’t really feeling. “I’ll be fine, Win. We need to get the kids to safety first. Ace, keep Sola with you.”
He looked so torn.
“Go, Win. You’re wasting time and Chaos’s energy.”
He grimaced. “And yours. Fine. Come on, Ace.”
Aeson nodded, and Chaos opened a small hole in the shield so his brother could unlock the gate. It took him only a few seconds, and with a nod to Win, the two of them went running.
Only a few pixies followed them. Most of them stayed where they could see me since I had what they wanted.
We watched Win and Ace get into the car, and then I took a breath and faced Chaos. “Are you okay with this plan? You can go first if you want?”
He shook his head. “It makes more sense if I go last so you’re not just standing here, exposed. Plus, I can probably make a personal shield that will fit through the gate.”
“Good idea. Alright, let’s get this over with.”
Chaos opened the shield, and I dashed out as fast as my feet could carry me. I turned away from the truck, and I heard about a billion bells behind me. Shit. They were gonna catch up to me in no time.
As I reached the end of the parking lot, Win yelled, “Chaos is in! Get back here!”
I made a wide berth so I didn’t run into the swarm and headed for the car.
A ton of pixies dive-bombed me, and I yelped, but I didn’t stop.
Run, run, run, run.
Push, push, push, push.
You can do this.
You can do this!
Sola and Clucky both came swooping down above my head, cutting off the swarm and giving me a real chance.
Win opened the truck door with pixie repellent and a big net in one hand, and he came running toward me, trying to ward off the little buggers.
I didn’t want him getting hurt either, so I used every last ounce of energy to move my feet faster, and before I knew it, I was hopping into the back of the truck.
Sola and Clucky both flew in right after me, toppling into Chaos in the back seat.
Someone slammed the door shut as Win hopped into the driver’s seat.
A handful of pixies were in the car, but Chaos, who was sitting beside me, quickly swiped them up with a small net he must’ve found in here.
We all sat there, in shock, out of breath, and bruised.
And I, for one, was so damn grateful this was over.
And it was over.
We had the dragon egg fossil. The pixies would go back to normal in a few days, and we would never have to go inside those damn gardens again.
We all took the masks and head coverings off, and since I was going to have to clean the truck out anyway—I didn’t think to put tarps down ahead of time, like an idiot—I just told everyone to drop them on the floor.
I tugged my arms out of the top of the suit, but there wasn’t enough room to get it off my ass and legs. So… we all sat in the truck in disarray, looking exhausted, covered in bruises, with our hair sticking up all over the place.
Chaos turned sharply toward the dragon egg fossil with a gasp. “Holy shit!”
“What? What’s wrong?” I glanced around, looking for some incoming ghosts or ghouls or some other horrible thing from the way he gasped.
Oh god, were there more pixies in the car? Did some of them figure out how to get inside or something?
Please tell me they didn’t get inside the truck. Ugggghhhh.
“It’s alive!”
I kept scanning our surroundings, looking for whatever threat the kid saw, but all I could see was the inside of the truck and a million pixies circling us outside.
“What’s alive?”
Shit, he didn’t see a fucking assassin vine or something like that, did he? That was the last thing we needed right now.
“The egg! It’s alive!”