Page 95 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Miles
“Morty?” Aeson asked, gripping his brother’s shoulder again. “Mortimer, snap out of it.”
Chaos blinked a few times, then let out a small groan as he rubbed at his eyes before bending over at the waist with his hands on his knees. “Fuuuucckk. That wasa lotof energy.”
Clucky let out a strangled sound, landing on the ground. She waddled over to her necromancer, going right under his body where he was bent over. Chaos whispered something I couldn’thear to her, and the cockatrice backed up to sit on his feet, leaning against his legs.
Hearing Chaos speak made some of the tension drain out of me, but I was still nervous. Whatever just happened didn’t seem or feel typical.
My brow furrowed, and I looked at Aeson. “What’s wrong with him?”
The kid rubbed Chaos’s back but looked at me. “Believe it or not, he actually absorbed a lot of the magic that was released.”
My eyes widened. “He… he can absorb magic?”
“Necromantic magic, yeah. Not sure about other kinds.”
Chaos waved his hand toward me without standing up. “You’re strong enough; you can do that too with empathic magic. I also don’t know about absorbing other kinds. Never tried it.” He groaned again. “This is bad enough.”
“Why the hell did you do that?”
“The curse was too strong. Wasn’t sure you guys or the, uh, house itself could handle it all blasting out at once.”
I grimaced because he was probably right. We’d barely survived the amount of magic that was released, even with him apparently taking the brunt of it. That made me hug Sola to my chest as I grimaced because the poor kid was obviously in pain.
“What can we do to help?” Winter asked while rubbing my arm like he was comforting me—I appreciated it.
“Nothing. I just have to wait for my body to adjust to the extra magic. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
“You sure?”
He nodded, but Aeson added, “He usually needs to eat a big meal after doing a big working like this.”
“We’ll order a couple of pizzas when we get out of here,” I said.
“That’s not—” Aeson started, but Chaos cut him off.
“You don’t have to do that. We still have plenty of food from yesterday.”
I shrugged. “We’re gonna be here for a while longer, setting traps and everything, so you guys can stick around and relax while we wait for the food. We’ll need to eat lunch, anyway, so I’ll order. What kind do you want?” I pulled out my phone to place an order online, comfortably hugging Sola with my arms while using my hands to navigate.
Chaos lifted his head without straightening, staring at me for a few seconds before sighing. “Are you sure?”
“Yep. Tell me what kind you want, or I’ll order something weird and force you to try it.”
He let out a quiet chuckle. “Fine. Pepperoni, please.”
“I’m fine with whatever. Cheese or pepperoni or whatever works,” Aeson said.
I gave him a nod. “Lyric?”
“Just cheese is fine, unless someone else wants green peppers and onions or something like that.”
“Okay, I’ll order one with those toppings too. Win?”
He kissed my temple and answered quietly enough no one else could hear. “I’m fine with whatever. Pepperoni or cheese or Lyric’s, I don’t care.” He gave me a squeeze. “As long as I get to sit next to you and maybe hold you while we’re eating, I don’t care one bit.”
