Granting a Thief's Wishes

I stormed to my building, Neridae and Kylie following me silently. "Why are you here, Neridae? Seriously. Put my mind to ease, please?" I said, sounding pissed off than I had ever been for months.

I gritted my teeth. Ugh, I could just kill him. Scalding him with hot coffee wasn't enough. How surprising, considering how he managed to knock over his chair and tripped over it when the coffee made impact on his skin.

"Are you angry, Susannah?"

Oh, oh I wanted to strangle the oblivious pixie more.

"No, this is just me being happy," I said sarcastically. But I had no idea if Neridae was ignoring the sarcasm or just didn't know what sarcasm was when she replied with a puzzled expression, "how fascinating."

I turned to her sharply when I gave up trying to open the stupid door because my key hated me.

"Do you understand me?" I said, tapping on her forehead with my finger. "Hullo," I continued on, being irrationally immature at this point. "Is there something in that cute little head of yours, Neridae?"

"I'm Ethan Carnahan's!" She finally squeaked in an...angry manner. It was impossibly cute. And it gave me a sense of odd satisfaction to know that I just managed to get a luck pixie irritated. Oh wow, I was going nuts. Picking a fight with a pixie.

I needed to calm down.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to unlock the door.

"Doesn't explain why you're here," I said, more calmly this time as I ran a hand through my frizzy hair. I clasped my fingers around her – careful not to damage her wings – and set her on my shoulder as I motioned Kylie to walk inside at the same time.

"The Ryan boy accidentally broke your bracelet when you were running away from him," she said.

"Oh, okay. So more great news, then?"

"I don't think this is news in which you can celebrate to, Susannah," Neridae said, a puzzled expression still plastered on her face. I ignored her as I tossed my keys on the table. "Ethan sent me to find you upon the damage done to your bracelet, in fear that something bad might happen to you and the people around you."

"That's very considerate of him," I said numbly. "Kylie, you can sleep on my bed tonight. Call mom and tell her that you'd be staying in. I'm too drained to accompany you back at…oh god, it's already 30 minutes past midnight?" I said, feeling weary. "So, how'd Ethan know about my bracelet being broken?"

I was saying this all a bit too matter-of-factly while the fact was I felt sick. What was going to happen? Was it possible to fix a priceless bracelet? Or was Neridae sticking around forever?

"He's chained."

Chained? Chained?

"As in, handcuffed?" I said cautiously, placing her on the throw pillow. Ugh, I didn't want to know Ethan's fetishes. There was a limit of how much information I could take in 24 hours. And I've got too many to handle. I sat down on the couch, feeling the tension fleeing itself bit by bit from my muscles. But the headache was still there.

"No," Neridae said, shuddering. "It's awful."

"Is it?" I muttered, staring at the phone, sitting on the small lamp table next to me. It was smeared with blood. I felt tears stinging my eyes. Oh god, I never thought it was possible that things could go from so blissfully boring to so blissfully wrong in a couple of weeks.

"The boy, Ryan. He isn't working alone."

"Working?"

Oh for crying out loud. What now?

"On the day Ethan met you," she said, "Ryan caught a pixie. Just like me. She made a mistake of appearing in front of Ethan's cousin who worked in a restaurant as a waiter. The pixie belonged to Ethan's cousin."

"Well, what's wrong with Ethan?"

"His cousin found out that his pixie was stolen from him."

"How?"

I was too exhausted to construct a sentence. I felt my eyes getting heavy and heavier.

"A pixie has a bond with its' owner. Ethan's cousin knew that the pixie died. The cousin told Ethan about it and Ethan said he will look into it. And he did. I followed him along to a warehouse-like building. And it was there when he found out that Ryan's acquaintances were...investigating the pixie.

Ethan got angry. Real angry."

Chained.

My eyes snapped open. Panic struck my chest and I suddenly felt as if I was drowning.

"Neridae…what do you mean he was chained?" I asked again. It was like that with Neridae, I figured. You had to ask her 60 times before she could answer.

"They tied him down with chains."

"Angels are strong, magnificent creatures," I spat. "He could flap one of his wings and the chain will break due to the force of the wind—"

"That's just it," Neridae said. And to my surprise, she looked close to tears. "They're chaining his wings down. He could not move it. At all."
"Where is he?" I demanded, getting up.

It would be a miracle if I could do this and still had enough energy for programming classes the next day.