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Paige swallowed hard as she grabbed the spoon and shoved it between her teeth.

“Ready?” Dewey questioned.

She offered him a curt nod, wrapping her fingers around the edge of the counter and balling her other hand into a fist as she prepared for the onslaught of pain.

“Here we go,” Dewey warned.

Paige jumped, her skin puckering into goose bumps and her muscles stiffening as Dewey swiped the first dose across her back.

Her features pinched as she waited for the intense, burning pain to sear through her shoulder.

Dewey smeared on another spatula full of goo. “Doing okay?”

Paige opened her mouth, letting the spoon fall to her lap. “Yeah. It actually feels…good.”

Dewey scraped more of the ointment from his bowl. “That’s surprising.”

“It’s got a nice cooling effect. Almost soothing.”

“Your little parasitic friends aren’t nearly as comfortable.”

Paige pounded a fist against the counter. “Should have set up the mirror.”

“Yeah, well, we couldn’t know that you wouldn’t pass out this time. Then there would be glass all over the floor, and I’d have to clean it up after dragging your limp body to the air mattress.”

“Get one now.”

“Really?” Dewey asked as he emptied the bowl, slathered the last bit of the ointment onto the wound, and dumped the bowl into the sink.

“I want to see the little leeches suffer.”

“Ohhh, vicious, Paige.”

“Well, they’ve been feeding off me. No more, you jerks.”

Dewey grabbed the mirrors from the air mattress and handed one off to Paige, positioning the other to face her back.

Paige peered through the glass, her lips curling into a smile. “Hahaha, die, suckers!”

“Oh, they will.” Dewey sighed as he lowered the mirror. “It’s really a shame I won’t be able to accept a Snobel Peace Prize in person.”

“Don’t you mean Nobel?”

“No, Snobel,” Dewey answered, plopping onto his chaise. “Supernatural Nobel.”

Paige narrowed her eyes at him as she grabbed the book from her seat and eased back into the armchair. She wrinkled her nose as she stared down at the book’s title. She swiped a finger over the raised gold letters of Sourcing Supernatural Elements.

“Well, are you going to open it or stare at it?”

Paige shot Dewey a glance before she returned her gaze to the book in her lap. “I’m a little nervous after the last incident with a book.”

“It’s not a magic tome, is it?”

Paige shook her head. “Still…”

“Just open it so we can get a game plan together. The world is counting on us, Paige.”

Paige offered an unimpressed stare through her eyelashes. “Thank you, Mr. Dramatic.”