Page 96 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
Chaos said, “It’ll be easier if we’re both touching the statue… uh, with our skin. I’m only going to push a little bit of my magic into it since it’s not really needed for what we’re using it for. But you need to push a lot into it, okay?”
“Got it. I’ll push as much as I can.”
“Good.”
I carefully removed my gloves and set them on the floor beside me. It made me nervous since there were other people in my house right now, but I tried to keep those feelings to myself.
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the twins. I knew they wouldn’t touch me without asking. It was just… not a typical thing I did, so it was going to take some time to adjust to the idea.
I put the fingers of both hands on the statue, and Chaos did the same, careful not to touch me, which I was grateful for. I was nervous enough about this without being bombarded by his emotions.
He quietly said, “Alright, take a deep breath, and as you breathe it out, let your magic flow out of you and into the gnome.”
When he inhaled, I mimicked him. And then we were breathing out and releasing our magics.
When my magic met his, his emotions—anxiety, fear, doubt, and worry—came flooding in, making me suck in a breath. But then other emotions came through too—curiosity, eagerness, and… hope.
Oh, Chaos.He was worried about me not wanting to be near his necromancy magic. As much as people were afraid of my ownmagic, they were just as scared or even more terrified of Chaos’s. He’d had as much trouble with people as I had, and that… that hit hard.
I didn’t want him to feel all the loneliness, anxiety, and depression that came with powers like ours. I didn’t want him to feel like an outsider. I didn’t want him to be afraid to touch people because of how they might react.
I didn’t want any of that for him.
But it didn’t matter what I wanted.
The world could be cruel, and unfortunately, Chaos had already seen that for himself, hadn’t he?
God, I really wanted to wrap him and Aeson in a giant bubble and protect them from the outside world. I wanted to stop them from getting hurt. I wanted to help them.
Is he really okay with this?
Is he going to be disgusted by my magic?
He seems okay. Maybe… maybe this will work out.
His voice floated into my mind, and without thinking, I pushed my magic toward him. I pushed the care I felt, the fondness, the protectiveness toward him, and he sucked in a breath.
He’d felt that. And hopefully, he’d know that was how I felt about him and his brother.
They were such good kids. They needed an adult or two who would protect them, who’d keep them safe, and I was hoping Win and I could be that for them since their current guardians were doing a shit job of it.
Surprise. Fear. Hopefulness.
Friendship.
I smiled at the new set of emotions coming through.
After a few seconds, he whispered, “I… thanks.” He cleared his throat. “But… push calmness into it, okay?”
Oh. Right. That would probably help.
The last thing we needed was the pixies feeling even more protective of that damn dragon egg fossil.
I took another deep breath, blocked out Chaos’s feelings, and concentrated on my own.
Calm.
Calm.
