Page 121 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
Winter laughed. “Obviously.”
“Ew, we don’t need to see that,” Aeson said, but he was laughing and clearly joking, which made me chuckle.
The three of us got him untied—with the help of Sola, Clucky, and their sharp beaks—and I pulled him into a hug as soon as he was free. He hugged me back, then kept his arm swung over my shoulders as we headed back toward the stupid dragon egg fossil.
“I can’t believe they’re acting like this over a damn fossil,” Winter murmured as Sola sat on his shoulder, rubbing on him, pecking at him, and obviously very concerned.
“Me either. I’ve seen them do some shitty things when protecting their eggs, but it’s never been this bad. Not even close.”
Win shook his head, then winced. He wasn’t really leaning on me, but I had a feeling I was helping him with his balance.
When we were about twenty feet away and could see the gazebo, Chaos said, “I can try shielding us when we’re a little closer. It won’t last long enough if I start it now, and it won’t be easy since we’re moving, but I can hold it for at least a few minutes.”
I looked over my shoulder at him. “I’ve been practicing my shield since you showed me how to make one, but I can’t make it move with us.”
“That’s okay.” Chaos shrugged. “I can do the shield, no problem.”
I hated that I couldn’t do it myself, but I definitely appreciated our little necromancer friend. “That would be really helpful. Thank you.”
He nodded, a frown on his face—or at least, his eyes looked frowny. “I won’t be able to throw a shield over the actual nestsince there’s so many pixies there. They’d just get trapped inside with us, which would suck. But I can take you right up to it, and then one of us can pop out, grab the egg, and pop back in.”
“Sounds like a plan. Ace, can you help Win while I grab the egg?”
“Sure.”
I nodded at him, then looked at Chaos. “Whenever you’re ready, kiddo.”
He gave a nod. “Ready.” Then I felt and saw a surge of his magic surround us in a golden haze. A shield.
I couldn’t help but poke it.
“Ouch,” Chaos hissed out.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Did that hurt you?”
To my surprise, he laughed. “Nah, I was just messing with you.”
With a snort and a roll of my eyes, I motioned for us to continue. We moved slowly so Chaos wouldn’t drop his shield. When the little jerks started dive-bombing us, they hit the shield instead, and I could see the strain it was taking on Chaos.
“Can I help you?” I asked when we were only a few feet away.
“Grab the egg first. You might have to help on our way out of the gardens.”
“Okay.”
When we were within three feet of the nest, I passed Winter—and Sola—off to Aeson. I felt the kid’s hand brush against my chest briefly, and I swore I felt… warmth there for a moment and my ribs didn’t hurt as bad. Had Aeson… healed me a little?
Shaking that away since I had more pressing issues to worry about, I stood at the edge of the shield closest to the nest.
Chaos said, “I’ll count to three, open up a small space for you to slip through, and then you need to grab that thing as fast as possible and get back inside.”
“Got it.” I took a deep breath and shook out my arms. It wasn’t going to be easy because there were probably two hundred of the little shits flying around the nest, circling it like sharks.
“Ready?”
“No, but let’s do it anyway.”
“Alright. One… two… three, go!”
