Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) by J.A. Cipriano Read Free Book Online Page A

innocent bystanders. No, he was the harbinger of the end. It couldn’t be a coincidence he was here now.
    The only thing that kept me from a full blown mental breakdown was one thought. Maybe he was here to help us? Could that be possible? I mean this was Ragnarok, right? I wasn’t sure, but either way, I had to focus on the now. If Connor was inclined to help me right now, well, I’d kick that can down the road as far as I could.
    Besides, Isis didn’t have much power left in her for me to draw unless I wanted to risk melting the damned sword, and on my own, well, I’d need at least a dozen pizzas before I could call enough strength to open an envelope, let alone, keep my spell going long enough to flash fry Hrym. If I wanted to beat the frost giant, I needed to do something fast because my power was going to dissipate long before the he melted away. It was sort of a staggering realization. Still, I’d melt Isis to ash long before I let that happen. I just needed another power source.
    An idea struck me then, and as the full weight of my imminent demise settled around me, I did the only thing I could. I freaking went for it!
    “Set!” I cried, reaching out with my left hand for the weapon, while funneling what little power I had into the cry. As I felt the ping of the god’s consciousness below deck, my vision tunneled. “Come!”
    A spark of purple light leapt into the word as it left my lips in a fog of blue pixie dust as Hrym shattered my spell and glared at me with enough hatred to make me wish I was as completely insubstantial as I felt.
    Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely insubstantial so when he bellowed, a blast of frozen air caught me in the chest and sent me skidding back across the deck of the ship in a flurry of ice and snow.
    Frost clung to my eyelashes, and my teeth began to chatter as crackling ice spread out from Hrym’s half-melted body like a slowly crashing wave. It hit the ground in front of me, throwing white mist into the air and turning the deck of Naglfar into a winter wonderland. And here I was without my winter coat. Sigh.
    As I struggled to get to my feet, a fist the size of Alaska came flying at my face. I managed to block it with my sword, but the force of the blow sent me flying sideways, anyway. I twisted in the air and landed on my feet, which turned out to be completely lame because evidently, ice was super slick. Who knew?
    Thankfully, as I slid haphazardly across the icy surface, Hrym didn’t take advantage because the giant was too busy looking at his hand like he couldn’t figure out how he’d cut his fist in half.
    “News flash, jackass. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t punch girls with swords,” I said, forcing confidence I didn’t feel into my words while flicking his blood off my katana. It spattered across the deck and steamed in the frozen air.
    Hrym fixed his icy eyes at me and grunted. “I’m done playing with you, girl.”
    The blood gushing from his wounded fist froze, solidifying his fist into a gigantic chunk of jagged ice which he drove into the deck of the ship because of course he would. A geyser of frosty water surged toward me, and I dove sideways as it crashed into the space where I’d been. Hoarfrost spread along the deck as I rolled, following me like a living, breathing thing.
    As I came up on my feet, I reached out once more toward Set in one last desperate attempt to call the sword to me. My teeth chattered, my knees shook, and I was on the verge of collapse, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t been in this position before. No, I’d been here lots of times. I knew what this felt like, and the only way past it was to put one foot in front of the other and propel myself past it upon the back of my enemy.
    “You know, I have a name,” I growled as ice began to cover my feet and crawl up my boots. “It’s Lillim Callina!”
    Set burst through the deck of Naglfar in a spray of debris that revealed darkness pulsating beneath. Connor hadn’t