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“Nolan! You don’t have to go. This won’t take a minute,” Sky repeated as he closed his door and came around to where he was standing on the sidewalk.
“I know. I want to go with you. Besides, you might need my help getting through the crowd. I promise, I’ll go back to the car if you think it’s not safe.” He even held out his hand for Sky’s keys.
With narrowed eyes, Sky fished his keys from his pocket and slapped them into Nolan’s open palm. “Don’t you dare leave me here with these crazy people.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
And he honestly wouldn’t.
Since Sky had entered his life at Phoenix, each day had become an adventure. Even if they were just sitting around his kitchen, picking at the food on their plates, they had the best conversations. It didn’t matter if Nolan’s life was incredibly mundane compared to the strangeness of Sky’s, the witch hung on his every word. He’d listened to him bitch about his ex. That in itself earned himbeauçoupbrownie points.
The thing was that Sky’s life was so very different from his own. He needed to see and experience these unexpected events firsthand if he was going to have any hope of understanding Sky’s life. If he understood it, just maybe he could find a place in his life.
It also didn’t hurt that he felt safe when he was with Sky. He could try these new, weird things and always know that Sky would be there to keep him safe.
As they approached the house, the sounds of the neighbors whispering reached them. Everyone was speculating all kinds of crazy ideas, from toxic waste to drones to aliens. Someone might have said magic, but it seemed to be losing out to toxic fumes and aliens.
“Has anyone called the police yet? Or the fire department?” a woman demanded in a sharp voice.
“Called 9-1-1 and they accused me of making a prank,” an old man near her growled. “I told the lady to go ahead and send a cop after me for the prank. Let them see the alien cloud for themselves.”
“Shit! We’ve got to hurry before the cops show up.” Sky grabbed his arm with one hand and tucked the box he was carrying tighter against his chest as he picked up his pace to a very brisk walk.
Several people shouted out to them warnings about not going into the house, while others demanded to know what was going on. Sky ignored them all, and Nolan followed his lead as they charged up the concrete stairs to the wooden front-porch stairs.
“He’s got a nice house,” Nolan murmured.
“Mn. He runs a landscaping design company. Hugely in demand. Won awards for it.”
Sky briskly knocked on the front door. The moment he lifted his hand away, he leaned forward with his ear nearly pressed to the wood as if trying to hear movement in the house. But there was no need for that. Almost as soon as Sky stopped knocking the door was ripped open and they were greeted by an entirely purple man.
“Mad?” Sky choked out.
It was surprising he could get even that much out. Nolan’s own tongue was dead in his mouth, unable to form a single sound as he stared at the figure who was the same shade of deepening purple as the cloud hanging over the house.
“Hurry! Hurry! Get in here! But don’t step where it’s purple. Just stand on the clear spaces.”
Nolan reacted to Maddox’s frantic tone and walked behind Sky into the house when he really should have taken Sky’s initial advice and returned to the car. There was one large patch of brown wood in the center of the hall and another after it. Sky moved into the first square and then hopped into the second, giving Nolan room to enter the first.
The door slammed shut behind him, but he barely noticed because his eyes were locked on the purple…everywhere.
It wasn’t just Maddox and the floor. It covered the walls, the windows, the furniture, and the pictures on the walls. There wasn’t a single thing that wasn’t purple other than the two little squares on the floor.
“What the fuck have you done?” Sky moaned. He turned around in a small circle where he stood, his eyes sweeping over the house and finally his friend.
“It was a spell. A new protection spell that I was trying to put over the house ahead of Moving Day,” Maddox explained, wringing his purple hands together in front of him.
“You’re moving? Have you sold the house already? Because…” Nolan’s eyes traveled over the purple walls again. This couldn’t have been what the sellers had in mind.
“Moving? What?” Maddox’s face wrinkled up as he stared at Nolan as though he’d lost his mind. “No. I—oh. No, this has to do with the fae. I’ll let Sky explain that later.”
“Is this another Reddit spell? I swear to God, you’ve got to stop using those.”
“No.” Maddox’s broad shoulders slumped and his head drooped. “Discord group.”
Sky groaned loudly and tipped his face toward the ceiling. “You have got to stop going in those groups. I’ve told you those old biddy witches are just a bunch of bitches. You can’t trust their fucking spells.” Sky reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his phone. With a couple of quick swipes, he pulled up the camera and snapped several pictures of his sad, pouting friend.
“I can’t wait to show this to Red,” Sky muttered under his breath.
