18. CHAPTER #3
“What?” Indy shrugged innocently. “I want a caramel frappe with two shots of espresso.”
“Have you tried that new cookie crumble one? It is to die for.” Nyp smiled as he snapped his fingers, and the big wooden door with the sign hanging on the knob appeared as before.
THE FANTABULOUS MISTER ENIGMATICA MISINGNO IS:
IN
“Excellent! He’s home.” Nyp hummed cheerfully as he opened the door and walked through to the sunny beach.
He had a skip in his step as he led them toward the big pinecone house.
“Coffee will be so much fun! We can catch up. Gossip! I was honestly wondering if you were ever going to answer my calls—”
“It’s almost as if I don’t like you,” Mr. Heiss grumbled.
“What? C’mon.” Nyp laughed. “We’ve been friends for years!”
“Oh, this is nice!” Gammy looked all around with wide eyes. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Faerie. Aw, look at the sand! Oh, the waves! I can’t even remember the last time I went to the beach. We should go to the beach. Back home, I mean.”
“I don’t think I can bring a TV to the beach,” Indy teased.
“We can watch things on your phone, can’t we?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Quiet.” Mr. Heiss grabbed Indy’s shoulder, stopping him a few yards away from the house.
“Ow, what?” Indy squirmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Stay here.”
“Oh, the fuck I think not!” Indy tried to step forward, but his feet melted into the sand and secured him in place. “Asshole!” He teetered forward and had to catch himself on his hands. “What is going on?”
Mr. Heiss stalked ahead toward the house, and it was then that Indy realized the front door was wide open. He strained to see more, but he couldn’t make out anything from his current view stuck there on the sand.
Nyp was right behind Mr. Heiss like a dumb puppy, but he cringed once they reached the front porch. “Oh… Well, that’s not good.”
“No shit.” Mr. Heiss pulled out his phone, turning away with a sour scowl.
“What’s not good? No shit what? What the hell is happening?” Indy groaned in frustration when no one would answer him. “Hey! Gammy! A little help?”
“Right! Of course, sweetie cakes.” Gammy drew a circle in the sand around each of Indy’s feet. She rubbed her hands together and clapped, and the sand dissolved away.
“Thanks!” Indy scrambled into a standing position so he could catch up with the others. He pushed his way past Nyp, but Mr. Heiss blocked him from going any farther. He didn’t understand why until he saw Misingno.
Well, what was left of him anyway.
Misingno was sprawled on the floor in the middle of his doorway, surrounded by a thick pool of black blood. His arms, legs, and head had been ripped from his body, and his limbs were scattered around his torso.
Indy had been about to step on his head.
“The twins need to know about this,” Mr. Heiss said gravely. “It is no small feat to kill a fae.”
“Guess somebody else had the same idea to come ask him about the dream juice stuff,” Indy mumbled.
“It is more likely they were trying to tie up a loose end.”
“By killing a member of the royal family?” Gammy had simply floated through them all to stand over on the other side of Misingno’s body “That seems rather silly.”
Nyp poked his head around Mr. Heiss. “A member of the what?”
“The royal family!” Gammy waved her hand. “Misingno Enigmatica is the eldest son of King Zolrya and The First Man of Bronze Talos.”
“They have children?”
“They have quite a few, as I recall.”
“Absolis and Vilanos are two of them, right?”
“No, no, dear.” Gammy shook her head. “Fae family lines are a bit complicated, but they are not truly related to King Zolrya. I don’t even think they’re related to each other, though they are both princes who rule together over their own kingdom somewhere here in Faerie.
No, hmm, Zolrya and Talos had Misingno, Cryptomis, Gordium, and mmm… Oh! Suzie!”
Indy was curious about the ins and outs of fae family drama, but he was having trouble looking away from the severed head. He felt Mr. Heiss’s hand gently squeeze his shoulder as he stared down into Misingno’s lifeless gaze, but it did little to comfort him.
“Call me. Now.” Mr. Heiss ended the call and gave Indy his full attention. “We can go back if you’d like. You don’t have to be here.”
“No, it’s okay.” Indy reached for Mr. Heiss’s hand. “It’s not my first dead body, but maybe my first one that’s been chopped up into pieces? That’s new. It’s…”
“What?”
“We just saw him. And he was fine. And now he’s dead.” Indy frowned. “It can really be taken from you. At any second. No matter who or what you are. Life, I mean.”
“All the more reason to live it fully, yes?” Mr. Heiss offered a small smile and kissed Indy’s hand. “I do believe that is what someone told me today.”
“Yeah…”
Misingno’s eyes were nothing but vacant pools of black now, and the swirling, blinking colors were all gone—wait, blinking?
Why the hell was Misingno blinking?
Severed heads should be gross, dead, and definitely not blinking.
A rainbow of color returned to Misingno’s eyes, and he grinned. “Oh! Hola. What’s up, every—”
Indy shrieked and kicked Misingno’s head as hard as he could.