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The smile faded from her lips as she activated the wand and pointed it at the lead pixie.

The tiny creature raised her long arms, baring her sharp, pointed teeth as she shouted, “ATTACK!”

CHAPTER 32

The cave erupted into chaos as a flurry of pixies buzzed around it. Tiny arrows sailed through the air in every direction.

Drucinda tucked into a ball and somersaulted away before springing back up to her feet. She stashed the wand in a cargo pocket of her tiny shorts. It poked from the top, too large to fit inside. She dug in the other pocket and tugged a tiny gun from it.

She pointed it at a pixie and pulled the trigger. A minuscule ray shot out, missing its target, pinging off the rock, and bouncing around before it died out.

“What the hell is that?” Paige asked.

“A matom gun.”

“What?”

“Mini-atom gun. Could kill the pixies,” Dewey explained as he watched the chaos, “but it won’t hurt us.”

“Look!” Paige said, thrusting a finger toward a corner of the cave. “They dropped the Holigramium.”

“Yeah,” Dewey exclaimed. “And Thorn’s going for it. I’ll get it. Try to get the wand.”

Paige nodded as Dewey buzzed away, threading his way through the murder of pixies and weaving around the stone beams jutting from the floor and ceiling in an attempt to reach the gem first.

Thorn thundered across the floor, pelted by arrows from the pixies. They glanced off his thick skin, though he kept his wings tucked tightly against his back so they could not be jabbed by the poison darts.

Dewey took advantage of the focus on his nemesis, chancing a flight toward the gem.

He reached it first, diving down to snatch it from the floor. Thorn narrowed his blue-purple eyes at Dewey before he reared up onto his hind legs.

“The midget has the Holigramium,” he bellowed.

A small group of pixies turned their attention to Dewey. They eyed him holding the gem before their mouths opened, and an aggravating bleat sounded as they shrieked and dove toward him.

“Go, Dewey,” Paige shouted from across the room.

Dewey glanced at her, eyes wide. She waved him on.

“I’m right behind you,” she promised.

Dewey nodded, zipping across the space as he weaved through the pandemonium in the cave. Paige darted from her hiding spot behind a stalagmite and hurried toward Drucinda who continued to fire the matom gun wildly.

Black blood burst from one of the pixies as a ray sliced at his leg. Another pixie raced to his aid.

Paige slinked behind the woman, her eyes on the tip of the wand poking from her pocket. With her heart pounding and blood rushing into her ears, she tiptoed forward and snatched the wand before she covered her head and raced toward the entrance.

“Hey,” Drucinda shouted behind her.

A sting pinched Paige’s back, followed by another and another and another. She winced as she glanced behind her, wondering if she’d pass out soon from pixie darts.

Drucinda aimed the matom gun at her, her finger tugging the trigger back over and over. “She has the wand! Get her!”

Paige continued to race toward the entrance, swatting away pixies and covering as much of her skin as possible from the darts now flying toward her.

Dewey appeared at the opening, waving her on. “Use the wand!”

Paige’s eyes went wide, and she nodded as she searched for the activation button. She swiped her fingertip across the pad, and the wand lit.