Page 91 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
My heart raced, and sweat formed on my temple from my anxiety as I waited for him to let go completely. Oh fuck. Fuckity, fuck, fuck a duck, fuck.
It’s not gonna work. It’s not gonna work.
Sola trilled, and I somehow knew she was telling me it was going to be alright.
Please, please, please let it work.
He let go of the last thread, and I held my breath, waiting for the shield to drop and everyone to be hit with a ghost, a gnome, or a flying object.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Miles
Oh my god, the shield’s gonna burst.
I waited.
And waited.
But nothing happened.
I released my lungs, staring at the shield.
It was still standing. It was still there.
It was still gold, but now there was a little bit of purple mixed in.Right. My magic was purple. A picture of some chart we’d had to memorize in school flashed through my mind’s eye, and I remembered learning about the different colored magics.Necromancers were always gold, empaths were purple. We’d learned about other magical colors too, but I couldn’t remember them at the moment, and since it wasn’t important right now, I pushed the thoughts away.
Winter was breathing heavily when he came over, but he knelt down beside where I sat on my ass and right before he touched my neck, Chaos said, “Don’t touch him or the shield might come down.”
Sola chirped in agreement.
“Shit. I didn’t even think of that.” Winter scooted back and gave me a sad smile. “Sorry, sugar butt. Don’t want to risk it.”
We could honestly probably find a workaround if we needed to—at least I hoped so, if I ever needed to do this in the future—but in the middle of a gnome and poltergeist attack wasn’t the time to test it.
“It’s fine.” I tried not to let the curse’s anger push to the forefront, but it was difficult not to let it when Win wasn’t touching me and I was no longer scared for my life and the lives of my friends.
Winter tilted his head to the side, examining me. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I… I can apparently hold a shield.”
“You can make one too,” Chaos said as he continued doing… whatever it was he was doing.
I shrugged at Winter because I wasn’t sure about that at all. I… thought maybe I could after following along with Chaos, but that was something I’d have to practice on my own later.
I absently petted Sola. “I think I might be able to, but I’ll have to practice a lot first.”
Winter nodded, then looked at Chaos. “If you could do this, why didn’t you do it sooner?” He didn’t sound accusatory. He simply sounded curious.
“It takes a lot of energy, and I can’t hold a shield and work on this curse at the same time. I knew Miles could hold it, butthere’s no way he—or anyone, for that matter—could hold it for the entirety of my spellwork. He’s got five, maybe ten minutes before he’s flat on the floor, drained of energy. I didn’t want to do that unless we had to.” He pointed to the ghosts banging on the shield. “This was ahad-tosituation.”
Winter nodded. “Agreed. Is there anything else we can do to help you?”
He smirked at him. “Leave me alone and let me concentrate.”
Winter winced. “Right. Sorry. Leaving you alone now.”
Chaos gave him a nod, and Winter refocused his attention on me. “Can you feel the drain?”
