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“True. I wish I’d paid more attention when I was told about it. The best I can do now is ask my parents and grandparents what they know about its powers.”

“Could I talk with yer parents myself?”

Dylan smiled at my request. “Who would say no to a child of The Dagda?”

I smiled back at him. “Ya would be surprised. People tell me no all the time. Making them answer is how I got some of that reputation ya heard so much about.”

The far darrig rubbed his jaw. “If I get my parents to talk to you, will ya keep me posted on yer animal situations until I find the relic?”

“Sure,” I said, thinking it was a small ask for the gain I’d get.

I meant what I said about returning the relic to his parents. The last thing I wanted was to cross the angel who gave it to them. But I was still curious about why the relic was allowing itself to be used.

The magickal misusing it was living on borrowed time. Eventually, the item’s guardian angel would find out.

Before we wentour separate ways for the afternoon, I gave Dylan the coordinates to the animal breeder’s lair. He gave me the ones where the troll thief lived. We made concrete plans to meet back at the house after his search was done so I texted Henry to make sure he knew Dylan would show up again.

I hoped to be home long before Dylan got done with searching the animal breeder’s lair. I also texted Conn and asked for him and Mulan to meet me.

I didn’t bother having them check on Rasmus. He’d texted earlier that he had to leave again and that was the last I’d heard of him. He always found me when he returned. I refused to get my panties in a wad over his absence. It wasn’t like he was flying away on his own.

Rasmus told me himself that he could not travel to the guardians. His current body had guardian wings but wasn’t capable of getting him to wherever it was they hung out and worked.

A full guardian had to come to collect him each time they decided they needed his help.

Sadly, I now thought of them collecting him as his real job. Studying me was his second one. Before me, I’m sure Rasmus had studied other humans. Sometimes I felt like I was living in a movie where the heroine was married to a man with a secret life. Only I guess Rasmus’s life as a guardian wasn’t exactly a secret to me. It was probably more something I resented when it took him away from me for days on end with no communication.

I waited in the parking area of a large, private fishing lake ten miles outside of Salem for the more reliable members of my team to arrive. I knew which direction to take to find the troll thief’s lair but I wasn’t keen on tackling him alone. Waiting made more sense and might save me from getting tossed on my butt again.

Between hunting for Dylan’s relic and Gale taking over my kitchen, there had been no sleepy-time muffin baking. That meant that once again we would have to take down a troll the hard way.

But on the plus side, the far darrig had solved his own case for me by showing up. Maybe it was more on point to say Dylan had turned out not to be another problem needing to be solved. Instead, he was mostly a magickal visitor needing to be monitored while he was here in Salem on family business. Hopefully, I could talk Ezra into the half-payment the Shadow Breakers paid for cases that got resolved before apprehensions were made.

Of course, if I found out Dylan was lying to me about the relic, that would change things. He would be dealt with swiftly and without mercy. I didn’t think that was the case with him but my trust issues and his kind’s reputation wouldn’t let me rule it out. Henry’s reaction wasn’t outside the norm and reminded me of the need to keep my guard up.

I waved when Mulan’s tiny sports car pulled into the parking lot. Conn looked like a giant climbing out of it even though he kept his typical human height to only five-feet-eight for her sake. We needed to buy two larger vehicles with some serious hauling capacity. If we continued to get as many jobs as we currently had, it might not take us long to save enough money to buy them.

Conn stopped in front of me and raised an eyebrow. “Henry chased me down to tell me in person that he caught a far darrig sneaking onto our property today and that you took him to work with you. Would he be the far darrig we hadn’t gotten around to searching for yet?”

“It turns out the far darrig case was connected to the troll thief’s. His name is Dylan and he’s not a true criminal. I took him to the office with me because we’re currently helping each other solve a mutual problem we have.”

Conn rubbed his nose. “Henry doesn’t agree with you about his non-criminal status.”

I smirked. “Yes. Henry made his feelings about the far darrig crystal clear. Is Henry going to be an ongoing problem?”

Shrugging, Conn looked off. “Henry trusts no one’s judgment but his own and won’t be easily won over. You may need to establish your dominance with a show of power.”

My mouth tilted up at the corners. “I see. Will convincing him of my power require chopping off a few of his demon body parts?”

Conn laughed at my question. “Let’s hope not. That would for sure make Gale mad. She’d be left taking care of things by herself. Henry and I both know from experience that makes her very unhappy.”

I turned to Mulan. “How are ya settling into yer new house, Mulan?”

She grunted before glaring in Conn’s direction. “House is fine.”

Her tone could have cut glass. I scratched my head. Were Conn and Mulan fighting? That would be a dangerous situation for everyone.

When Mulan came to live with me, I promised her that she’d always have a home no matter what her arrangement with Conn was. If my demon familiar had made her this unhappy already, I’d have to order Conn to move into the house with me and his parents. For her, I would do that, but I would hate to have to play that card.