Page 65 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
But I knew this was one of the only ways we could keep them back because the worst thing for a pixie would be to be sprayed and covered in the repellent scent. So even though they remained near, they didn’t dare come within our spray radius.
“Holy shit, there’s a lot more of them in here than I realized,” Winter said, sounding as if he was coming up for air.
I snorted. “Tell me about it. I knew they’d attack us, but that’s way more than I expected.”
“God, it’s not gonna be easy to get to that egg. They’re going to fight us whether we’re spraying them or not.”
I grimaced in agreement. “They sure will, but let’s get as close as we can.”
He nodded, and we continued to spray the area in front of us as we slowly moved farther into their territory. The pixies followed us, just on the outside of the spray perimeter. Theywere shouting in what could only be described as high-pitched bell sounds, shaking their fists and throwing things at us from a distance. Thank goodness they hadn’t figured out how to make real weapons or I figured we’d be covered in tiny arrows or little swords.
When we were about five feet from the nest and the egg fossil was almost within reach, the pixie mischief rallied and attacked us again.
I screamed as my finger pulled the spray handle as quickly as possible, but the pixies ignored my assault altogether. From the sounds coming from Winter, he was having the same issue.
The spray wasn’t working anymore—they clearly cared more about protecting their nest and egg than they did about smelling like repellent—and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to hurt the little critters, but wehadto get the pixies out of here before someone ended up with something more serious than a broken bone.
“Fuck!” Winter yelled out. “We need to make a run for it. I’ll try to wave the little buggers off while you grab the egg. As soon as you have it, run. I’ll catch up.”
“Are you sure?” I called back. “I don’t want to leave you and you wind up hurt.”
“I’m sure! I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it, sugar butt.”
I took a breath and reluctantly agreed since there wasn’t really another option. “Alright. On the count of three, run for the nest. I’ll yell when I’ve got the egg, and we both run for the stairs.”
“Got it!”
“One… two… three! Go!”
I ran as fast as I could through the cloud of pixies and their dust, waving my hands in front of my face to try to see where the hell I was. My shins hit the side of the exhibit, and I let out anoomph.
But I didn’t waste any time. Reaching forward, I pushed the nesting materials out of the way—flower and plant matter, along with what looked like a few stolen clothing items likely taken from the lost and found—and grabbed the egg.
The second my hands touched the fossil, the pixies went even more insane. Every single one in the museum screamed out in agony, making me feel awful for about half a second before theyalldive-bombed me. So many of them hit me at once that it knocked the breath out of me.
I fell forward, releasing the egg and catching myself on my hands before I faceplanted into the exhibit.
“Miles!” Winter shouted as he reached for me and pulled me up. “You okay?”
Before I could respond, movement caught my eye.
A huge group of at least twenty pixies had surrounded the egg and were slowly lifting it into the air.
“Oh my god!” I shouted, reaching for it.
The pixies zoomed away before I could reach the stupid thing, and I yelled something unintelligible.
“What the fuck?” Winter said, swiping at the pixies still dive-bombing us. “How are they carrying that thing?”
Honestly, the answer was likely simple. They were using their magic.
As much as scientists and people much smarter than me had studied faeries over the years, much of their magic was still a mystery to us, and it likely would be forever.
“Magic,” I murmured as I grabbed Win’s shoulder and used him to help heave myself up into the exhibit.
“What are you doing? You’re gonna get hurt.”
I ignored him for the moment, carefully climbing through the pixie nest and the plant life all around it, ignoring all the damn pixie bullets hitting me over and over.
