Chapter 10

Paige startled awake with a gasp. She blinked a few times, trying to bring the room into focus.

Something teal joggled in front of her. Her hair moved as an unknown entity stroked it.

"How do you feel?" Dewey asked.

Paige squeezed her eyes closed, rubbing at them before she opened them again. Plastic hit her palm, and she wrapped her fingers around the arm of her glasses before shoving them on her face.

Dewey's concerned face stared back at her. She pushed against the mattress, trying to sit up.

"Easy, don't push it. You passed out again."

"Did you get it?" she asked, her voice unsteady.

"Darn right, I did," Dewey said with a triumphant grin.

Paige collapsed back down with a huff. "Thank goodness."

"And there's more good news."

Paige flicked her gaze at the dragon's teal face.

"I identified what it is, and I'm working on a cure for you right now."

A grin formed on Paige's lips, and she reached out to high-five her partner. "Yay! What is it?"

"Parasitic vampire worm."

Paige grimaced, her nose wrinkling at the term. "Like…"

"Like tiny parasites that live in the day-walking vampire's saliva, blood, et cetera, and are transferred to their victim through a scratch or bite. This is why day-walking vampire wounds don't heal. These things multiply and grow, feeding off the host until it kills them. Have you been feeling tired lately?"

"A little. I just figured it was the new job and all the travel."

"It's likely the parasites."

Paige pushed up to her elbows as she considered it. "So, can they be treated and eradicated from my body?"

Dewey waved a pencil in the air. "Working on that right now. I'm feeling good about finding a solution. Oh, there's more good news, too."

"What's that? You found the Wand of Division?"

"Nope, that's your job. But I did a quick search and found out that Dickens's size issue is temporary. He should revert to normal size in about a week or so."

Paige flicked her gaze at the tiny cat, still curled in his bed with a paw covering his face. "Oh, good. Now, all we need is a cure for me and the Wand of Division, and we'll be all set."

"Well, if you're feeling up to it, you can start tracking information on the wand while I figure out how to save your life."

Paige nodded as she rolled onto her side and stretched her feet out in front of her on the burgundy rug. "I am. I'm just–"

She sucked in a sharp breath, her words cutting off.

"What is it?" Dewey questioned, leaping to his feet. "Are you feeling lightheaded? Dizzy? Sick?"

"Just a little pain in my back."

"Oh, yeah. I covered the wound, but I'd bet by now those things are venturing back out to feed. I can try to pull more out, but it won't solve the issue. They'll keep coming back. We've got to treat this orally in addition to getting some of those larger suckers with a topical treatment."

"Orally?" Paige questioned as she rolled her shoulder back with a grimace.

Dewey flitted in front of her, his horns wiggling on his nose as he pulled his lips back into a frown, his fangs showing. "The ones growing out of your back are likely not the only ones in your system. They're probably growing everywhere inside your body."

Paige's jaw dropped open. "What? Are you serious? Like they are feeding everywhere in my body?"

The horns on Dewey's nose wiggled as he wrinkled it and nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. And you'll have more and more complications from them as time goes on."

Paige shot a glance at him over her shoulder as she struggled to stand, a burning pain searing through her shoulder. "Complications?"

"Ranging from general pain like in your shoulder to abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, loss of consciousness, loss of motor control, muscle spasms–"

"Enough, stop," Paige shouted, waving a hand in the air and adjusting her glasses. "I get it. Basically, the worms keep eating through my body until I turn into a vegetable and die."

"Right," Dewey said with a crisp nod.

"But that's not going to happen because you're all over this cure."

"Like white on rice."

Paige blew out a long breath and nodded. "Then there's nothing to worry about. What I do need to worry about is tracking down the wand before these overaggressive pixies break the world in half."

Dewey eyed the stack of five books next to the armchair. "No time like the present."

Paige nodded and dug a notebook from within her tote bag along with a pen. She slumped into the armchair, pulled her feet up under her, uncapped the pen, and tugged one of the large volumes onto her lap. With the notepad balanced on the arm, she flipped through the index in search of information on the enigmatic wand.

After finding the appropriate page, she scanned the words for any mention of the wand. Outside of an obscure reference list of dangerous magical items, no information existed that would help them locate the object.

With a sigh, Paige snapped the book shut and tossed it to the carpet below.

"That was quick."

"Nothing in there outside of a list of dangerous stuff, of which the wand is one. Not a darn thing about where it came from and where it may be."

"I'm not surprised. This thing is a legend for a reason. Try the Legends and Facts book. It may have more."

Paige lifted the book from the stack and tugged it onto her lap. "Did you say something about references on SupNet? Can I access that?"

"Oh, sure. You just need an account. Give me your phone, and I'll set it up."

Paige leaned over the chair's arm, dug through her bag, retrieved the electronic device, and tossed it onto the air mattress next to Dewey.

He snatched it from within the folds of the blanket and tapped around on the device before he flew into the air and hovered in front of Paige.

"What are you doing?" she asked as he waved the phone in her face.

"Taking a profile picture."

Paige waved her hand in front of the camera, trying to block it. "What? No! I look terrible."

Dewey crinkled his nose and shook his head. "Look what you did." He flashed the screen toward her. A blurry picture of a grimacing Paige lit the screen. "I ought to use that just because you're being a jerk."

"I'm not being a jerk. You gave me no warning you were taking a picture to post all over the internet."

"It's hardly all over the internet, Paige. It's just SupNet. Come on, smile. No, wait. Don't smile. You'll seem too friendly that way."

"I am friendly."

"Yeah, but we don't want SupNetters to know that. You'll just get spammed with vampire princes who want to give you their fortune if you'll send them your bank account information."

"Seriously?" Paige asked with a wrinkled nose.

"Seriously. Now look crabby or emo or something."

Paige puckered her lips, her forehead crinkling at the statement.

Dewey snapped a picture and slid his purple tongue from inside his mouth. "Perfect."

"What? No! Let me see that." Paige reached for the phone.

Dewey twisted away from her, tapping around on the screen before he said, "There we go. All set. Your username is Paige Turner, Paranormal Librarian."

He handed the phone back to Paige. She studied her profile. The round image next to her name looked like she had an attitude the size of the ever-expanding archive.

Her bio read: Paige Turner, Paranormal Librarian. Got magic? I do. I shelve it for a living. I've been in the trenches. HMU if you want to swap war stories.

Her features pinched, and she waved a finger at the phone. "What is this? I sound ridiculous."

Across the room, Dewey tugged open his refrigerator door. "I made you sound super cool. Like Blade."

"But I'm nothing like Blade."

"Don't knock yourself, Paige," Dewey said after a slurp of his Energy Dragon. "You've fought a werewolf and won."

Paige puckered her lips as she stared down at the app on her phone. "Okay, how do I find the references to the wand made on here?"

"Tap the magnifying glass in the top right corner and search."

Paige nodded and pressed the magnifying glass before she typed Wand of Division and pushed the arrow to search. "Nothing."

"What did you type?" Dewey asked, landing on the air mattress and plopping down with his drink.

"Wand of Division."

Dewey rolled his eyes at her. "Really? Did you think it would be that simple? They aren't going to advertise it like, ‘Hey, look at us. We're searching for one of the most powerful legendary magical items on the planet!' Try WOD or hashtag wand or something."

Paige frowned at the phone as she typed one of the more obscure references into the search bar. Results filled her screen, the search result number ratcheting up quickly into the millions. "Whoa!"

"What now?" Dewey asked, glancing up from his reference book.

"Over three million results for hashtag wand." Paige scrolled through them. "Okay, this is not helpful. These references are to people using actual wand-based magic. Which is fascinating since I did not know that existed but still unhelpful."

"Oh, right. Yeah, that's probably a terrible search. Sorry. Wand-based magic is fairly popular, especially among the fairies."

Paige wrinkled her nose and heaved a sigh. "Of course it is. Okay, I'll try a few more searches and hope I hit on something."

After a dozen searches that turned up nothing beyond interesting tidbits related to the magical world, her eyes began to glaze over. She scrunched her features as Dewey's pen scratched away on his notepad.

She shot him an irked glance, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at his progress. With puckered lips, she tossed the phone down on the table and turned her attention to the book in front of her. After flipping to the appropriate page, she pulled her notebook closer and pressed her pen against the tablet.

She stared down at the page, her eyes passing over the words without comprehending them. Dull pain thudded at her temples. She rubbed her skin and squeezed her eyes closed, biting her lower lip.

She sank her teeth farther into her full lip as she pondered whether or not black worms were threading their way across her forehead and eating her alive from the inside out.

"Ugh," she moaned, sinking her head into her hands.

"You okay, Paige?" Dewey asked, glancing up from his note-taking.

Paige raised her head and sucked in a deep breath. "Yeah. Just frustrated. Imposter syndrome."

"Imposter syndrome?" Dewey questioned.

Paige flicked him a glance. "You're just sitting over there making progress on your research. Meanwhile, I can't find a solid lead on the wand anywhere. I suck at this job."

"No, you don't. If it was easy to find a solid lead, someone would have found the wand by now."

Paige flung her hands in the air. "Someone did. Some gross Shrieking Pixies, apparently. Or someone before that who is planning to sell it to them or whatever."

"Cut yourself a break. Take a deep breath, and just take it slow. Remember, you're fighting another issue which is probably knocking your concentration."

"Yeah, that's the other thing. Every time I feel a flinch, I wonder if those stupid worms are eating their way across my body."

"The good news is they spread fairly slowly. The biggest concentration of them is near your wound, and we pulled a few of those bad boys out. So there aren't scads of them in your belly or brain or anything. Not yet anyway."

"Let's hope not ever," Paige said, adjusting the book on her lap. "Okay, okay, whining over. Back to it."

Dewey waved his pen in the air and wiggled it. "That's the spirit!"

Paige reread the same page again, jotting down notes. The reference entry listed several origin stories for the magical object, citing the believability level of each.

Dewey's tale about another universe comprised the third bullet point and, as he'd indicated earlier, the credibility of the story was the lowest of all the legends.

Paige scanned the list for the highest probability, finding it in the Mouth of Hell bullet point. Several factors pointed to this as the most likely scenario, including proximity to another realm, origin of wand narratives in the immediate area, and a large rock split in two, presumably by the wand, near the cave's entrance.

Paige noted them on her paper and then chewed the pen's cap as she read the bubbly writing.

Something about it seemed off. Still, it was the most likely source. Where had the wand gone after that? Could it still be in Bulgaria? She scribbled the question down on the paper and drew a star next to it before scanning the other bullet points.

Other origin locations included the Ural Mountains, Alaska, Australia, and Egypt. Paige scanned the information in each bullet point before jotting Egypt on the yellow paper and circled it three times.

She set down her pen and grabbed her phone again, pulling up the SupNet app. She typed a few more phrases into the search bar and scanned the results. Nothing telling about the wand location.

She stared into space for a moment before typing "Bulgaria Hell SP Pixie Div" and pressing the Go arrow. Results lined the screen, and she thumbed through them. Her eyes narrowed at one particular post, and she tapped it.

The screen filled with a picture of two Shrieking Pixies posed outside the mouth of a large cave. The caption read SP convention! Mouth of Hell. Having a blast with my girl, Dena. We about to bring it! #shriekingpixies #spsrule #spsforthewin #wod #dividetheworld.

Paige flicked her eyes to the post's date. Yesterday. Her heart beat harder, and her muscles stiffened.

The Shrieking Pixies were having a convention in Bulgaria, where the wand supposedly originated. The message made a vague reference to "bringing it," and the hashtags contained the word divide and the initials WOD. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"I think I found something," Paige shouted.

"Really?" Dewey asked, dumping his stuff onto the bouncy mattress and flying over.

Paige waved the phone in the air and pointed to the picture. "Read it! It sounds like there are a ton of Shrieking Pixies in Bulgaria right now. And the hashtags mention dividing the world. This has to be the SupNet reference flagged for follow-up."

Dewey studied the supernatural social media post. "You're right. Hmm."

"I think we should book a trip there."

"Agree. Though…" Dewey's eyes darted around the apartment.

"What? You don't want to go? You chicken?" Paige shot him a coy glance.

"No, I'm not. But…well, go ahead and get the ball rolling for the trip."

"What? Why are you so reluctant?" Paige dumped the books on the floor and slid her notebook onto the side table.

"It's just…well, I'm almost done with the research, and I think we should try a remedy before we jet off to Bulgaria. I don't mean to sound too alarming or anything, but I'd feel better if you were on the road to recovery."

Paige settled back in her seat. "Oh, okay. Good point. Well, before I request this, maybe I'll do a bit more reading while you finish up, and then we'll head out."

Dewey flitted back to his seat and tugged another book onto his lap, crossing his scaly ankles as he grabbed his notebook. "That sounds like a good plan."

Paige studied the remaining books in her pile, choosing the one titled Magical Items, Their Usage, and Uses. After a scan of the index, she thumbed through the pages, sending a plume of dust into the air.

"Guess this doesn't get much use," she murmured, settling on the page with the entry for the Wand of Division.

The entry described the wand's appearance and how to summon the force to divide objects. A crystal-based structure, the wand, when dormant, appeared to be made of stone. When active, the wand transformed into a prism-like see-through glass exterior. The energy core, visible in the central channel, would begin blue, turn to purple, and finally to red when ready to release divisive force.

Paige's heart skipped a beat, and the corners of her lips turned up as she read the next statement. On its own, the wand is capable of splitting objects with a mass of up to 10 kg.

She nodded at the book. Ten kilograms had to be small, right? She tapped around on her phone. At a quick glance, the average cat had a mass of five kilograms.

Despite its harrowing reputation, the Wand of Division seemed to be fairly innocuous, at least. Paige settled back in the chair and slid her phone between the cushion and the arm. At least this wasn't a dire emergency.

She traced down the page with her index finger, finding where she left off.

Two add-ons can be combined with the wand to increase its power. The Crystal of Increased Energy may be affixed to the wand's tail and provides a boost of power, allowing the wand to split objects with a mass of up to 60 kg.

Paige wrinkled her nose, performing a quick search to find out if the crystal offered the capability to split a human in half. Still, not terrible. Not building-level splitting power.

She tapped her pen against her lips as she pondered the size of the split rock that lent credence to the idea that the wand originated in Bulgaria. Probably smaller than a human.

She pulled her knees up underneath her and read on for information about the second add-on.

A second add-on, which can be used with the CIE or separately, is the liquid form of Holigramium. When dipped in Holigramium, the wand can split objects with a mass of up to 200 kg. The effect of the dip lasts up to forty-eight hours after submersion and subsequent setting of the liquid into a solid form (most quickly achieved with dry ice).

Paige grimaced at the higher mass able to be split before reading the final paragraph. Her stomach rolled and her heart dropped as she scanned the crisp black text on the white page.

If the wand is combined with both the CIE and a Holigramium dip, the splitting power becomes exponentiated, allowing the user to split objects as large as the planet Earth in half easily.

A gnawing fear lodged itself in the pit of her stomach, and Paige bit her lower lip.

This time, the world might not survive.