Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Miles
Ifroze and turned my gaze back to the kid. He was staring at the dragon egg fossil with shock written all over his face. He even looked a little pale. “Chaos?” He didn’t answer. “Chaos?” Still no answer. “Mortimer?”
That made him snap his head up to me. “Miles, there’s something living in that egg.”
“Wh-what do you mean? It’s a fossil.”
“No…” He shook his head, ignoring both familiars who were perched on the seat on either side of him, both plucking grass and who knew what else off his pixie gear. They kept rubbing against him too, which was really cute.
Win and Ace both turned around from the front seat to face us, eyes wide, and Win said, “But… it’s a fossil.”
That’s what I said. But seriously, what the hell?
“Not anymore, it’s not. There’s a living being in there. I can feel it.”
“What do you mean? Did you touch the egg?”
He rolled his eyes, some of his shock fading as he got exasperated with me. “No. With my magic, dweeb.”
I blinked at him. He was a necromancer. Necromancers dealt with the dead. Which meant… he probably really could feel if the egg had a live dragon in there or not.
“Miles?”
I startled. “What?”
He bit his lip, making a strange face before he sighed.
“Before, I could feel the dead, uh, dragon body or whatever you want to call it in there. It was nearly fully formed, from what I could tell, but it was definitely dead. It was a fossil.” He met my eyes.
“But I’m telling you that right now, that thing is alive.
There’s a living baby dragon in there, and it’s almost ready to break free. ”
“Oh my god, a baby dragon?” Aeson sounded so excited, but all I could do was stare at his brother.
Chaos nodded. “A baby dragon.”
My eyes were as wide as saucers. “Holy shit. You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack.”
“You’re sure?”
“One hundred percent. That’s not a fossil anymore.”
Win asked, “But… how? How could it go from being a thousand-year-old fossil to… not?”
Ace murmured, “That’s insane.”
Chaos shook his head, then turned his gaze toward the pixies swarming our truck. “Honestly, I don’t know, but I’m guessing they had something to do with it.”
I stared out at the pixies for a long moment, thinking about them. Thinking about their magic. They grew things, they made plants and trees and flowers stronger, prettier, healthier, and they lived longer. Sometimes they could even bring plants back to life.
Bring plants back to life.
Holy. Shit.
I lifted the dragon egg up, holding it against the sunlight so I could make out the creature inside. I could see its outline, see its head, see its tail, see a wing.
And then it moved.
“Ahhhhh!”
I startled so badly I almost dropped the damn thing, and the kids laughed at me.
Holy shit.
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
The dragon baby was alive!
“What? What happened?” Win sounded panicky as he searched the truck, looking for an enemy—or perhaps more pixies.
With my empath magic, I reached out to the egg, trying to see if I could sense a living being in there, even though I’d just seen it move.
Peace. Calm. Contentment.
Holy. Crapola.
There was a fucking baby dragon inside that egg!
“Holy fucking shit!” I shouted at Chaos. “It’s alive!”
“Told you.”
“But… but how?” My body was buzzing with excitement. “Do you think the pixies brought it back to life the way they bring plants back to life?”
“That… kind of makes sense.”
Win said, “It at least makes sense why they’re being so crazy about it.”
Aeson cleared his throat. “Uh, that’s true. Buuuuut… what do we do with it? It can’t go to that other museum. It’s a freaking baby dragon. What’s gonna happen when it hatches?”
I grimaced and stared at the egg for a long moment. “I guess I’m taking it home with me until I can find a sanctuary or a zoo that can take it.”
Aeson leaned over the seat, staring at me intensely. “Will they let you, though? What if they try to take it?” He looked so concerned.
I thought about that for a second before a slow smile spread over my face.
“After what happened with Sola, I decided to look into getting an emergency housing license for faeries. Since I own a rehoming pest company, it was easy to get. Technically, I’m allowed to take any faerie I find that’s either not being taken care of properly, is in an unsafe place, or any we find on the job.
I highly doubt the museum has the proper paperwork for a dragon.
You don’t need a special license for pixies, so… ” I trailed off with a shrug.
Aeson’s grin was wide. “That’s awesome. Oh my god, that’s seriously perfect.”
I shot him a smile, then glanced down at the egg. “Would one of you mind doing some research on the proper way to care for a dragon egg? I might have to buy some supplies on the way home.”
“On it!” Ace yelled before sliding back into his seat with Win looking at him with a fond smile.
Chaos cleared his throat. “You know… if it’s really as old as the plaque upstairs says, that’s not gonna be like the small dragons we’re used to. It’s gonna be as big as a house when it’s fully grown.”
Everyone froze and stared at him, my eyes widening in horror.
Fuuuuuuuucccckkkkkk. He was right. This wasn’t a small dragon. It’d be humongous as an adult. Who the hell was going to take a dragon that big?
“Shit.”
He snorted. “Yeah. Shit.”
We all sat on that for a few minutes before Win said, “Okay. There’s nothing we can do about that now. Let’s just worry about what the egg needs right this second, and we’ll figure everything else out as it comes.”
I nodded. “Good plan.”
My boyfriend sent me a small smile. “Do you want me to call Sharp and tell him he can’t take the egg?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’ll handle it, if someone else wants to hold the egg?”
Chaos opened his mouth, probably to agree, but Aeson beat him to it, practically yelling, “I’ll hold it!”
My eyes widened at his enthusiasm, but I didn’t hesitate to pass it over the seat as carefully as I could.”
Chaos said, “I can take over doing research. Did you start a supplies list, Ace?”
As the two of them made plans and a shopping list for me, I pulled out my phone, took a breath, and called Sharp’s direct number.
He answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“Hello, Mr. Sharp, this is Miles, the exterminator.”
“Did you get the egg? Should I come out to my car to drive it away?”
I cringed a little and held in my sigh. “I’m sorry to say this to you, but the egg isn’t a fossil anymore.”
There was a pause, and I honestly couldn’t blame him, even though I didn’t like the guy. “I’m sorry, what? What in the world does that mean?”
“It means that the pixies brought the baby dragon inside the egg back to life. This isn’t a fossil anymore. It’s a live dragon egg.”
There was another pause. “Are you kidding me with this bullshit?” I winced because now the mean-asshole-manager was coming out.
“Do you really expect me to believe that? I thought you were a professional! And now you’re trying to steal a fossil from me?
You better get yourself a good lawyer, Miles, because I’m calling the police, you good for nothing piece of—”
Winter pulled the phone from my hand—I hadn’t even realized he was listening—held it up to his ear, and said, “Mr. Sharp, before you call the authorities, why don’t you come and examine the egg for yourself.
We’re in the Carry A Faerie truck. It’s the one surrounded by pixies.
You can come out here and take a look, or we can call the authorities ourselves and report you keeping a dragon egg illegally on the property.
” He paused for a moment, and even though the phone wasn’t on speaker, I could hear Sharp’s raised voice, but the words weren’t clear.
“Uh-huh. Come out to the truck, and we’ll sort it out. ”
It was a fiasco getting Sharp to the truck. Win drove around the block a few times in order to lose a good bit of the pixies, but we were still surrounded when we came back into the parking lot.
Win went out to get Sharp, giving him my own mask but not the rest of the gear. Maybe that was petty, but I didn’t actually care if the man ended up with bad allergies for the rest of the day. He was a jerk, and he was mean to Chaos and Ace, so he deserved to suffer a little.
Ugh. I never did things like that.
By the time he made it into the truck—sitting beside me with Chaos on my other side so he didn’t have to sit beside the jerkface—he had some dust on his clothes, but he wasn’t too bad. Win had done a great job covering him with the repellent and nets.
As soon as everyone was inside, the doors shut, and Chaos had caught the few pixies that’d made it into the truck, Sharp said, “Let me see the egg.”
Aeson hesitated for a moment, then lifted it up between the front seats so Sharp could see it more easily. He went to take it, but Win quickly turned the interior light on, so I pointed at the dragon we could now see inside the egg.
“Watch. You’ll see it move in a second.”
We all waited with bated breath, and I prayed the little guy moved a lot so we could prove our point, get this dickhead out of my truck, and take the egg home.
We didn’t have to wait long. The little body inside wiggled, then it looked like it stretched big, and Sharp gasped loudly.
“Holy shit.” He turned to me. “You weren’t lying.”
“Nope. I don’t lie, especially not about something like this.”
“Is that really the same egg?”
I lifted a brow. “Where in the world would I get a dragon egg? And why would I buy one—which would’ve probably cost more than my house—just to, what? Steal your fossil? That doesn’t even make any sense.”
He grimaced and stared at the egg some more as Ace rested it on the console, still in sight of Sharp, but where the teen could kind of cuddle it. He seemed attached to the thing.
He was very clearly an animal person.
After a minute of the four of us looking at each other while Sharp just… sat there, he finally said, “I can tell it’s the same egg from that butterfly-like pattern on the side.” He pointed at a blotched spot on the egg that really did look like a butterfly. “Okay. So… what do we do now?”
“I’ll take the egg with me and find a sanctuary willing to take a baby dragon.”
I had a feeling I’d be searching for a long time and might even have to travel to the other side of the world with a baby dragon in tow to find a place. I didn’t think anywhere close to here would have the capacity to take care of an ancient, giant dragon.
“What? What are you talking about? You can’t take it with you.”
Okay then… angry Sharp is back. Sigh.
As calmly as possible, I said, “You’re not licensed to handle faeries or their eggs. This is clearly a living being, so I’m taking it with me to ensure that it’s handled with care.”
“You-you… you can’t just take my fossil!”
“This isn’t a fossil. Not anymore. Do you really want a baby dragon hatching in your garden?”
The man spluttered for another few seconds. “But… but you can’t… how the hell will I explain this to the board?”
“I can’t answer that for you, Sharp. But if you want to call the police or whoever to come investigate, you’re going to get in trouble for keeping a dragon egg on museum property without a permit.”
He looked shocked and upset.
Good.
“I have a license to handle anything related to faeries, and I have a temporary housing license for any faeries I bring home. I promise you, I’ll take good care of this little guy until I can find it a good home.”
“But…”
“Look, you can call whoever you want and double-check with them, but I’m only waiting a little while before I take this guy home. He needs to be kept somewhere warm, wrapped up in a blanket nest or something. So make your calls, and we’ll be right here while you do.”
He let out a long sigh. “Can I stay in here while I call people? I don’t want to go back and forth with all the pixies out there.”
“That’s fine.”
It’d be super awkward, but we’d get through it.
While he made phone calls, I leaned closer to the twins and Win and quietly asked, “Are you guys off work yet?”
Aeson said, “Sharp closed up early, apparently. A co-worker texted me to let me know. So we’re good to go after this.”
I gave him a nod. “Good. Do you guys want to come back to my house to shower and clean up again? You can help with the egg if you want, and Ace can visit Confetti too.”
Chaos rolled his eyes, but I could see a small smirk. “And let me guess… you can feed us dinner?”
“Well… since you mentioned it, yes. For sure.”
That made both kids chuckle, and Win shot me a sweet smile. I wanted to kiss him, but I couldn’t really reach him from here, and since I still had the pixie gear on my bottom half, I couldn’t really move around much. Ugh.
Finally, Sharp hung up the phone with a sigh and said, “Looks like you’re taking the egg with you. I’ll have some paperwork drawn up that I’ll need you to sign, and I’ll need you to send us some pictures of the egg and of the hatching.”
“Is a video okay?” Aeson asked. “I want to record the dragon hatching.”
Sharp looked annoyed at Aeson, but all he said was, “That’s fine. It’s late, and I know you need to get out of here, so I’ll email you the paperwork, if that’s alright with you?”
“Yep. That’s fine. My email is on my card, if you still have it?”
“I do.”
“Great.”
The man sighed again. “Would one of you help me to my car? I’ve already locked up, and I’m… done.”
“Sure thing,” Win said. “Let me know when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now.”
“While you do that, I’ll release the pixies in the nets.”
Everyone passed me their nets, and when Sharp exited the car, I went out after them. I took the pixies over near the garden and let them go. I wasn’t even surprised when they immediately attacked me.
“Win!” I yelled as I ran back to the truck.
He was done helping Sharp to his car, so he ran over to help me as well.
We made a run for it and scrambled back into the truck.
Once again, a few pixies found their way into the truck, but we quickly took care of them.
Well, actually, Sola and Clucky ate them that time, but I no longer cared.
They were good for the familiars, and they kind of deserved the treat.
Okay, so I actually did care, and I cringed in disgust when they did it, but I couldn’t focus on that. We had an egg to get home.
“Are you okay to drive, Win?” I asked before he could pull out of the parking spot.
“Yeah. I feel completely fine.”
“You sure? You seemed out of it earlier.”
“I’m good, promise.”
He did seem fine, and I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t risk us if he felt off even a little. So I nodded and put my seatbelt on.