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Paige gasped, her eyes going wide at the line. She read it again, certain she’d comprehended something incorrectly.

The notebook slipped from her lap as heat washed over her. It smacked off the carpeted floor and landed facedown.

“You okay?” Dewey asked as he snapped a book shut and tossed it on the floor.

“Yeah, sorry,” Paige answered, leaning over to collect her pad. “I just… This wand thing can split Earth in half!”

“Yeah, I told you it could split buildings and stuff.”

“So, we really need to find three things, not just the wand. Because we don’t want any of these power add-ons on the street.”

“Probably would be prudent, yes,” Dewey said with a nod.

He rose, balancing on the air mattress as he stretched his arms up in the air with a groan.

Paige let her head fall between her shoulder blades with a groan. “More research.”

She slapped her hands against the chair’s arms and pushed herself up.

Dewey fluttered into the air, rolling his head around to ease the tension in his neck. “Same. I think I’ve got a solution. I’m going to put it together and test it on the worm I wrangled from your back as soon as I grab all the ingredients.”

Paige flashed a set of crossed fingers. “I hope it works.”

Dewey tore the top sheet from his notebook and scanned it. “We have most of this. The only thing I need to find is bark from a Witchlock tree.”

Paige lifted her arms overhead and bent sideways, easing the kink in her back. “Witchlock? Never heard of it.”

“I’m not surprised. I don’t think this is a standard earthbound tree like an oak or a hemlock.”

Paige snatched her notepad with the list of items she needed more information on and wandered to the door with Dewey. “Not earthbound? Then where does this thing grow?”

“Another realm, most likely. The better question is where do we get it? Does someone keep stock of Witchlock bark on Earth or will we need to track it down ourselves?”

Paige crinkled her nose and shoved her glasses up higher. “Knowing my luck, we’ll be traipsing around another realm and chopping bark off a tree.”

“Let’s hope not. This will be far easier if we do not need to realm hop. We’d probably need a RealmWrangler for that.”

Paige slogged down the circular staircase wrapping around the tall nest. “A what?”

“RealmWrangler. It’s a device that allows the user to hop realms safely and easily.”

Paige gazed from side to side as she tried to make sense of the statement. “Somehow, hopping realms and the words safely and easily do not seem to go together.”

Dewey chuckled as he hovered next to her. “It’s a pretty simple process. And the RealmWrangler makes it a snap. You just program it, and away you go. You can easily control when you leave, also. No need to find an exit point or wander back through the Realm Space.”

Her feet hit the concrete floor, and her flesh turned to goose bumps as she considered searching another realm for a way out. Visions of molten lava flowing down the stone walls of an underground cave popped into her mind. Sweat beaded on her forehead as the heat rose high enough to blister her skin. Her fingers searched for a black hole to slip into and return to Earth.

“Paige! Hello?” Dewey waved a teal paw in front of her, snapping her back to reality.

She adjusted her glasses and offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry, just picturing myself trying to escape from molten lava in another realm. So, do we have this Wrangler thing?”

They wove through the shelves, heading for the BookTron.

“No, the Grand Archive has one. So does the library in London, Venice, Beijing, and Riverside, Iowa.”

Paige’s steps ceased, and she snapped her gaze at Dewey. “Riverside, Iowa?”

Dewey flung his paws out to the side. “Yeah. Don’t ask me. No one knows how they got that.”