Page 53 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
But then my boyfriend surprised the hell out of me—and Aeson and Lyric—by stepping forward and pulling the teen into a quick hug.
“Hey,” Miles said, letting go and stepping back to my side. He pressed his shoulder to mine, and since I figured he was overwhelmed with others’ emotions right then, I did my best to push my null magic toward him, and Lyric too.
My magic worked without my trying if we were touching—especially skin-to-skin, not that our shirts were much of a deterrent—but just in case, I gave it an extra boost.
From the way the tension around Miles’s eyes slowly faded away, I figured it was working.
Aeson grinned widely at us. “You came.” He held his hand up to Sola, who immediately rubbed her cheek against him. Aeson laughed and petted her before looking at my bestie. “And Lyric too—hey.”
Lyric smiled. “Hey, Ace. Nice to see you.”
“You too. Thank you all for coming to help.”
“Of course.” Miles sent him a soft smile. “You know you can call us anytime, for anything. It doesn’t have to be faerie related.”
Aeson eyed him for a moment, then gave a short nod but didn’t say anything for a few seconds. He looked like he felt a little awkward but also appreciative, which was an odd combination to pull off.
So I asked, “How are you doing, kiddo?”
His grin came back, and he started bouncing on his toes excitedly. “I’ve been great. Giving tours is so much fun!”
Okay. So… I could see why Chaos didn’t want to take this job away from his brother. Aeson seemed to love it. A lot. And I’d only seen him talk about it for less than five seconds.
“That’s great. I’m glad you like it.” Miles took a breath. “What about school? How’s that going?”
Some of Aeson’s joy melted away. “Um… it’s fine. I mean, it’s school, so…” He cleared his throat. “Do you want to see where the pixies are staying? They’ve been flying all over the place, but they made a home base in the dragon history exhibit.”
My brow furrowed. “That seems like a weird place for them to camp out.”
He led us toward the giant staircase. “Yeah, I thought so too, but there are some live plants up there because it’s on the top floor under the dome skylight, so I figured that’s why. I don’t think any of the other exhibits have live plants, except a few in the pixie one, now that I think about it. Everything else is artificial since there isn’t a lot of natural light in the other areas. Even the pixie section is mostly artificial plants.”
“Hm. Makes sense, then.” Miles nodded.
“Yeah, unfortunately, it’s right at the top of the main staircase, so that’s where a lot of the injuries and stuff have been happening.”
“That’s not good,” Lyric murmured under their breath, still holding my hand.
I was having flashbacks of the gnome house when I was trying to keep Lyric and Miles from killing each other by keeping the cursed magic away from both of them at the same time. It sort of made me want to laugh.
“Aeson,” a deep voice called out from the left of us.
Aeson stopped and made a little grimace before turning toward the incoming man—the manager we’d seen outside—and pasting on a very fake smile. “How can I help you, Mr. Sharp?”
“Where exactly are you taking these gentlemen? It doesn’t look like you’re giving them the tour.” The way he spoke made the hairs on my arms stand up straight. He was… beyond rude and a little bit creepy, if I was being honest.
Before Aeson could respond, Miles said, “Hello, sir. We asked your tour guide to take us to the dragon exhibit first. That’s the one thing we’re all dying to learn about. Sorry for taking him off course, but we’d really like to go there first.”
The man harumphed. “Alright then. Proceed.”
“Thank you, sir,” Aeson said with fake cheer, then led us up the stairs.
None of us said anything until we were on the second floor.
Miles sighed. “That guy is a real piece of work.”
“Ugh. Tell me about it.” Aeson flattened his shirt down with his hand. “I hate when he talks to me, but I’m usually good at staying away from him. Sorry about that.”
“You shouldn’t apologize,” Lyric said. “That guy’s the dick, not you.”
