Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

P aige eyed the teal dragon with the devilish grin playing on his features. Her stomach turned over. She wasn't sure if it was from the spaghetti or the vague news. She didn't need any more surprises.

"Is this a good surprise or a bad surprise?" Ronnie asked.

"Neutral," Dewey answered.

"Surprises by definition cannot be neutral," Rochelle said.

"Calm down, Frenchie, what I mean is…no one's dying. It's just a very interesting tidbit."

"Explain, little man," Drucinda said, crossing her arms.

"Okay. When we tumbled through time and ended up in Scotland–"

"And ran into Liam McKellan, yes, we know," Drucinda said.

"Right," Dewey said with a nod as he aerially paced back and forth. "Liam mentioned something odd. Something that caught my attention."

"He mentioned a lot of odd things if you ask me," Paige said with a chuckle before biting off another chunk of meatball .

"When Paige asked about her bracelet, he knew a lot about it. And he mentioned a woman named Maura."

"Paige's ancestor, presumably," Rochelle said.

Dewey poked a claw at her. "Right. I assumed this, too, and I think it's correct, though we have no way of knowing that."

"So, what's odd about this?" Ronnie asked with a shrug.

Dewey shrugged as he fluttered to and fro. "Well, it wasn't so much what he said as how he said it."

Ronnie narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Paige asked with a mouthful of meatball, crumbs of it stuck to her cheeks.

"I mean…he said it…reverently."

"You think he was in awe of her abilities?" Rochelle asked.

Drucinda finished packaging the remaining spaghetti. "Odd coming from a man as ingenious as Liam McKellan."

"Not her abilities," Dewey claimed. "Her."

Ronnie shook her head. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying he said Maura's name like he was whispering the name of a long-lost lover on the winds." Dewey arched a fleshy eyebrow.

"Ew," Paige said as she slurped up another noodle.

Drucinda arched an eyebrow. "Are you saying…"

"That he had a little something-something going on with Maura," Dewey said with a head bob. "Yep, that's what I'm saying."

"Then, it's possible…" Rochelle began.

"That Paige and Liam McKellan are related," Dewey finished for her. "Which was my immediate thought. So while we were at his place, I grabbed a hair from his nearly perfect mane. Then, I grabbed one from Paige."

"And?" Ronnie prompted.

"And I can't tell you if Paige is related to Maura, but I can say definitely without a doubt, Paige is descended from Liam McKellan."

Paige wiped at the meat crumbs sticking to her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Seriously?"

Drucinda glanced at her before returning her gaze to Dewey. "Same question, little man. It defies logic."

"Defies it or not, he's definitely like her great-great-great-great–"

"Okay, we get it." Ronnie held up a hand. "So, that's an interesting piece of information."

"And one that explains a few things. A coven of witches with Beast Control powers among other things coupled with the genius and power of Liam McKellan paints a target squarely on her back." Rochelle crossed her arms as she eyed Ronnie.

"My exact thoughts. Which means we probably should not send her into the field."

"What?" Paige cried. "No! I need to face this. I'm not going to hide away in a dusty archive waiting for someone else to solve my problems. If my mom is any indication, this is not going to pass until we do something about it. "

"Admirable, Paige," Ronnie said, "but we don't want to risk your life."

"Neither do I, but I want to find my mom. And I want to stop whatever is going on here."

Ronnie tapped her toes on the floor as she weighed her statement. "Alright. I think you're probably the best person to tackle this. It's you they are after. And it's likely you who can get the most information."

"Then I'll do it." Paige ate the last noodle on her plate before she downed the last piece of meatball.

"Now, we wait." Drucinda pulled the tape measure from her pocket and measured her again.

"Any progress?" Paige asked .

"Not yet. Hopefully, we'll see some progress in an hour or so."

Paige heaved a sigh as she let her legs dangle over the table. After a few minutes of waiting, she scratched at her arm.

"I hope we can use the information about your relationship to Liam McKellan to track down more about your ancestors," Dewey said. "I wonder…"

"If you'd like to go track that…" Paige began.

Dewey swiped a keycard from Drucinda and bolted toward the door. "Be back soon."

Paige let her legs swing as she scratched at her thigh. "You all don't have to stay with me either. I can wait here with the Golem. I'll be okay."

"It's fine. Besides, we should monitor your progress so we can begin timing the effects of this method. It will be our go-to for the time being." Drucinda snapped her tape measure shut again with another shake of her head.

"Good thing I like spaghetti," Paige said with a chuckle. She fidgeted before she scratched her back.

"Everything okay, Paige?" Ronnie asked.

"I'm just…itchy or tingly. It's an odd sensation on my skin."

Rochelle skirted the table and studied Paige. "Hopefully, that means this is working and we will soon see progress."

They waited a few more moments. Paige twitched again, wiggling her shoulders. "Wow, this feels so weird. Is this normal?"

Drucinda measured her again. "I couldn't say. I have never used growth spaghetti. But I have never heard of a tingling sensation whilst using it."

"Any progress?" Ronnie asked.

"Some. It looks like we've gained an inch. "

"Well, an inch is better than nothing." Ronnie heaved a sigh as they continued to wait.

A few minutes later, Paige's legs dangled longer from the table, and she sat a bit taller.

"We have some progress." Drucinda narrowed her eyes at Paige as she finished her measurement.

"What?" Paige asked.

"Nothing."

Paige drummed her now-larger fingers on the table as she waited to grow more. A few more inches, and she'd have tripled her height. She looked forward to being bigger than a ruler.

"You're getting big, Paige." Ronnie chuckled as she compared the sizes of their hands. "You're almost toddler-sized now."

"Yeah. I can't wait to get back to my six-year-old size."

Drucinda cocked her head as she stared at Paige for a moment before side-eyeing Rochelle. "Do you notice anything odd?"

"Do you mean the–"

"What?" Paige questioned before she could finish. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not certain. But you look a little…green around the gills."

Paige frowned. She didn't feel sick. "I'm fine. For as much as I ate, I feel pretty good, actually. And look, my feet can almost touch the floor."

She dangled her foot closer to the ground and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Right. Well, good. Let's see if anything changes as you progress to a normal size." Drucinda drummed her fingers against her forearm as they waited another ten minutes.

She wrinkled her nose and shot a sideways glance at Rochelle with her eyebrows raised .

"Yes, I see it," the woman said with a nod.

Ronnie adjusted her glasses. "Is that normal?"

"What is it?" Paige asked.

"Look at your arms," Drucinda instructed.

Paige held out her hands, fingers spread as she glanced down at her forearm. Her jaw unhinged, and her eyes went wide. "OMG!"

She leapt onto the floor, now standing at three-quarters of her normal height. "What happened to me? Does my face look like this, too? Give me a mirror!"

Drucinda tugged her phone from her pocket and turned on the camera before handing it to Paige.

She stared in horror at what she saw. Her ultra-red lips were framed by green-tinged skin. "I'm green!"

Drucinda ruffled Paige's hair. "And that's not all. It appears you are growing horns."

Paige reached to the top of her head. Her fingers struck two nubs poking up from her skull.

She gasped, shooting a wide-eyed glance at her companions. "What happened?"

"It must have been a reaction to whatever happened to you during the time tumbling. Either the pink powder Higgins used or whatever Dewey concocted to correct it," Drucinda said.

Paige studied herself in the camera. "This is terrible. Awful. I can't go anywhere like this."

"Seriously? You look a bit trollish, but there's no reason you can't do a simple asset retrieval. I manage to take Thorn with me on most occasions, and no one notices."

"I'm green with horns."

"Reminiscent of an ogre, but you're a very pretty one," Ronnie said.

"Thanks, Ronnie. I appreciate that, but…oh okay, fine. I we nt out when I was purple, I guess I can go out when I'm green."

She handed the phone back to Drucinda as Dewey burst through the door again. He dropped the papers he held on the floor. "Paige! You're green. And you have…horns?"

"Yes, I've turned part ogre apparently." She settled her arms across her chest.

Dewey circled around her. "On the upside, you're almost fully grown. I wonder if this will help me pinpoint why you shrunk to begin with."

"Please, when you counteract this, don't mess anything up and give me fur or spots or anything."

Dewey paused at her backside, staring downward for a moment before he continued around her. "Sure thing, pal. Anyway, looks like you're nearly full grown. What say we give this Goo a try?"

"We may as well," Paige said, flinging her arms out. She stalked toward a chair across from the Golem and lowered herself into it, but she sprung back up the second she touched it. She twisted to search the chair for whatever she'd sat on.

"What's wrong?" Ronnie asked.

"I sat on something." She dusted off the chair with her hand before she tried again, leaping back up in seconds. "There is something on this chair."

"No, there isn't," Dewey said.

"I keep sitting on something. I can feel it as soon as I sit down."

Dewey studied the chair. "Well, there's nothing there."

"I know what I felt. As soon as I sit down, a thick, round thing pokes me."

Dewey wrinkled his nose. "Do you mean your tail?"

"MY WHAT?" Paige spun in a circle trying to eye her supposed tail .

Dewey grabbed hold of it and tugged it around her hip. "Your tail. You have a nice long tail with a heart-shaped tip. It's cute."

Paige fanned herself as she spotted it. "I'm going to pass out. I can't handle this. Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I thought you knew!" Dewey exclaimed.

"I didn't know I had a tail!" she shouted back.

Dewey shrugged. "You knew you had horns."

The door opened again and Devon strolled in. "Hey, Dru…whoa, nice tail, Paige."

Dewey poked a finger at him. "Shove it, Hot Stuff. We're in crisis mode here, and Paige hates her new tail."

Paige sank her head in her hands. "This is unbelievable."

"Uh, anyway, can I see you for a second, Dru?"

Drucinda studied Paige for a moment before she tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and stalked toward the door. "Sure. Don't ask any meaningful questions of that thing before I'm back."

Paige sighed as they left the room. "Well, I guess we can give this a shot."

She traced the edge of the gold container.

"You don't have to do this, Paige. We can ask an interrogator to try it."

"It's okay. I'm used to it. I've done it a few times before. And Sebastian knows me. He may be more apt to help."

Ronnie nodded as Paige unlatched the box and opened it. Her forehead crinkled as she stared inside before slamming it shut and latching it.

"What's wrong, Paige?"

She swallowed hard as her pulse quickened. "There's something else in there."