Chapter 18
They had dragged Fian off to a boathouse. It was shady, metaphorically speaking. The lighting was actually rather decent, and Fian could see a disused boat and rotted rope, could feel the floorboards hard against his back.
From his angle of having been dumped on the floor in his human form, bound and gagged, Fian spied an old matchstick box that someone had dropped on the floor.
The Moonlight Diner. The crescent moon and stars make a cute logo.
I bet they serve mushrooms there. Oh, how much I’d like to be there with Kai now instead of here with two barnacle men for the price of one.
Fian could smell the salt on the air, and he heard the ocean rolling back and forth outside, so if he managed to get free, it would only be a short run.
Yet his ability to shift seamlessly and thus strangle the witches had been zapped by a dirty trap spell that had knocked him out for a few minutes, something a human shouldn’t really have been able to come up with or put together this fast.
At least Kai is safe. That’s the most important thing.
Even if he doesn’t manage to fall asleep and call for help, he’s not here where the barnacle man is.
Maybe he left this town and found that Moonlight Diner place.
Maybe he’s having a milkshake there right now and is figuring out how to live a happy life.
I would have liked him to be my landbride, but if he can be happy elsewhere…
Fian bit his tongue. He didn’t want to let his captors know that he was thinking about Kai, that he was hoping Kai was okay and far, far away from their ugly magic.
“Are we sure this is a demon, a proper one, we can use for talismans and potions?” James the witch asked.
“I was sure when I told you my version of the love potion spell would work just as well as Howard’s, didn’t I? I was sure when I told you using a dating app to find the desperate type would work. I’m sure about this. We’ll be so much more powerful.”
James nudged a dust mote. “Kai ran away though. What if he calls the cops on us?”
Nick snorted. “So what? He’ll tell them we did magic on him? Come on, let’s get started.”
James got a dreamy smile. “When we get more powerful, we’ll be able to really build a harem, right? And they’ll do all the work for us, yeah? I’d like that. I’d like that so damn much, a warm mouth to take care of me when I get home after a long day.”
Nick grinned. “But you won’t have to leave the house, so you can enjoy their warm mouths all day. And yeah, the spell won’t just become unstable anymore when they see you fuck someone else like what happened with Kai.”
Fian’s blood boiled, as the humans like to say. He wanted to see Nick devoured by piranhas, one limb at a time. For now, he bided his time, waiting for just the right moment.
James grinned, looking like an ulcer as he did. “I’d like that.”
Nick and James both looked at him. Nick scratched his head. “We should still find that runaway though, just to be safe. And to teach him a lesson. Who does he think he is, cheating on me with a fucking demon? He can watch while we carve this one up.”
“You wanna use some of the demon’s blood for a locating spell, don’t you?” James asked.
“Yeah. Bring the knife.”
I will pay them back for this, Fian thought. But as it was, he could do nothing.