Page 93 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
“That it has, my friend. But if you ever need to talk, I’m here.” They furrowed their brow. “Oh my god, I don’t think you even have my number yet! How is that possible? I feel like we’re best friends for life after all this.” They circled their hand in the air, encompassing the entirety of the basement and of the house itself. It really had been a day—well, two days. No, actually three.
Okay, it’d been a weekend.
Geez. I’d really forced all of them into some shitty stuff this weekend.
I snorted. “Not sure about that, but I… I’d like to, um, stay connected. You know, after this…?” Why did that sound like a question? Good grief, I was so freaking awkward.
But Lyric simply smiled at me, a soft expression on their pretty face. “I’d like that too.”
I hesitantly smiled back.
Then Aeson leaned in, butting into our conversation with, “Can I get in on this friendship thing? You guys are cool, even if you’re old, so you can take my number too.”
“Excuse you, Mr. Tall. We’re not old.” Lyric shook their head at him, but the kid grinned and kept talking like he hadn’t been interrupted.
“You already have Morty’s, so now you just need mine. You can call anytime you need help with your exterminator stuff or anytime really.”
I sent the kid a wide grin. “Sounds like a plan, Ace.” I wrinkled my nose. “Um, am I allowed to call you that?”
He waved it off, then reached over to pet Sola. “Yeah, for sure. I don’t care either way.”
“Cool.”
We fell silent for a few minutes before Chaos said, “I’m almost done. Prepare yourselves.”
“Prepare for what?” I asked, anxiety already kicking in.
“A blast of the curse,” Chaos said, then pointed at the ghosts and gnomes. “They’ll come out of it almost immediately, so if you lose control of the shield, don’t worry about it, m’kay? They’ll likely be freaked out by everything, so they’ll run away from us.”
“Even the ghosts?”
“Yep.”
“Got it.” I gave him a nod and hunkered down.
I had no idea what a curse would feel like when it was broken, but I had an idea it was going to be rough. Really, really rough.
Pressure built around us so thickly, so fast, my ears popped. I met Winter’s worried gaze, and I saw the fear in his eyes. It was the first time he’d truly looked afraid during all of this. At least the first time I’d seen it.
“Brace yourselves!” Chaos yelled a moment before he slashed his hand down an inch away from the seal, his gold magic following the movement and making a cut through the metal.
The seal cracked right down the middle.
A force of pure power blew out of the seal and rushed over us.
It hit like a tidal wave, knocking the breath from my lungs as I flew backward. I crashed into a hard chest, making me—and the chest—lose our breath for a moment, and then a much smaller body—Sola—crashed into my chest, and I couldn’t catch my breath at all. I felt the shield drop, immediately alleviating the drain on my power, but I couldn’t be happy about that when the power continued to whip past us with the force of a typhoon.
We were caught in the middle of a windstorm, only instead of wind, it was pure necromantic magic slapping us in the face and blowing us backward. My eyes watered, and my breath was completely gone. I was unable to suck in any air, the power was sinking into my skin like tiny biting teeth, and my hair was blowing around and smacking my forehead like a hundred little whips.
I grabbed onto Sola as best I could, trying to block her from some of the blast with my arms, but it was too powerful for me to hold them up without crushing my sweet familiar. So I tucked her under my chin, hunched my shoulders, and tried to protect her as best I could.
She was scared, I could feel it, but she wasn’t panicking the way I was. She seemed to understand that this would pass.
I really fucking hoped she was right.
Luckily, an arm wrapped around my body, keeping me from being blown straight across the room and into the horde ofangry gnomes. Even though I couldn’t turn around to check, I knew it was Winter, which was a relief. And not only because he wouldn’t accidentally set off my empath abilities in the middle of all this, but because it was him, and I yearned to be near him.
I wasn’t sure how long the blast lasted, but by the time it was finished, my lungs hurt, and I had to suck in a deep breath. Winter’s chest moved behind me, his own gasping breath loud in my ear.
