Page 56 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
Unrealistic.
Ridiculous.
I was a grown man. I could handle this and more.
I needed to stop whining—even in my own head—and face it.
We were already going to have to deal with a necromancer, so why not go ahead and add a little more chaos in?
With a heavy sigh, I said, “Fine. Call him.”
Winter grabbed the information from Lyric and put in the call, placing it on speaker so we could all hear.
“Chaos the Necromancer speaking. How may I assist you today?”The voice sounded so damn young it took me, and from the looks of it, Winter, by surprise. It also sounded kind of… cheery? Which wasn’t at all what I’d expected.
Winter cleared his throat. “Um, yes, hi. I, uh…”
I didn’t know what his problem was—maybe he didn’t like talking on the phone—but he was freezing up, so I snatched his phone to bring it closer to my mouth. “Hello, my name’s Miles Curbelo from Carry A Faerie Pest Solutions.”
“Hey, Miles. I’m Chaos.”Holy shit, he sounded so fucking young. Was he even old enough to have a job? Let alone drive out here to help us? And what the hell kind of name wasChaos?
There was a slight pause, as if he didn’t know how to continue. I didn’t jump in to help because I wasn’t sure either.
“Are you looking for a necromancer?”
“Uh, possibly.”
He hummed.“Alright. Tell me the problem, and I’ll tell you if I can help.”
“I’m out on a job in Bellscar, and I’ve run into a problem. I think I might need to hire your, uh, expertise.” I explained the situation to the guy—the kid—as best I could with Winter and Lyric watching me. Neither of them interrupted, so I figured I did a good enough job with the explanation.
“Hmm.”The kid paused for a few beats, but I had the feeling he was thinking things over, so I didn’t interrupt.“Bellscar is a little out of the way, so I’ll have to charge you for coming out there and looking at the problem, even if I can’t fix it. From the sounds of it, this will be something I can do, so I’m not too worried about it, but I want to make my terms clear first.”
That was fair, but I still grimaced because I didn’t like the whole pay-even-if-I-don’t-help thing at all. I couldn’t exactly blame the kid if he was driving out of his way, though. “Alright. How much?”
“Twenty.”
I blinked. “Twenty dollars?”
“Yes.”
Twenty bucks? The kid only wanted twenty bucks? “Alright, that’s fine.”
I heard a small sigh that sounded like relief before he said,“I can be there in under an hour. Is that okay?”
I glanced between Winter and Lyric, both of them nodding at me. “That works for me.”
“Great! I’ll see you shortly.”The kid hung up, so I ensured the call was over and handed Winter his phone back.
“I think we should stay in the garden until he gets here,” Lyric said. “The magic isn’t reaching us right now.”
“I like that plan.” I nodded, then placed my hands behind my back on the bench so I could lean back, close my eyes, and soak in the sun a little. It felt like I hardly ever got to just sit in the sun like this since I worked so much. Despite the situation, this was kinda nice. Sitting outside with a handsome man beside me and a nice person—friend?—nearby. I liked it.
But then I grimaced when I thought about Lyric’s words and the fact we were so close to a curse that literally made me want to punch their lights out.
I glanced at them. “You don’t think the magic’s growing, do you?”
Lyric shrugged and shook their head at the same time. “I’m not sure. I don’t feel it growing at the moment, but I sort of feel like there’s the potential to grow.”
