Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

using the leg float made her back hurt.
    She abandoned the kickboard at the end of the pool. Screw it. Back to freestyle. At least the pain would be evenly distributed throughout her body.
    Wizards who called themselves the Order—or as Russ called them, “those gray-robed assholes”—had convinced Emily Proctor, a witch almost as powerful as Natalie, that Jamie was a threat. They juiced her with extra magic and sent her to tear off Jamie’s amulet. A week later, three wizards kidnapped Jamie and sent him back to Fahraya.
    But why did the Order go to all the trouble? Why not grab Jamie on his way to work or when he was out for a run?
    They’d set it up so Emily would force Jamie to change in city hall, the worst place for her stunt because of how city hall magnified the effect, making Jamie stronger and wilder than he would otherwise have been.
    And city hall was supposedly a big magic ray gun to the other side, wherever that might be. A big magic ray gun also believed to have opened the gateways between Fahraya and the human world not long after it was built.
    Even more sinister, the Order hadn’t merely taken Jamie. They’d carved strange symbols—sigils—into his back and chest, symbols that no one in Eldrich could decipher.
    Some kind of spell, perhaps? Natalie didn’t want to talk about it, but Meaghan could tell the sigils worried her. Jamie’s other wounds were healing, and—with the exception of the two lines along his spine where his wings had been cut from his back—would disappear or leave only minor scars.
    But the sigils—the skin had closed over them rapidly, leaving raised, ropey lines. Bright red against his skin, each sigil was clearly delineated. Someone who knew the language could read Jamie like a book.
    Only no one knew the language. And now Jamie was manifesting poltergeist activity, which city hall amplified into a powerful threat to those around him.
    They had to move him out of that office. Meaghan considered cooking up some excuse to get funding to build out more of the attic. But considering that the council approved all funding requests and all funding requests had to be filtered first through Emily Proctor—who would love to see Jamie set Meaghan on fire—that was probably not a viable solution.
    Moving him somewhere else in the building might work or it might merely spread the poltergeist activity, albeit a milder form, to the other floors. It was already happening at home when he wasn’t anywhere near his office.
    There was a third possibility. Maybe Jamie needed more time away. Poltergeists, magic sigils, and paranormally enhanced office space aside, he was barely functional. He stared out the window all day. He rarely spoke. Hallam and Associates wouldn’t be handing his cases back anytime soon.
    With his short-term disability leave benefits exhausted and no vacation or sick days left, Jamie’s only option was the Family Medical Leave Act. But FMLA leave would be unpaid. His wife, Patrice, worked as a nurse at the local clinic, but without Jamie’s salary, they’d run into financial trouble before long. The one advantage to FMLA, one that maybe had to be considered, was that Jamie couldn’t be fired while taking it.
    Meaghan stopped again to catch her breath and decided she was done for the day. She’d do a few easy cool-down laps and head home.
    Patrice claimed everything was fine, but the harried shadows under her eyes said otherwise. The kids seemed sad and withdrawn, and Liddy, Jamie’s four-year-old daughter, refused to go near him, insisting he wasn’t her father.
    Not that Jamie noticed. He merely sat, staring out the window.
    And now doors were slamming, dishes were flying, and, in city hall at least, things were bursting into flames.
    Meaghan finished her final cool-down lap and climbed out of the pool. At least dinner would be waiting when she got home. And Jamie wasn’t the only quasi-son she had to worry about. Time to see what sort of trouble Jhoro had