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“Good luck,” Ronnie said after a final glance at each of them. She strode toward the door, hesitating before she stepped out. Her brow furrowed as she narrowed her eyes at the tiny cat in the pet bed near the air mattress. “Did you get a kitten?”
Paige pressed the bridge of her glasses up and shook her head. “Oh, no. That’s Dickens, my cat. He accidentally got into the archive and ate growth serum and powder. The shrinking remedy we used made him tinier than normal.“
“Is it permanent?” Ronnie’s forehead wrinkled as she stared at the tiny cat.
“We don’t know. I was about to check on that when the alarm sounded,” Dewey said.
“It’s fine,” Paige said with a wave of her hand as she sank into the armchair. “He’s less dangerous this way.”
Ronnie stared at the two of them with a confused expression on her features before she shook her head, offered another good luck, then strode from the nest.
“Wow,” Dewey exclaimed as the door banged shut. “A purple-level threat.”
He rubbed his hands together as a grin formed on his teal lips. “I never thought I’d see the day.”
“And here it is! I can’t say I’m terribly excited after that discussion, but I am glad to make your dreams come true.”
“Oh, you have, Paige,” he said, shooting her a glance. “Purple level with the legendary Wand of Division, and we were the requested library? Ho-ho! I’ve hit the big times now, baby.”
Paige clapped her hands onto the chair’s arms and pushed herself to stand. “I guess we should begin, then. Help me pull some sources?”
She thrust out her hand toward Dewey.
“Heck yeah. Oh, and don’t worry,” he said as he pressed his scaly paw against her palm. “I was serious about not letting you die. After we pull some resources, I’m all over digging deep into the SupNet and beyond to find a cure for you.”
“Thanks, Dewey,” Paige said with a grin. “Stay put, Dicky! We shall return.”
They strolled through the door into the archive. Paige circled around the nest as Dewey flew next to her.
“Now, the wand supposedly came from another universe, though that story’s sketchy at best. Others think it came from the Mouth of Hell, a cave in Bulgaria.”
Paige winced as her sneakers squeaked across the cement floor. “That sounds sufficiently awful.”
“It is. I hope we don’t have to go there. It’s terrible. My brother went there once, and he wouldn’t even go inside.”
“Let’s hope these Shrieking Pixies are acquiring the wand on a Caribbean island.”
“All expenses paid trip to Martinique? Yes, please,” Dewey said, flashing a thumbs-up.
They reached the BookTron, and Dewey tapped at the keyboard, entering Wand of Division into the search bar. Results populated on the screen. He clicked on a few and jotted down reference numbers before he flew to the shelf.
Paige followed behind him, glancing at the sheet. “I’ll start at the bottom. You start at the top.”
“Deal,” Dewey said, sticking the note to a shelf and flying upward to tug a book from above.
They amassed a collection of five references in total. Paige loaded three into her arms for the trek back to Dewey’s nest.
“You coming?” she called over her shoulder after blowing a lock of escaped hair from her face.
“I just want to pull a few magical references about your beast mark. Meet you up there.”
“I’ll come back for the other two books. We’ll head up together.”
“Deal,” Dewey said as he tapped around on the keyboard.
Paige shuffled across the archive, juggling the large reference volumes in her arms to ease the cramp forming in her back. She sucked in a breath as the wound on her back stung for a moment.
It subsided after a moment but left tiny beads of sweat on her forehead. She shook her head as she pushed into Dewey’s nest and delivered the books to her armchair, creating a stack next to it.
