19. CHAPTER
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
“Not cool!” Misingno wailed as his head flew across the porch, bounced, and rolled into the house.
“Indy!” Mr. Heiss hissed.
“Did you—” Gammy squealed and waved her hands. “Oh! That, that was probably bad!”
“I’m sorry!” Indy growled between clenched teeth. “I wasn’t expecting the fucking head to talk! Okay?”
Mr. Heiss scrubbed his hands over his face.
Nyp looked faint.
Misingno’s torso wiggled and flopped, his legs scootching close enough to reattach themselves. His arms were next, and then his headless body was able to push itself up and stand. It wobbled, turned this way and that, and it seemed confused.
“Over here, handsome,” Misingno called out—well, his head anyway. “Little baby steps forward. There we go.”
The body lumbered over and then kneeled to pick up Misingno’s head and put it back on his neck. “Oof, youchers. That wasn’t fun.” He turned around to face them, narrowing his eyes. “Did one of you do this? Because that was not nice.”
“What? No!” Nyp squealed. “Never, never!”
“Don’t lie. I hate when people lie.” Misingno rubbed his neck. “You can’t say never because it still could happen. You might kill me later.”
Nyp choked on air. “What?”
Mr. Heiss bowed his head. “Your Highness, I—”
“Ew, nope. None of that.” Misingno placed a finger over his lips and winked. “It’s a secret.”
“As you wish.” Mr. Heiss cleared his throat. “Do you know who tried to kill you?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you,” Misingno said cheerfully.
“I’d be killing them back. I was home, I was getting ready to make a bowl of ice cream, and then…
Why is it make a bowl of ice cream? I’m not actually making the bowl.
Or the ice cream. Hmm.” His colorful gaze shifted to Indy, and he brightened. “Hi! It’s you! How are you?”
“I’m great,” Indy replied. “How’s your, uh, head?”
“No complaints.”
“So, you didn’t see who killed you? No clues? No nothing?”
“Mmm, no. I’ve been very busy. I’m not sure when they did it.” Misingno shrugged. “I just noticed.”
Indy stared. “You just noticed you were dead and then decided to… not be dead?”
“You got it!” Misingno beamed sweetly. “You are such a cutie.”
“Tha—I mean, I appreciate it.”
“Aw! You’re welcome.” Misingno glanced around at them all. “So, what’s up? Are we having a party? I love parties.”
“We were hoping you could help us track down a dream,” Gammy said carefully. “If not the original owner, whoever traded it or who it was traded to.”
“Oh my God! Love your hair,” Misingno gushed. “I love purple.”
“That is very kind of you, but the dream…?”
“I could probably help you. This is usually when I take a nap, but I’m feeling really refreshed.” Misingno hummed thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s because I was dead. Huh.”
“What would you like to trade for this assistance?”
“Whatcha got?” Misingno’s eyes sparkled, and his chipper expression turned into something hungry. “Better make it good.”
Indy stepped forward. “So, uh. Hey! Sorry about kicking your head. Really sorry about that. So! Dreams. Memories. I have an entire catalogue of erotic filth, embarrassing first times, and—”
“No.” Misingno tilted his head at an odd angle. “I want pain.”
“Well—” Indy stopped.
He did indeed have lots of pain, but he couldn’t share it.
No, no, not now. Not fucking ever.
Not when he had so much to lose.
“No, not yours.” Misingno sneered. “Yours is stupid.”
Indy scoffed, not sure why but he was definitely offended. “Excuse me?”
“It’s stupid. Can you hear me all right?
No, no.” Misingno pointed at Mr. Heiss. “I want his. I smelled it before and I smell it now. That’s what I want.
” He pressed right into Mr. Heiss’s space, nose to nose with him, and he took a deep, shaking breath.
“Oh, that, mmm, yeah, that. That is some scrumptious agony if I ever saw it. Mm, smelled it. Whatever.” He made a grabby motion with his hands. “Gimme.”
Mr. Heiss glared. “No.”
“Aw, why not?” Misingno pouted.
“No.”
“It’s old, too, isn’t it?” Misingno turned his head this way and that as he looked over Mr. Heiss, as if he could somehow divine information from the lines of his suit.
“Very old. You’ve carried it for a long time.
It’s nice and crunchy. Mmm, like toast. Yeah, toast with jam and butter and too much hummus. Yeah, I want it. Give.”
Mr. Heiss scowled. “I said no.”
“You do realize that my asking is merely a formality.” Misingno chuckled, and his eyes turned into pools of black. “I could make you give it to me. It wouldn’t take much at all. Just one wrong word and everything inside that pretty little head would be mine.”
“It is not happening,” Mr. Heiss warned, his own eyes growing brighter.
“I can see it in you. How it eats at you.” Misingno smiled.
“Why not let it go? Hmm? Or… maybe… I can pull at this—” He touched Mr. Heiss’s chest. “Here we go. Ah, there is a little something sweet here. That’s new, isn’t it?
The ache, the affection… Oh—” He grinned over at Indy.
“I see now. I see it very clearly. So, why don’t we—”
Mr. Heiss grabbed Misingno’s wrist, strange slits appearing in his skin and opening to reveal glowing eyeballs as his body bulged against the seams of his suit.
The eyes were luminous shades of purple and blue, flickering as if they were actively on fire and casting strange shadows all around them.
“If you dare touch me again, not even your fucking king will be able to drag you back from the pits of the Celestial I am going to cast you into.”
“Is that a promise?” Misingno leered and bared his sharp teeth as he purred, “Hot.”
Indy had no idea what to do, but this was bad. A demon and a fae about to go at it on a beach could be the plot of some steamy romance smut, but it wasn’t great as a reality that might include being caught in the fray and ripped to bits or turned into flowers or whatever the hell else fae could do.
“And just how stupid do you think my pain is?” Indy asked hurriedly. “Like, so stupid you don’t want it at all? What about maybe even just a little? I’ll throw in that time a lizard man tried to pop an egg in me—”
Or maybe the pain of lying to this demon I maybe sort of like more than just a little bit.
As soon as the thought formed in Indy’s mind, Misingno’s head snapped toward Indy. It made an odd thwack noise, but maybe that was from being severed so recently. He smiled, cooing, “Now that is more like it. Tell me all about this little lie of yours—”
“Okay, hi! Hello!” Gammy waved her hands, trying to get Misingno’s attention. “You want pain, darling? Agony? Despair? I have something for you that no other being in existence can give you!” She paused. “Unless they’re also a ghost. But ha! I bet you don’t have this sort of memory just yet.”
“Fine, yes. I’m intrigued.” Misingno smirked as he stepped back from Mr. Heiss, swiveling over toward Gammy. “I like things. And I like things that are rare. Rare things.”
“Trust me, I have just what you want.”
Mr. Heiss huffed but appeared to be calming down, judging by the eyeballs vanishing away. Still, his body remained tense and tight, and the snap of his tail indicated that much more brewed beneath the surface. He seemed rattled in a way Indy hadn’t seen before, and Indy didn’t like it.
He didn’t like how quickly Misingno had zeroed right in on his thoughts either, but that was an issue for later. His chest cramped and he swallowed back a cough, knowing that later was likely going to come sooner than he would have liked.
One damn problem at a time.
Indy put his hand on Mr. Heiss’s arm and leaned in close, resting his head on Mr. Heiss’s shoulder. He didn’t know what to say in that moment, but he felt the need to reach out. Maybe he didn’t have the right words or whatever, but he could let Mr. Heiss know that he was there.
Mr. Heiss stiffened, but then he slowly wrapped his arm around Indy’s waist.
“Aw,” Nyp whispered. “You two are so—”
Mr. Heiss glared him into silence.
Nyp cringed.
“All right, lady. Spill.” Misingno towered over Gammy and grinned down at her. “What do you have for me?”
Gammy held out her hand. “My final thoughts as I died. The worry I felt that my spell wouldn’t work and I couldn’t return as a spirit.
That I’d be lost in the nothingness of some other plane and unable to come back.
I always joked about missing my television shows, but really it was so much more than that.
It was the terror of thinking my own family would never mourn me, not in any real way, because they never truly knew me and treated me as if I was just some crazy ol’ kook.
Every year of my fantastically long and crazy life would mean nothing because there was no one left to give a crap.
I’d be forgotten, my legacy lost, and there would be exactly fuck all I could do about it. ”
Indy inhaled sharply. “Gammy…”
Misingno hugged his arms around himself and rocked back and forth. “Oh, okay, that does sound very, very painful…” He glanced back at Mr. Heiss, whined quietly, and then lurched forward. “How about a tiny taste, hmm?”
Gammy held her hand higher. “Go on. Try not to choke on it.”
Misingno leaned in and breathed deeply, shuddering. “O-oh. Oh. Yes. That. I want that.” He bounced in place. “Okay, what did you want again? A dream? No, to know where a dream came from? Whatever. What dream? What? What is it?”
“Yes!” Gammy flicked her fingers and summoned the teacher’s dream. “This one.”
“Oh.” Misingno cocked his head as he watched the scene playing through the bubble in Gammy’s hand. He looked at it from multiple sides, sniffed it, and then licked the edge of the bubble. “Hmm.”
“What can you tell us?”
“It is a dream. It is one of mine.” Misingno took another lick. “Oh. Hmm. I traded it to someone… Yes. A demon.”
Mr. Heiss grimaced.
“His name was Mr. Mitternacht. Very crunchy. Ew. But oh, it was such a good trade! I couldn’t resist. Now. Gimme.” Misingno made the grabby motion again.
“Where did the trade take place?” Gammy held her hand up out of his reach.