Page 114 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
“Are you going to use your magic to keep them calm?” Chaos asked, clearly it was more of a suggestion than a question, and I almost laughed at that.
“Yes, Chaos. I learned my lesson with that.Butas much as I can influence emotions, if someone is angry enough, that’s going to bleed through no matter what I do. I’ll do my best, but don’t be surprised if we end up with attacking pixies.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I get that. Alright, let’s do this.”
We walked in, and Aeson shut and locked the gate behind us. Since we were all geared up, I didn’t hesitate to lead the group to the pixie nest where the egg fossil was.
It was a quiet and peaceful walk—which made me suspicious—until we were within thirty feet of it. The pixies sent a swarm after us. Little pixie bullets hit me a few times before I called on my magic and did my best to push outcalmness.
I wasn’t very calm since I was being dusted and hit so much, so I stopped walking, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath.
Calm.
Caaaaaaallllmmm.
Stay calm, Miles. Calm.
Calm.
I pushed that sensation out and toward the angry pixies.
The one coming for my face stopped mid-flight and just… floated there.
A couple of them hit my body, but one after the other stopped in the air and floated there, looking dazed. Honestly, that freaked me out a little bit. The fact that I had the power to do this to someone.
I mean… no wonder everyone was afraid of me.
What if I did this to people?
I’d heard horror stories from my parents about empaths taking over people’s minds and making them do things they didn’t want to do. They’d reminded me over and over again that I was a danger to them, to my teachers, to the other students, to everyone around me.
Constant horror stories.
No wonder I’d always been so hesitant to use my magic, to explore it, to embrace it.
Between the horror stories and all the negative emotions I’d always felt coming from other people about myself, I’d been all kinds of messed up about being an empath.
The police academy had at least helped with that… a little. They’d taught me how to use my magic in a positive way, which was a step in the right direction. But that hadn’t stopped me from getting reads on everyone around me. Even my teachers, who weren’t empaths themselves, had been afraid of me.
And this… taking over people, changing their emotions so thoroughly, this was exactly why they’d been scared of me.
I was a little bit afraid of myself right now.
I shuddered at the thought, then pushed everything away because I really needed to concentrate on keeping my calm on.
“Alright, I think I’ve got it. Let’s move closer,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering, but it felt like I needed to in this moment.
We moved closer and closer until we were ten feet away from the gazebo. I stopped when a pixie rushed at my face, shaking his little fist at me. Clearly, he was either angry enough or protective enough that my calming magic wouldn’t work on him. I figured it was helping at least a little or he’d be full-on attacking me, but I couldn’t be sure.
Another pixie flew at my face. Then another stopped in front of Winter.
I glanced back and winced because there were several around Chaos and Aeson’s heads.
Shit.
This was not good at all.
I closed my eyes and tried to up the calming vibes, but when I opened them again, the little pixie was fluttering back and forth in front of me, waving his arms in irritation.
