Page 27 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
The fact that they barely said hi before asking me about my time with Miles made me grin. “It was good at first. Miles is a really nice guy.”
They waited a beat.“But…? What happened to make it not good?”
With a heavy sigh, I laid out everything that’d happened, including the firebird in Miles's bathroom. Lyric listened and offered their own commentary because I’d never known Lyric to keep their mouth shut for long, but they were still a good listener.
“Okay, I agree that it’s weird. But… have you considered that the firebird could be his familiar?”
Everything inside of me untwisted, the knot in my belly straightening out, at the thought. A familiar. The firebird could be his familiar.
I thought about the setup at Miles's house and frowned. If that was his familiar, why the hell was it in his bathroom? Why hadn’t he asked for it? A familiar could’ve helped him in that situation, so… that didn’t really fit with what I saw.
My belly soured again when I thought of our conversation in the car. Surely, he would’ve mentioned having a familiar when we were talking about pets.
“The bird was locked in his bathroom, and when we talked about our pets, he didn’t mention the bird.”
“Okay, that’s weird. But… maybe they haven’t connected yet. Or… or maybe he’s just a weirdo who brings home strays? Maybe the bird was injured or something like that, and he’s helping it? There’s lots of reasons, Win. I mean, if you like the guy, you should give him a chance to explain, yeah?”
“Yeah. Definitely.”
Lyric and I finished our conversation, and then I settled in to watch some TV while I waited on Miles.
As soon as he called or texted me, I was going back over there to talk to him about that firebird.
Freaking crazy person keeping her in his house.
Please call me, Miles. I need to know you’re okay, and then I want to yell at you… just a little.
Chapter Nine
Miles
When I woke, I expected to have a piercing headache, but I was surprised to find no pain at all—at least not with my eyes closed. Squinting one eye open, I sighed in relief when I realized there was still no discomfort.Hell yeah!
I didn’t know why there was no pain—there always was after an empath migraine—but I’d absolutely take this any day over the horrible piercing agony I usually had.
As I sat up in bed and saw a glass of water with my pill bottle sitting next to it on the nightstand, I swallowed thickly.
Flashes of how I’d gotten back home came to my mind’s eye, and I sighed.
Well… I supposed I knew why I didn’t have a headache.
Winter was a null. I’d never even heard of that before, but he obviously had some kind of power because he’d made the voices and emotions stop. Like fully, one hundred percent, stop, as if they’d never been there to begin with.
It was insane. Even when I was simply standing anywhere near other people, I could feel their emotions itching to get at me. There was always this quiet buzz in the back of my mind that I’d learned to block out when I was just a child. I barely even noticed it anymore since I was so used to it, but when Winter had touched me, even that background noise went away.
It’d been so… refreshing.
I’d never had someone touch me and not been overwhelmed with their emotions and sometimes even their thoughts. Having him touch me emotion-free was a novelty.
Too bad my head had hurt. I’d really like to experience that without the pounding headache. I bet it’d feel like a vacation.
Shaking off the silly thoughts, I lifted the glass and drank half of it down before coming up for air. Odin came over, headbutting me for attention, so I gave him some good pets as I set my glass down and noticed a post-it note stuck to my phone. Lifting it, I realized he’d even plugged my cell in for me, and for some reason, that thoughtfulness gave my heart a little blip.
The note said:
Miles,
I hope you’re feeling better. If you’re up for it, call or text me later. If not, I’ll come check on you in the morning.
