Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

P aige's heart pounded as she forced herself forward. Pain bloomed in her left side as the bar pressed against her tightly, squeezing her hips more than it should.

"Squeeze, Paige!"

She grunted. "I'm trying. Ugh."

"Shouldn't have had those extra fries from Dean's."

"Shut up, Dewey." With a groan and a little more shrinkage, she managed to slide between the bars and crawl onto the stone floor.

"Run, Paige!" Dewey hissed. "Hide!"

Paige scrambled to her feet and spun in search of a hiding place. She found a dark corner and pressed herself into it, hoping it would be enough to hide her from whoever was coming toward them.

She caught sight of a pair of boots and trousers rounding the spiral stairs. Her heart leapt into her throat. She pressed back against the wall as close as she could. If she got caught in this form, she'd never escape.

But once they figured out she was missing, she probably would never escape either. She had no idea where they were, but she was certain it would be a veritable fortress to try to escape from even if they didn't realize she was loose.

Paige tried to stop herself from trembling as the feet stepped closer, revealing a gun strapped to the person's hip.

"Julian!" Ivy's sharp voice shouted.

The person froze on the stairs and twisted at the waist. "I'm checking on the prisoners."

"Leave them," Ivy answered. "We'll deal with them in good time."

A sigh resounded, and the man spun on a heel and scurried up the stairs. Paige puffed out a sigh of relief.

"Wow, that was close," Dewey whispered.

"Yeah," Paige answered as she stepped into the light. "What a lucky break, huh?"

"Tell me about it. I'm starting to worry," Dewey said. "You're about as unlucky as they come."

"Maybe my luck's changing."

Dewey let out a sharp laugh. "I doubt that. Although, you have been a little less klutzy lately."

"Right? I'm turning into a regular Drucinda." Paige tottered across the hard stone floor in search of anything to help her free Dewey. "Doesn't look like they left the keys down here."

"Would it matter? You can't reach them."

"Well, I would have tried to climb or something."

"Uh, you're not that much like Drucinda. She would have probably just scaled the wall with a pinky finger or broken the bars even if she was tiny."

"Why is she so cool?" Paige said as she crossed back to Dewey's cell and rubbed her chin. "Are you sure you can't get out of there?"

"Are you serious?" Dewey poked his head through the chickenwire attached to the bars. "Does it look like I'll fit my back end through this?"

Paige approached and grabbed the edge of the wire and tugged. "Ouch! It's sharp."

"Yes, it is. And you can't pull that back far enough with your tiny hands."

Paige glanced around at their surroundings. "Is there something I can wrap around that and pull with? With the right leverage maybe we can pull it back enough."

"And where are you going to find that?" Dewey asked, tugging his head back inside and crossing his arms.

"I don't know," Paige said with an annoyed huff. "I'm doing my best here. I don't see anything, though."

"You're going to have to branch out and find something to help. Maybe a phone or a weapon."

"How am I going to use any of those?"

"Do your best, Paige. I'll wait here to be rescued."

"I can't go off on my own. It'll take me forever to get up those stairs."

"I can't help," Dewey said with a shake of his head. "I'm stuck in here. This is a nightmare."

Panic grew within her, but she shoved it down and strode toward the stairs. "I can do this. I'm related to Liam McKellan and that super cool witch lady from the 1200s."

"Right," Dewey said as he stuck his head through the bars again. "You're related to some really awesome people. They are way more awesome than you, but if you can channel even a tenth of that coolness, we can get out of this."

Paige closed her eyes and blew out a long breath as she told herself she could do it. When she opened her eyes again, she stared at the first step with a crinkled nose. "This is gonna suck."

She approached the first stair and leapt up to grab onto the edge before she kicked her feet against the riser and scrambled up. "One down. One thousand to go."

She reached up for the other stair when she tugged her eyebrows together. A thought flitted across her mind. She stared up the winding stairway, realizing it would take her over an hour to scale it, and then she'd have to wander through the place in search of anything to help her.

She'd rather avoid that if she could. Having a flying dragon would expedite her trip quite a bit. She needed to free him.

She spun on her heel and sat on the edge of the stair before she slid off and tumbled to the floor below.

"What are you doing? Now you have to go up that stair again!" Dewey shouted at her as she hurried back to him.

"I have an idea."

"Does it have to do with shoving something somewhere I don't want to?"

Paige screwed up her face. "What? No. Have you tried opening the cell with that floating key we found in the elemental plane?"

Dewey's eyebrows raised high. "No. Do you think it's a magic key?"

"I don't know. But it can't hurt to try it."

"It could be. We won it and left the elemental plane, so maybe it's a general magic skeleton key that works on a lock in any realm." Dewey dug under his scale and pulled out the key. He buzzed over to the door and stuck his arm through. With his horns wiggling, he wrangled the key around to insert it into the lock.

It clattered to the floor. Paige clicked her tongue as he dropped to the floor and tried to reach the key. "I can't get it. Can you drag it over?"

Paige grabbed the key and tugged it backward with a wince. "This is heavy. "

She reached the bars and passed it over to Dewey. He tried again, this time managing to get it into the lock. With a twist, a click echoed in the dungeon.

Dewey's eyes went round. "It worked!"

Paige breathed a sigh of relief as she silently celebrated the small win. "Okay, open that door and get out here. Oh, this is going to be so much easier."

Dewey pushed the creaky door open and flew out of the cell. "Oh, I'm free. I'm free!"

Paige waved her fists in the air and hopped. "Yay! Now, get down here so I can climb on your back."

"Right," Dewey said with a nod as he landed.

Paige climbed onto his back before he lifted off again. "Let's go. We need to figure out how to get out of here."

"Would be nice if we could find your backpack so you could grow into a real girl again."

"Getting out of here with my growth spaghetti would be a double win, but escaping is our first priority."

"Of course," Dewey said as he flew up the stairs slowly.

Paige narrowed her eyes as she stared down at him. Why did that answer sound like it wasn't true?

They emerged at the top of the stairs and peered into the hall, finding it empty.

"Which way should we go?" Dewey whispered.

Paige let her gaze flick back and forth from the left to the right. "Ummm, right."

"Why?" Dewey asked.

"I don't know. Random guess. It looks shorter. We can check that hall, and then backtrack if we need to."

"Okay," Dewey said as he buzzed down the hall to the right. He screeched to a stop. "Wait. What if this is shorter because it's closer to where they are?"

"I don't know, then we'll go back. Just pick a direction and go in it. "

"Fine, fine," Dewey said, continuing forward. "We'll go the way you said."

They reached the corner and peeked around it.

"Wow, this place is empty," Dewey said as he sailed around the corner.

"Good. Maybe they all went out to dinner or to terrorize someone else."

Dewey stopped outside of one of the doors. "Should we be checking these for your bag?"

Paige glanced down the hall. She didn't see any escape routes immediately available. With a shrug, she said, "Sure, why not. Maybe we'll find my bag."

Dewey grasped the knob and twisted, pushing the door into the dark space slightly. "Library."

"I don't see my bag in there."

"Nope." Dewey pulled the door closed and flew across the hall to the door across from them. They peeked into the next room.

"Billiards," Paige announced. "Keep going."

"Would you like to play a game?"

"Oh, yes, by all means, let's stop and play a game before we escape. There's no rush," Paige answered as they zipped down the hall to the next door.

They hopped back and forth, finding nothing of interest until they reached the middle of the long corridor.

Dewey pushed into the next room and gasped. "Paige!"

"Nothing in here," she said with a sigh. "Keep going."

Dewey slipped into the room and closed the door behind them. "Nothing in here? Are you blind?"

Paige scanned the space. "No?"

"It's a lab. Fully stocked by the looks of it," Dewey answered as he buzzed closer to the beakers and pantry shelves.

"So what? "

"So, I think I can fix your miniature stature with a quick serum. I'm ninety-nine percent certain it'll work."

"Stop, don't say anything else. I do not want your whipped together with whatever they've got solution that will turn me into a purple people-eater."

Dewey scoffed and shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous, Paige. There is literally nothing I could create that would turn you into a purple people-eater."

He landed on the worktable and wiggled. "Get off me. This will take fifteen minutes and should fix you. It would be so much nicer if we run into any vampires if you were an entire person, not a shrimp."

Paige opened her mouth to answer, but Dewey sliced his hand through the air to stop her. "Don't say anything. I'm doing this."

"Fine," Paige said, settling her arms over her chest with an unimpressed stare.

"Stop looking at me like that. You're messing with my vibe."

"I'm afraid you're going to mess with my vibe like you normally do."

A puff of smoke escaped from Dewey's nostrils as he glared at her.

She waved her hands in the air. "Fine, do what you want."

Dewey darted around the room, selecting bottles and measuring powders. He mixed them together in a bowl before grabbing a beaker and mixing together several liquids.

He left the bowl and beaker sitting next to one another on the table before he returned to the pantry shelf and scanned it.

"What are you looking for?" Paige asked.

"One last ingredient to speed up the process."

"Speed up?" Paige repeated .

"Yeah. I'd like you to grow in a few minutes, not a few hours."

Paige's stomach turned over as the words hit her. "Uhh, that sounds dangerous."

Dewey buzzed toward the shelf and snatched a small container. "Definitely not. It's perfectly safe."

Paige side-eyed him as he screwed off the top and used the eyedropper to suck up the clear liquid in the amber bottle. He dripped a few drops onto the powder. They sunk into it with no reaction.

The non-reaction encouraged Paige to believe this may be as innocuous as he promised.

"Okay, here we go." Dewey held the beaker full of liquid over the bowl. He shot Paige a cocky glance, arching an eyebrow. "Remember, kids, do not try this at home. I am a professional."

Paige offered him a wry glance as he emptied the liquid into the bowl. It wet the powder, swirling around it with a lackluster reaction.

Her hope improved with each step. Dewey grabbed a glass stirrer and carefully mixed the powder and liquid. It turned blue before it faded to a pale shade of the same color. "Okay, it's ready. Just drink this down and in a few minutes, you should be your normal size."

Paige's stomach rolled as she considered drinking it. Would it taste bad? And more importantly, would it actually work?

She licked her lips as she approached the bowl.

Dewey shoved a straw toward her. "This may make it easier."

She had to open her mouth as wide as she could to fit the drinking apparatus between her lips and sucked up some of the liquid. She swallowed it and smiled. "Wow, tastes like green apple. "

Dewey grinned at her and nodded.

She continued to drink the liquid down until she finished the entire bowl. She smacked her lips together as she wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Now, we wait." Dewey lifted a finger in the air. "But not for long, thanks to me."

Paige stared down at her hands as she waited to see if they grew larger. Nothing happened for over a minute. Maybe it wouldn't work.

After another thirty seconds, her body started to tingle all over. "I think something's happening."

Dewey squinted at her. "You may look a little bigger."

"Quick, help me get down onto the floor. I don't want to break the table when I grow."

Dewey flew closer, and Paige leapt onto his back. He delivered her to the floor. "I think I'm bigger."

"You feel bigger."

"Hey!" Paige said with a wrinkled nose. "Although, I've never been so happy to be heavier in my life."

She snapped her gaze up to him. "Wait, you remembered that I wasn't two-hundred-and-fifty pounds, right?"

"Yes, Paige." Dewey rolled his eyes as he clicked his tongue. "Not making that mistake again."

"Okay, good. Yeah, I'm getting taller. Dewey! It's working." She grinned at him as the top of the table got closer and closer to her at a rapid pace.

The tingling eased as her growth slowed when she reached her normal height. She bounced on her toes as she clapped her hands. "Dewey, you did it!"

"Paige?" Dewey called.

"Right here," she said, pointing at herself, "normal-sized Paige at your service."

"Paige? Where are you? Where did you go? "

"Huh?" She crinkled her nose as she stared at Dewey whose gaze floated around the room.

"You're gone! Paige, you're gone!"