Page 115 of Shadow Charms

“It’s fine. As long as you’re okay.”

“I’ll be okay,” he promised her. “Let’s just get out of this weather for a little bit.”

“Sounds good. I see the mine entrance ahead. Almost there.”

Paige quickened her pace and hurried toward the dark opening. She stopped a moment later, freezing in her tracks as she stared ahead wide-eyed.

“Oh no.”

“What is it? I can’t see anything with this blanket wrapped around me.”

“U-uhhh,” Paige stammered as she trembled at what stood in front of her. “We may need a new plan.”

She swallowed hard as her heart thudded in her chest. In front of her, the biggest brown bear she’d ever seen rose onto its hind legs, sniffing the air.

When it caught her scent on the wind, it opened its mouth, baring its large yellow teeth as it roared.

CHAPTER 23

“Paige, what’s that noise? Please tell me it’s your rumbling stomach,” Dewey called from under his blanket.

“Sorry, bud, no can do.”

“Do I want to know what that noise came from?”

“No,” Paige said, her lips pulling back into a wince, “you really don’t.”

“Well, now I have to know.”

“It’s a bear, Dewey. It’s a giant bear. And it looks…angry.”

“Make a run for the mine.”

“I can’t! It’s standing right in front of the stupid entrance. And everyone knows you don’t run from bears.”

“Well, what do you do to fight a bear?”

“Uh, try to look bigger. Raise your arms,” Paige counseled herself as she lifted her arms into the air and waved them. “Hey, you! Get out of here! Go on, get!”

“Is it working?”

“No,” Paige said with a sigh as the bear roared again. “I need that projector thing you had the first day we met.”

“Oh, the Magnopro? I put it in your bag. I thought I could use it to be more frightening to the Shrieking Pixies in case we needed to negotiate.”

Paige’s jaw dropped as she dug into her bag in search of the device. Her gloved hands hit the rectangular projector at the bottom. The bear sniffed in the air as she hurried to pull it from the bag, bobbling it as the fabric of her gloves made it slippery. It dropped with a soft thud into the snow at her feet.

“Shoot!” She dove for it, bobbling it again as she tried to turn it on. “How do you use this stupid thing?”

“Just hold it in front of you and press the amount of magnification you want.”

Paige stuck her glove into her mouth, biting down and tugging her hand out of it. It dangled from her teeth while she tried to flick the switch to turn the device on.

Her fingers started to hurt moments after hitting the air. She winced while she struggled to snap the switch into the on position, finally pushing it over. She shook her hand to relieve the pain then spun the magnification dial up to 8x.

“Go away,” she shouted before looking around to see if she could spot the magnified version of her. “How can I tell if this is working?”

“Can you see a giant you in front of you?”