Page 62 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
Chaos just shot them a smirk but didn’t answer. “I can’t examine the cursed object and fight off a billion gnomes at the same time, so I’m going to need you guys to keep them away from me while I take a look, okay? From what I’m feeling, I’ll be able to take care of this problem for you today, but I want to be sure before I give you a quote. If you hire me, it’ll have to be under the understanding that you’ll help keep them off me while I break the curse too.”
My stomach twisted in uncomfortable knots. I could barely keep my own head above water, so to speak, when it came tothose gnomes. Actually, I couldn’t even save myself since Winter had technically saved me several times over now. How the hell could I possibly keep this kid safe? But it wasn’t like I could ask him to go down there alone. I’d never do that.
While I was freaking out inside, Winter answered for me, saying, “Of course we’ll help. I won’t let them hurt you.”
Chaos sent him a small smile, a real one that wasn’t a smirk this time. “Thank you.” He nodded. “Let me go grab some stuff.”
He headed back for the car, and I had a feeling he wanted us to stay where we were, but all three of us followed him anyway.
Mostly because I wanted to get a look at this chicken. Maybe it was a stuffed animal or something that Lyric had mistaken as real. That had to be it, right?
Winter moved to walk beside me, and he whispered, “Lyric and I can go inside with him, and you can stay out here. You don’t need to come in there with all those gnomes.”
That was a sweet offer, even if it made me feel completely inadequate and stupid. I shook my head. “No, I can help.”
To my surprise, Winter didn’t look skeptical or like he was planning on arguing with me. All he did was smile and say, “Alright, but if you change your mind, it’s no big deal, okay?”
I nodded and bit my lip, embarrassed and touched by his thoughtfulness in equal measure—even if I did think it was kind of a big deal. “Thanks, Win.”
He shoulder-bumped me, and we trudged back up to the necromancer’s car.
Chapter Nineteen
Miles
When we approached the kid’s car, I didn’t even have to peek inside to see the chicken in question because it was staring at us through the window. And there was no doubt it was real because it was bobbing its head around.
Lyric pointed at it and mouthed,“See?”
I nodded with wide eyes. A chicken.
A teenager and a chicken in a car… that sounded like the beginning of a bad joke or something. Or just the beginning of a very strange story.
Chaos ignored us entirely and walked around to the back of his car. He opened his trunk, stared at it for a few seconds, then quickly slammed it closed again. I watched in fascination as he pinched the bridge of his nose, looking much older than his probably sixteen years before he sighed and opened the trunk again.
“Have you seriously been in there this whole time?”
My brow furrowed because now the kid was talking to his trunk. Unless… unless there was a ghost in there? From what I’d heard, most necromancers could see and speak to ghosts, even when they weren’t manifesting.
Could ghosts hitch rides in cars?
The thought made me shiver.
But then the trunk said, “I didn’t want you coming all the way out here by yourself.”
“What the fuck?” I breathed out.
Chaos gestured wildly. “I’m not alone. I have Clucky with me.”
“Clucky can’t save you from psychopaths!”
“You’re the only psychopath I see here!”
Lyric whispered, “What the hell’s going on, and who the hell’s Clucky?”
Chaos clenched his jaw, then turned to us with a fake smile plastered to his face. “I’m really sorry about this. My, uh, brother stowed away in the trunk. I had no idea he was in there. I’m sorry.”
I wasn’t sure why he was apologizing so much, so I waved him away. “Don’t worry about it. Uh, you can let him out, right?”
