Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton Read Free Book Online Page B

the trail of blood dotting the snow in front of me as I moved through the Grim. I knew the reaper couldn’t be far. He had taken nearly a hundred lives already in the poor region of Le Gévaudan in southern France. The dragoons sent by the French king had found nothing andleft an endless trail of innocent wolf carcasses in their wake. The lupine reaper was smarter and hungrier than any of them, and that made him far more dangerous. They couldn’t hunt something that they couldn’t see and that was smarter than them.
    I could suddenly feel it—the tingle of the darkest power crawling across my flesh, rolling through the earth beneath the snow.
    Something dark flashed to my right. Then it flashed to my left. He was circling me.
    I hated when they hunted me back. I held my swords closely. The flames didn’t melt the snow around me. Angelfire only ever burned evil and left everything else untouched.
    Footsteps crunched the snow in front of me. The reaper had finally decided to show himself. He stepped closer, allowing me to get a better look at him. He gnashed his teeth with the promise of death, and his black fur glistened with a dark, lurid liquid. Blood. I didn’t know what, or who, it belonged to.
    â€œYou are a fool for hunting me, Preliator,” he growled through wolflike jaws, jaws that should never have been able to speak human words. “This is my territory. The souls in this land will be mine. You will meet your end in this forest.”
    I scoffed and tightened my grip on both helves. “I may, but before I die, I’ll make sure you don’t leave this forest alive either. That is the price you pay for taking so much blood.”
    The reaper lifted his head, his black eyes watching mecuriously. “And what price do you pay? For all the blood you’ve spilt?”
    â€œThis is my duty.”
    He ignored me. “Loneliness, I suspect.” His voice was so deep, it hurt my ears trying to hear him.
    â€œStop trying to get into my mind and just fight me, Holger.”
    He lowered his head, and his muzzle formed a strange wolfish smile. His eyes were nearly invisible against his black fur, revealed only by the angelfire cast across their glossy surfaces. “You know my name.”
    â€œI know a lot more about you than that.”
    â€œDoes that knowledge make you fear me?” he asked, frighteningly hopeful. He was old—older and more powerful than most of the reapers I had fought in recent years. Three hundred years was certainly something to boast about.
    â€œThat would make you happy, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œYes, yes it would,” Holger said, the words rolling over his giant tongue. “Where is your Guardian, Preliator?”
    â€œNot far behind.” It didn’t matter. I had to destroy the reaper on my own or he would send more innocent souls to Hell.
    â€œWell, that is quite fortunate for me.”
    He launched, jaws and claws spread wide. I bolted and he landed to the side of me, sliding through the snow and spraying glittery white powder. He leaped for me again, and I dived behind a tree. He collided with it, shaking half the treefree of snow and gouging a massive hole in the bark with his body. He roared in fury, and every tree near him shook with the force of his energy. His power exploded and he bashed a tree trunk with his paw, his talons ripping the trunk nearly in half. The tree groaned, and I stared up as it came crashing down; but I fell back before it pinned me to the ground. Though it missed me, the log had trapped one of my swords beneath it and the flames went out. I grabbed the handle and tugged, but the blade didn’t slide free.
    Holger climbed over the trunk, and then his snarling muzzle was inches from my face. He snapped his jaws, lashed his thick tail in anger, and lunged at me, but a powerful blow to his skull knocked him off the tree.
    My heart leaped when I saw Will. He pounded the reaper’s head