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“Good luck, Paige and Dewey,” Tarik said with a bow of his head. “I hope our paths will cross again.”

“Thank you for all your help, Tarik,” Paige said, shaking his hand while Dewey perched on her shoulder.

“One more stop to go, and we’ll have this all wrapped up,” Dewey said as Paige strode back to the plane.

“Bulgaria, here we come,” Paige said with a grin as she high-fived Dewey and climbed the stairs to the plane.

Her jaw dropped as she stepped inside. Couch cushions were tossed around the space. The contents of her tote bag were strewn across the floor.

And in the center of the cabin, the pilot and co-pilot sat bound and gagged.

CHAPTER 30

“Are you okay?” Paige said, her eyes wide as she stared at the two men on the floor.

A murmured response came back, muffled by the fabric stuffed in their mouths.

Paige shook her head, hurrying to their sides and dropping to a knee before tugging the gag from the pilot’s mouth.

“They stole the Holigramium,” he puffed.

Paige’s winced, and she glanced at Dewey.

“No,” he said.

He raced to the bedroom wall safe and tapped in the combination on the glowing green keypad. It beeped, and the door popped open.

He spun, his face a mask of concern with his blue lips tugged into a grimace. “He’s right. It’s gone.”

“Oh no,” Paige murmured as she loosened the bonds on the two men. “How quickly can we get in the air?”

The pilot rose to stand, rubbing his wrists. “Not sure. We need to do a pre-flight check of the entire plane. They could have done something to the plane. We were both knocked out.”

Paige nodded, licking her lips as her mind darted ahead. “Do what you have to do, but get us to Bulgaria as quickly as you can.”

Dewey fluttered to the couch and plopped onto it, letting his head sink into his hands as the pilots disappeared to go over the plane. “Oh, what a mess.”

“We have to get that wand,” Paige said as she slogged over to the couch and collapsed next to him.

“No kidding. The wand and the Holigramium in the hands of the pixies? We’re done.”

Paige crinkled her brow as she recalled Ronnie’s words. “They’re going to close the library.”

“And it’s going to be our fault.”

Paige shook her head and closed her hands into fists. She pounded them against her knees. “No!”

“No?”

“We’re not going to let it happen. We don’t know that they have the wand yet, and they may not have left with the Holigramium yet. We can only be a few hours behind them at the most. We can still do this.”

“Good thinking. Way to be positive, Paige,” Dewey said, his head bobbing up and down.

“Where’s the airstrip in Bulgaria?”

Dewey grabbed his RP and tapped around, pulling up a map with the coordinates marked. “There it is.”

“And where is the Mouth of Hell?”