Free Gods and Swindlers (City of Eldrich Book 3) by Laura Kirwan

“But this may be a one-moment-at-a-time day.”
    “Whatever it takes.” Terry squeezed his shoulder. He looked around. “You had spells up?”
    Lynette nodded. “Several. But it still got to John. Then it tricked me into believing the buffer spells were still working.”
    “Yeah, they’ll do that,” Terry said. “Little fuckers. That’s why Steph wanted to kill it last night. She says there’s no safe way to be around them. You shouldn’t have taken the iron off.”
    Lynette shook her head. “We didn’t.”
    Terry frowned. “You’re telling me you had the chain on it and it still managed to mess with your head?’
    “Around an ankle and a wrist.”
    “You said it wasn’t a big threat on its own as long as we kept some iron on it and put up spell walls,” Meaghan said.
    “I was wrong,” Terry said. “This one is stronger than it looks. Usually any iron is enough to short-circuit them. We need to get it better secured.”
    “Already done,” Lynette said. “It’s chained around the torso and we added every piece of steel and iron we could find. And we added several additional barriers. Is that enough?”
    Terry nodded. “Probably. But you need at least two experienced witches down there at all times, and I think I’d better pay a visit and make some threats. Remind it who I am.” He wore a worried scowl. “If it’s resistant to iron, then it might have let itself get caught. So it could size us up.”
    “So then let’s make it three witches,” Lynette said as she walked toward the door. “I’ll be in the basement with Natalie and Gretchen if you need me.”
    “I’ll head down there with you,” Owen said.
    “Good,” Lynette said. “You can tell me all about you and Natalie.”
    “Uh . . .”
    “I’m sure Gretchen’s already gotten it out of her. Come on.”
    Owen rolled his eyes as he followed Lynette out of the room.
    “It said something,” John said, his voice sounding choked. “About not all of the Fahrayans being turned human. Is that possible?”
    Terry shook his head. “It’s screwing with you. You told me yourself you’re sure the missing Fahrayans are dead.”
    “But what if they are not? What if they’re out there? I have heard the stories—”
    “The gossip,” Meaghan said. “It saw a soft spot and went for it, that’s all.”
    Unless it knows something we don’t. The gossip continued to circulate in magical circles that the missing Fahrayans had been grabbed for nefarious purposes when fleeing the destruction of their world. Even older gossip claimed that a band of Fahrayan raiders, gone missing in Europe during World War II, had been captured by the Nazis and taken to a secret lab in Berlin.
    Conspiracy theories aside, many Fahrayans were not happy with their human transformation. They grieved their lost family and friends, and they wanted their wings back. Desperately. It was exactly the sort of longing the fair folk exploited to garner devotion.
    Terry put his hands on John’s shoulders. “Johnny, these things are liars. Everything about them is a lie. They’re the most evil creatures I know of, and I’ve tangled with some scary things. Meaghan is right. It went after the one thing it knew would hurt you the most.”
    John nodded, his face etched with misery. “I still want to talk to it.”
    Meaghan shook her head. “Absolutely not. You heard what Terry said.”
    “I was sober on and off for fifteen hundred years before AA. I can’t blame the fair folk for every time I fell off the wagon, but they definitely pushed me a few times. You need to keep your distance. Trust me. That thing downstairs would love to see you pick up a bottle.”
    “All right.” John sighed. “I need to check on my bees today anyway.”
    “Would you stay up here for now?” Terry asked. “There’s more of these things skulking around and they got your number. Let me talk to Meg and sort out a plan. After that, I’ve got nothing going today, so I can stick close. If