Page 88 of The Sasquatch and the Hairdresser

Astraea frowns. “I wasn’t aware of this.”

“My organization is keeping it very quiet for now, so I need you all to treat that as confidential information. But I would anticipate that other Sanctuary Havens might begin experiencing issues before too long, if they haven’t already.”

“So what’s happening here might be a symptom of a bigger problem with the magic in this realm,” Akram muses, stroking his chin.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Skylar says.

I wrap my arm around his shoulder and give him a reassuring squeeze. I agree with him—that can’t be good.

Astraea’s gaze goes distant. “Looks like I’ll need to round up all of my wayward sons.” Her eyes narrow. “And I may have to reach out to Morgana, dammit.”

“I thought you and the Queen of the Fae weren’t on speaking terms, haven’t been for centuries,” Kassiel says.

“Your thought would be correct,” Astraea grumbles.

“You may have to get over that,” Rowan says, expression grim. “The dragons and the fae established the magic in this realm. If this is a bigger, realm-wide problem, as we’re starting to believe, we’ll need the leaders from both parties to come together and help us figure out a permanent solution.”

Sylvia nods, stroking her beard. “Since you’re the beings who created the magic in this realm, it’s the responsibility of both of you to fix this. You can’t abandon us when it goes haywire.”

Skylar looks at me and raises his eyebrows, and I do the same back. The long-term safety of our town seems to depend on a lot of drama being resolved.

Max claps his hands together to get everyone’s attention and Waffles presses into his leg while keeping a wary eye on Angelica. “Honey, I don’t care what happened in the past, two powerful, badass women like yourselves should be able to move past your differences,” he chides playfully. “Seriously, smart women know how to get shit done. Don’t act like idiotic men in power who want to wave their dicks around—and I say that even though you know how much I love dick.” He titters and shakes his head. “It’ll give you both a bad name.”

That actually has Astraea looking a tad shamefaced. Leave it to Max to turn the tide here. No wonder Ryder says that Max has superpowers he wishes he possessed.

“Thanks for the reminder, Max, and you’re absolutely right. Morgana and I are dedicated to our roles of serving and protecting those in our realms and beyond, regardless of how our relationship may have ended. Besides, it’s been a few centuries. We should be able to join forces in the Terran Realm’s hour of need, right?”

I truly hope the question was rhetorical on Astraea’s part.

Max’s mouth drops open. “Shut the front door! You and the Queen of the Fae were an item?!” He snaps his fingers in the air. “You go, girl!”

“Sweetie, we were hot and heavy off and on for a few millennia.” She sighs. “But being the supreme leaders of separate realms created obstacles that we couldn’t overcome.”

“This is giving The Young and the Monstrous a run for its money right now,” Skylar says, whistling softly.

Thank the Light that Ryder isn’t here right now. I can just imagine all the inappropriate questions he’d be asking.

A dragon goddess and the Queen of the Fae—now that’s a romance I know he’d be eager to write a story about.

Rowan holds up his hands. “We’re straying a bit far off topic. Our most pressing concern is the situation here in Mystic Hollow. The rest can wait. I’ll have to examine the node at the sources to get a better sense of what we’re dealing with here, but it’s entirely possible I can hack it as a temporary fix.”

“Ooh! Like on one of those CSI television shows?” Max asks brightly.

“I like him,” Angelica pipes up. “I think we’re going to have a delightful time in this town with such entertaining personalities around.”

Rowan’s lips twitch. “Kind of, Max. Magic has its own code, if you will, that you can mess with if you know how. I’ll have to study the node, but I might be able to gain a kind of magical backdoor access. In the meantime, I should be able to cast a temporary containment spell that will prevent power from going in or out. Once that’s established, I can draw on energy from another part of the ley line to establish a new layer of magical protection over the town to keep out any who pose a threat. It won’t be as superpowered as what the node can provide, but it’ll serve your needs for a while.”

“Thank fuck,” Astraea says, tension easing from her body as she leans against the bar in relief. “That all sounds good, but we’ll need you to stay in Mystic Hollow for the foreseeable future so you can monitor things and keep the magic stable.”

“No problem,” Rowan says.

“This will be child’s play for us,” Angelica adds, licking a paw.

I slump in relief. While bigger issues around magic in this realm may be lurking on the horizon, our town will be safe and sound for now.

“This isn’t the type of job a mage like him would seriously want,” Baxter chimes in huffily. “We should find someone else.”

Rowan gets off his stool and stalks toward Baxter. “You haven’t seen me in nearly forty years, Thunderbody. Are you sure you can say you know what I want? Besides, I don’t sign onto a job I won’t see through. Never have, never will.”