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“What was that?” she asked herself as she slowly lowered her hands. She wandered a few more steps into the offshoot of shelves. “I wonder if a storm blew in.”

She took a few more steps down an aisle before she rounded the corner. She stopped dead, her eyes growing wide as her neck craned upward.

The treat bag fell from her hands, and she swallowed hard at what stood in front of her.

Paige stumbled back a step. Her jaw fell open, and her heart pounded against her ribs. She swallowed hard as her limbs turned to jelly.

Another loud noise rumbled the chamber, and she clamped her hands over her ears as she attempted to back away from the scene and backtrack into the archive in search of Dewey.

She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment until the noise stopped reverberating. She lifted one eyelid then the other and stared up.

Dickens licked a paw and raked it over his face. Except this wasn’t a normal version of Dickens. A massive, oversized cat stood in front of her.

The tips of his ears grazed the top of the ceiling as he sat with his tail swishing and groomed himself.

“Oh no,” Paige murmured as she tried to back away again.

Before she could clear the corner, Dickens spotted her. He meowed, the sound so loud it pierced her ears and shook the containers on the shelf.

“Dewey!” Paige screamed. “I found him, but we have a problem!”

CHAPTER 6

Paige swallowed hard as she stared at the cat who finished cleaning his face and rose to stand. Purring filled the room, vibrating the boxes on the shelf. One crashed down from the top as the cat stalked toward Paige.

“Dewey!” Paige shouted again.

She hurried backward, reaching the corner and spinning on her heel to race toward the main archive.

“DEWEY!”

“Paige?” a distant voice called.

“Dewey!” Paige answered, her voice shaking. “Hurry up. We have a huge problem. And I mean huge!”

Dickens stalked down the aisle, knocking a few boxes down with a swish of his tail. Paige hurried to hide behind another shelf, a worried moan escaping her lips.

She shoved her glasses higher on her nose as she peered around the corner. The cat spotted her, and she leapt back.

A large paw snaked around the shelf, searching for her. She winced, clamping a hand over her mouth so she wouldn’t let out another frightened exclamation. She inched away from the paw before it reached farther toward her.

Dewey flew through the entrance from the main archive room. “Hey, Paige, what’s the– Whoa!”

He fluttered backward, eyeing the massive cat in front of him.

“Yeah. Same thing I said,” Paige answered, her lips still pulled into a frown. “What’s wrong with him?”

Dewey darted behind the shelf in front of Paige, flew up over the top, and joined her. “Looks like he may have gotten into the growth serum.”

“Growth serum?”

“Or the powder,” Dewey added as he rubbed his chin.

“We have both growth serum and growth powder?”

“Of course, Paige. What kind of operation do you think we’re running here? Every library keeps them on hand.”

“Please tell me we have shrinking serum or powder or whatever.”