“Did you check the dryer or the laundry room floor? Maybe you dropped some on the way upstairs?”
“No, but do you really think I dropped six socks and didn’t notice?”
Nolan’s devilish boyfriend beamed at him as he shrugged.
With a groan, Nolan grabbed Sky’s shoulders and turned him toward the door. “Fine. You’re coming with me and helping me search, smartass.”
They tromped back down the stairs, scanning the floor the entire way to the tiny laundry room off the kitchen, but there wasn’t a single sock on the floor or forgotten in the dryer. They searched between the machines, and even behind them, but found nothing.
“Have you been using any underworld minions recently that prefer socks?”
“Nope. Just my regulars, and they all demand sandwiches. I haven’t found one yet that has a thing for socks.” One of the perks of being a necromancer was being able to talk to the various minions of the underworld. And it also didn’t hurt that he’d discovered that many of the minions were more than happy to do small, odd jobs for him in exchange for a deli-meat sandwich and a snack-sized bag of chips. It was a killer deal considering how quickly and easily they could complete some tasks.
Nolan sighed and led the way up to the bedroom. “What the hell? How did we lose six socks? Those red ones I wore two days ago, and I know I tossed both of them in the hamper that night.”
“I like those red ones on you. They make your feet appear even bigger.”
Nolan snorted, a smile teasing his lips no matter how hard he tried to remain serious. “You’re so weird.”
“Eh. I find it sexy.”
“Oh, I’ll show you—” His words stopped short as his eyes fell on the bed where they’d left the socks. “Look! Now there’s only four! I’m not losing my mind. I know there were six there when we went downstairs. Did you take two?”
Nolan swung around to pin Sky with an accusing glare, but Sky was quick to hold up his empty hands. “Not me! I didn’t touch them.”
“What the fuck! Are there such things as goblins or gremlins that steal your socks? Or a ghost? You’d know it if the house were haunted, right?”
“The house is haunted.”
Nolan almost groaned. “I’m not talking about Grammy.”
“Oh, then no. The only ghost in this house is Grammy, and she wouldn’t bother our socks. Besides, she’s currently out visiting a friend in the next town over.”
Nolan closed his eyes and rubbed them with his thumb and index finger. “Sky, what is stealing our socks?”
“No clue. I haven’t summoned anything from the underworld in weeks, so there shouldn’t be anything lurking nearby. And none of them has ever had an interest in socks.”
“Are you sure?” Nolan dropped his hand and glared hard at his boyfriend. “Because you were pretty sure that the tree came from the underworld.”
“You don’t think…” Sky started, letting the words fade. “I mean, it would have had to come up the stairs, and it’s currently plugged into the wall.”
“Babe, it walked into the house and found a spot to rest. I wouldn’t be surprised if it could crawl up the stairs.”
They stared at each other for another second and then raced down the stairs to find the tree…exactly where they’d left it in the corner of the room. Its lights twinkled, and its ornaments appeared completely undisturbed. The one strange thing was that it appeared somewhat poofier. Just a bit fuller.
Sky marched up to the tree and glared at it with his hands on his hips. “All right. The jig is up. We know you’ve been stealing our socks. Cough ’em up.”
The tree didn’t move. It was almost enough to make a person believe that it really couldn’t have done it.
“I’m serious. I want the socks now. All of them,” Sky barked.
The underworld tree finally shifted slightly, its branches scraping and rattling. It rose on its roots and shook violently, twisting this way and that. In the blink of an eye, eight socks flew out of the depths of the tree like startled birds taking flight. Nolan gasped and stumbled back a step, watching as the socks landed on the furniture and floor. Amazingly, not a single ornament had been disturbed by the thrashing.
“All right. No more stealing socks,” Sky admonished, wagging a finger at the tree as if it were a troublesome two-year-old.
“Are you kidding me?” Nolan squawked. It felt like his brain was going to melt and ooze out of his ears. Each time he thought he was getting used to the magical weirdness of Sky’s world, something new happened to throw him for a loop.
“What? It’s just some socks. Not a big deal.”
