Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

P aige reached for one of the shelves as items flew off of it and grabbed hold.

"Hang on, Paige!" Dewey said as he clung to her. "We've got to ride this out."

"What was it you said about smooth sailing?" she asked as her feet lifted off the ground.

"I didn't," he shouted over the din. "I said easy street."

She clenched her teeth. "Same difference."

"Not really. One is a solid surface, the other is liquid. Completely different mediums."

With a growl, she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. How are we going to survive this? I can't hang on that much longer and the bomb isn't even close to finishing."

"Dig deep, Paige!" Dewey shouted. "We can't die now! We just learned to high five!"

She clenched her teeth, her fingers struggling to hang on to the shelf as the bomb worked to suck in all of the dark magic surrounding them.

With her eyes squeezed closed, she focused all of her energy on surviving the cyclone that threatened to obliterate them from the earth.

"I'm…not…going…to…make…it!" She ground her teeth together, her fingers beginning to slip.

"Just a few more seconds, Paige! It's nearly done!"

Her lips tugged into a tight grimace, her muscles shaking from the tension to hang on.

Finally, the strain pulling against her lessened. Her feet brushed against the ground again. As the last of the whipping wind died down, she sucked in deep breaths, collapsing to the floor with her muscles quivering. "Oh, that was…intense. I can't even right now."

"Well, you may want to try," Dewey answered. "Because that bomb…it's about to blow again."

"What?" Paige cried as she snapped her eyes open and stared down at it.

The pipe, now blackened at the edges, rattled around on the floor like it would blow at any minute.

"Yeah, it must have reacted with some of the dark magic or something. I don't know, but I can't be responsible for what's about to happen."

"What do you mean you can't be responsible? You are responsible. You're definitely responsible!"

"Geez, Paige," Dewey said with a frown, "way to pile on the guilt. Look, how was I to know that whatever Higgins invented was going to do this. Anyway, this is no time to argue. We have to get out of here."

Paige scrambled to her feet, her muscles screaming as she pushed them to move.

Dewey landed on her shoulder again, clinging to her. "Run!"

"I'm trying. I can barely move after all that tension."

"That was on your arms, not your legs. Those should still be good. "

Paige shot him an angry glance as she stumbled her way to the double doors.

"Better call Devon and Drucinda, too."

"Do you think you can handle something? I'm busy trying to run away to save our lives." She thrust the radio toward him.

"Right," Dewey said as he grabbed it and pressed the button. "Hey guys, Dewey here."

"Skip the small talk and tell them to get out!" Paige screamed as she barreled down the hall.

"Oh, right, okay." He pressed the button again. "Hey, you should get out of here ASAP because the bomb is malfunctioning and I'm pretty certain it's about to blow this place sky high, so…you know wrap up what you're doing and leave."

Paige ripped the radio from his fingers with a shake of her head. "Devon, Drucinda. Get out now. This whole place is going to blow."

"Wow," Dewey said as Paige reached the intersection with the other halls. "That was really succinct."

"We're already outside," Drucinda answered. "Moving away from the facility now."

Paige screwed up her face. "How are they already outside? Why is she so good at everything?"

"I don't know, but I kind of wish you had her body right now because it feels like you're running really slowly and we're not going to make it."

"Oh, am I?" Paige asked as she tried to push her rubbery legs faster toward the stairs. "Am I running really slowly ? Maybe get off my shoulder and fly out if I'm going to slow for you."

"No, I mean…I'll stick with you, but…feels like there could be more effort on your part."

"Shut up, Dewey!" Paige growled as she reached the steps and pushed her weary limbs to climb up.

"Sure is a lot of stairs. Don't know what will happen if we're on the stairs when that bomb blows…"

"I'm going as fast as I can." She panted for breath as she pushed herself to continue without stopping for a break.

By the time she reached the top, her knees threatened to buckle, and her lungs hurt from wheezing for breath. She stumbled forward through the door into the igloo and dove through the exit into the cold snow beyond.

She pushed herself to trudge further from the igloo.

"Keep going, Paige. We want to be as far away from this place as we can when the bomb bl– "

His words cut off as a rumbling shook the earth before fire spewed from it. The force of the explosion knocked her from her feet, slamming her into the blanket of snow.

She groaned as the forces from the explosion waned, struggled to push up to stand in the snowbank.

"Whew, just made it," Dewey said with a swipe of his brow. "Good thing I pushed you."

"Yeah, good thing," Paige said with a groan as she climbed to her feet and brushed the packed snow from her snowsuit.

"Where are Devon and Drucinda? I'd like to get back and report our success," Dewey said.

A light blinked in the distance, signaling to them.

"There," Paige said with a heavy sigh. "Oh, let's hope they were able to do what they needed to do, and this is over."

"Only one way to find out," Dewey said.

After another second of rest, Paige trudged forward through the snow toward the others. As she approached, she spotted a third figure with them.

"Is that…"

"Higgins," Dewey answered with a bob of his head. "They took him out of there. "

Paige closed the distance between them, her features tugged into a frown as she eyed the man. "Why is he here?"

"Because," Drucinda answered, "he ought to face what he's done. He should be tried and convicted."

"Oh, yeah, good call," Paige said with a bob of her head. "He should have to pay for what he's done."

"Let's get him back to Shadow Harbor. I know more than one person who will love to see you face the consequences of your actions, Higgins," Drucinda said as she shoved him forward.

He sneered at her but before he could answer, she smacked him across the face, knocking him to the ground. "That was for kidnapping my best friend."

She cracked him again, sending him sprawling on his side into the snow. "That was for keeping her for thirty years."

He pulled himself up to sit on his haunches when she knocked him down again. "That was robbing Paige of her mother."

Drucinda's voice turned more frenzied as she raised her hand to strike again.

Devon grabbed hold of her arm, pinning it behind her back. "Easy, Dru, easy."

"Sorry," she said, her chest heaving for air. "Got carried away."

"Let's just take him back to Shadow Harbor and let him be tried for the criminal he is," Paige recommended.

Drucinda yanked her arm from Devon's grasp with a nod. "You're right. It's over now. Let's finish this."

Three months late r

Paige bounced down the stairs into the archives as Dewey buzzed across space, the RP in his hand.

"Have you seen the news?" he asked with a grin.

He flashed the screen toward her, and she read the headline. Higgins sentenced to life without possibility of parole .

A grin crossed her features. "So, it's over."

"It's over, Paige. He's done. Higgins is going to jail for a very, very long time."

"Good," Drucinda answered as she sauntered from between the shelves. "He ought to be fed to the wolves after what he did, but at least he'll have a very long time to think about it."

Paige offered her a nod with a tight-lipped smile as her mother appeared behind Drucinda. "Hi, Mom. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good. I see we have a new mission alert over there."

Paige slid her eyes sideways as the door slammed at the top of the stairs.

A second later, Devon slid his arm around her. "Hey, babe, new mission?"

"Looks like it." Paige wandered to the ticker and pulled the tape from it.

"What do we got?" Dewey asked.

She glanced up, her gaze scanning all of the faces in the room. "Red level. Special request of the new Shadow Harbor Library Team. What do you think? Go for it or pass it to the Grand?"

"Go for it," the others answered at once.

"Darn right," Dewey added. "We're the best library team out there. This mission is ours."

Paige sucked in a breath. "Okay. Looks like this is the first mission in a new era. "

"And what an era it will be," Dewey answered as he landed on her shoulder, his paw raised for a high-five.

She slapped her hand in the air, missing his paw entirely. "Yeah, it's going to be the same as before, isn't it?"

"Probably," he answered.

"But," she said, "we'll get through it. We always do."

And with the help of her husband, mother, and new best friend, Drucinda, they would take the magical world by storm.

The End

That's it for Paige and Dewey!

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