Chapter 8

Paige nodded as her forehead pinched from the obnoxious noise and flashing red lights.

She shouted over the earsplitting alarm to be heard. "We really need a new way of announcing that."

"Take the cat upstairs. I'll grab the case info," Dewey bellowed.

"Okay." Paige gave him another nod as she cuddled the cat closer to her chest, her hand shielding his ears from the screeching noise.

She crossed the room away from the ticker tape machine toward Dewey's nest and circled around it on the dozens of stairs to reach the top.

Paige pulled the now too-big bed for the cat nearer to her air mattress and set him inside. He toddled around, finding it difficult to walk on the fluffy material. After a few moments, he yawned widely and nestled down for a nap. Paige covered him with a blanket as Dewey buzzed into the room.

"We need to get a baby gate or something so he can't roam around. He's so tiny, I'm afraid he'll get hurt or lost."

"At least he can't open my door anymore. He's way too small for that," Dewey said as he flew to his chaise with the ticker tape streaming behind him.

Paige shoved her hands into her pockets and raised her eyebrows at him. "So, what do we have this time? More werewolves?"

Dewey shook his head. His dark eyes scanned the tape as he held it out in front of him. "No, it's worse than that."

Paige collapsed into the armchair across from him. "Worse than werewolves?"

"‘Fraid so," Dewey said and sucked in a deep breath. "W.O.D. S.P. Threat level: Purple. Threat credibility: Medium-High. Retrieval priority: High. Requested library facility: Shadow Harbor."

Paige wrinkled her nose at the cryptic message as her mind recalled the last one they'd received. It had indicated the closest library facility, not the requested one, and the threat level had not been a color. "What?"

Dewey let the long, thin strip of paper fall into his lap, his nose horns wiggling as he considered it.

Paige continued with her query. "What is a purple-level threat? Last time, it said high. And why does it say requested not closest library? And what in the world is a W.O.D.? Another duplication thingy?"

Dewey shook his head and balled his fist. "I'd bet my life it's the Wand of Division."

Paige drummed her hands against the chair's arms. "And I'm guessing this thing doesn't help kids with long division."

Dewey shot her an unimpressed stare. "What do you think? Do they even do long division anymore? What century do you live in?"

"One where I learned long division in school and wished I had a wand that would do it for me."

"Sorry, we still can't help you with that. No, the Wand of Division doesn't help with anything mundane. If it actually exists, which is what makes me think is the reason behind the purple threat level, it has the power to literally divide things."

Paige flitted her gaze around as she tried to make sense of his comments. "Divide things as in…"

"As in here's Paige." He waved his hand up and down Paige's length. "Zap! Here is Paige divided in half."

"What?"

"Yep. Has the power to rip you limb from limb. To split roads down the middle. To break buildings apart."

Paige grimaced as she drew her chin back to her chest. "Yikes! This sounds more like a code red."

"Well, code purple because it's legend, not fact. Code red once we verify this bad boy actually exists."

"And why does it say requested library instead of closest?" Paige inquired.

The door burst open, and Ronnie strode in and slapped a folder down onto the table next to Paige. "Because word got around about your Mirror of Duplication win, and now the powers that be prefer Shadow Harbor Library to handle dangerous cases."

Paige's jaw dropped open as Dewey flew in the air, a paw thrust in the air.

"Yeah! Finally!"

"Finally?" Paige asked, her brow furrowing.

Ronnie stuck a hand on her hip, leaning against the back of Paige's chair. "We haven't been the go-to library for decades. Not since your mother was the librarian."

Paige arched an eyebrow.

"Never in my tenure here," Dewey added. "It's always been those goody-goodies over at the Grand Archive in D.C."

Paige leapt from her seat and paced the floor. "Okay, so I'm learning. We're the preferred library, which means we can take our pick of cases."

Dewey fluttered back to his seat and waved at Ronnie to hand him the folder. "Is this what I think it is? Wand of Division?"

Ronnie bobbed her head up and down. "Yep. The legendary wand."

Paige grabbed the ticker tape lying on Dewey's chaise. "What's the other two letters? Last time they were W.W. for werewolf, right? This time it says S.P. What's S.P.?"

"Shrieking Pixies," Dewey and Ronnie answered simultaneously.

"Shrieking Pixies?" Paige repeated.

"Miserable little buggers," Dewey answered with a nod. "Horrible sound when they open their mouths. And teeth? Wow! For being only about as big as Dickens, they can do some damage. You do not want to be on the receiving end of a Shrieking Pixie bite. They sting something terrible."

"It's not just the teeth. It's the venom," Ronnie added as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Right. The skin will blister around the bite, and it leaves a permanent scar."

Paige threw her arms in the air. "They sound just lovely. At least they're tiny, unlike the werewolves."

"Make no mistake, they are just as dangerous. Especially if they've got the Wand of Division," Ronnie stated.

Paige crinkled her brow as Dewey paged through the folder. "Just as dangerous? Werewolves are huge with massive teeth. They can morph into beasts and chase you down and eat you!"

"Don't let their size fool you. They can be deadly. One well-placed bite from a pixie queen or a swarm of them can easily kill a regular-sized human," Ronnie informed her.

"Yeah. And given their tiny size, they can move around relatively undetected. Now, imagine a murder of Shrieking Pixies with an axe to grind holding entire cities hostage with the wand."

"A murder?"

"Yeah," Dewey said with a nod, "that's what a group of three or more Shrieking Pixies is called. A murder. Like a murder of crows."

Paige wrinkled her nose at the dark name for the group of tiny creatures. "I just picture sweet little Tinkerbells flying around. This is surreal."

"Oh no," Dewey said, waving a paw in the air.

"Some pixies are friendly," Ronnie said. "But not the Shrieking Pixies. And they certainly aren't cute like Tinkerbell."

"No, no," Dewey continued with his head still wagging. "Horrid, ugly little creatures. They've got iridescent skin with red eyes, purple lips, and triangle-shaped teeth. One sharp horn pokes right out of their foreheads. Behind the spike is their black, spiky hair. One touch of their locks can pierce the skin. And they've got long, ape-like arms that hang down past their legs. Then, take those cute little pearly blue Tinkerbell wings and turn them gray-black and spiky, webbed with blood-red veins that cover the outside."

"They are rather grotesque," Ronnie admitted.

"Okay, their ugly looks aside, what do we know about the case?"

Dewey's nose horn wriggled as she shuffled through the papers. "Not much. Apparently, there's been some chatter on SupNet about this."

"SupNet?" Paige questioned.

"SupernaturalNetwork," Dewey answered. "It's basically Instagram for supernaturals."

"So, basically a supernatural social media site has had a few references to this, and the library flagged it and wants us to look into it?"

"They must find the threat credible enough to have sent it out."

"Threat level is listed as Medium-High," Paige read from the strip.

Ronnie bobbed her head up and down. "The medium is likely because of the lack of information about its existence."

"So, if it's real, the threat level is high," Paige said, adjusting her glasses.

"Definitely. We do not want this outside of a library archive."

Paige cocked her head and raised her eyebrows. "Okay, well, I guess we have our work cut out for us. Looks like we'd better get researching."

"I agree," Ronnie said. "Though you still need to worry about your unhealed beast mark. Dewey, do not let this investigation outshine the fact that Paige's health is still in danger. We need that to be a priority, too."

Dewey poked a chubby digit in the air. "Right. I'm all over it, Ronnie. Paige is moving in here with me." He waved a hand at the air mattress. "So, we can split our efforts and research both."

Ronnie glanced over her shoulder at the makeshift bed. "Moving in here? Paige, I understand how committed you are, but that seems extreme."

Paige pulled her lips into a wince, her glasses sliding down her nose. "We had a bit of an incident earlier at my apartment."

"Oh?" Ronnie asked, smoothing a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"The beast attacked us. He couldn't find Paige because of the talisman, but he did some damage while searching and scared the heck out of both of us."

"Okay, that settles it. We need Paige's health to be a priority. That beast wound needs to be healed, and we must identify the source and eliminate it." Ronnie swiped the folder from Dewey's hand and snapped it shut. "I'll pass this to the Grand Archive team. Let them chase their tails over a purple level."

"What?" Dewey shouted, flying into the air. "No way! This is all us."

"Dewey, this is Paige's life. She's been attacked, and the beast is looking to finish her off."

"And we can do both," Dewey argued. "I'm not going to let her die. She's the best partner I've ever had. And more importantly, she's my friend. I'd never take a chance with her life, but, Ronnie, we've got this."

He flicked his dark eyes to Paige in a silent plea for help.

Paige pressed her lips together and nodded as she adjusted her glasses. "He's right. We can handle both. I'll research this wand, and Dewey can continue his work on the beast mark."

Ronnie flexed her jaw, crossing her arms over her chest and flicking her gaze back and forth between the two of them.

She sucked in a deep breath and nodded after a moment. "Okay. As long as you're both comfortable with it. But if this gets away from you and your beast mark starts to get worse, you'll forget the wand and focus on that. Understand?"

Paige nodded, her flaming red ponytail bobbing up and down behind her.

Dewey spun in the air before floating back to his chaise. "We're on it, Ronnie! And don't worry. We won't let you down on either count."

"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.

She returned to collect the others, finding Dewey tugging a sparkling purple book from the floating circular shelving unit containing magical tomes. He plopped it on top of a teal-colored volume before flitting over to Paige.

"Got my cure in there?"

"You bet," he answered with a wink. "Let's head up. Oh, by the way, did you want to catch a few Zs before you do anything? It's been a rough night."

"I may doze off, but I couldn't sleep now if I tried. Between the madness with Dickens and now the purple-level threat, I'm wired."

"There are Energy Dragons in the fridge. Feel free to help yourself."

Paige wrinkled her nose as she climbed the last few stairs to the nest. "You and those disgusting drinks."

"They're not disgusting. They're–"

Paige's eyes rolled back in her head, and she pitched forward. The books spilled from her arms, smacking into the thick carpet of his living room as she nose-dived toward the floor.