Infernal Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (Demons of Fire and Night Book 1) by C.N. Crawford Read Free Book Online Page A

of the fire, the beast’s edges were still difficult to make out—a mass of dark hair, muscle, and sinew surrounded by shadows. Its yellow eyes blazed, but no longer just with hunger. She saw fear there, too.
    The fiend’s shoulders straightened almost imperceptibly, then it leapt. She thrust the sword up just in time to shield herself as the wight grabbed for her. She was ready for it this time, and her blade sliced into its forearm.
    Grunting, the fiend slammed its arm into her, sending the sword skittering across the circle. She turned to run for the weapon, but a strong hand grabbed her ponytail and flung her to the ground.
    She landed on her broken ribs, and agony fractured her body. I’m broken. Gasping for breath, she tried to roll onto her front, desperate to stand, but the fiend leapt on top of her, crushing her lungs and shattered ribs into the icy soil. Long, clawed fingers reached for her throat, and Ursula gasped for breath.
    In desperation, she kicked her feet, struggling to free herself, but the fiend slipped its fingers around her throat. It squeezed, like a snake constricting its prey.
    Inching toward her face, its golden eyes stared at her with a primitive intelligence. This is the face of my executioner: bestial and merciless. Slowly, it opened its mouth, revealing jagged rows of nubby teeth. She braced herself for the bite, until she realized this repugnant display was a smile.
    It squeezed harder. Ursula’s windpipe flattened with a soft popping noise, and pain splintered her mind.
    They say that in your final moments, your life flashes before your eyes—a series of still images projected from your subconscious to your dying mind. For Ursula, it began at fifteen: the firefighter pulling her from the rubble of St. Ethelburga’s Church, the flashbulbs as she left the courthouse with her first foster family. The next few scenes were a blur, one family after another, accompanied by a soundtrack of tutting, screaming, and finally shrieks of “I can’t take this girl anymore!”
    When her lungs were close to bursting, the filmstrip slowed. Her tiny apartment in Bow flickered past. Those two arsehole students fighting in the club. Last of all, Rufus’s words reverberated through her skull: “You’re a sad cow who won’t make anything of your life.”
    He’s right. Because now her shitty life was over in a flash of shattered bones and burning lungs. Burning.
    A final burst of rage inflamed her—rage at the unfairness and the futility of it all. She hadn’t asked for any of this—to be a mystery girl with no family and an infernal fire inside her. Anger flowed, a hot magma in her veins. It erupted from her, broiling and volcanic. She pressed her blazing hands into the wight’s shining eyes.
    Its hands wrenched off her throat, and she heard her own scream.

Chapter 8
    H ot blood gurgled from Ursula’s throat, bubbling into her lungs. Drowning in her own fluid, she was kept conscious only by the agony wracking her body. Then her vision blurred, and she no longer cared about the injustice of her short life. She just wanted to sleep, to rest peacefully in silence, free of this mind-shattering agony.
    But instead of silence, a melodious sound drifted into her ears. Kester, speaking in Angelic again—but she understood the words, something about healing waters and leaching out the pain. Her sight began to clear. She caught a flash of green eyes above her. Kester kneeled over her, changing, his brow furrowed with concern.
    As he spoke, she could feel her bones shift and slide into place, the pain slowly dulling. Gently, she touched her neck. It still throbbed, but the skin was smooth, healed over. She rolled over, hacking a crimson spatter of blood onto the blackened earth.
    Still crouching, Kester quirked a smile. “I imagine this hasn’t been the best birthday celebration you’ve ever had. But you made it.”
    He’d called up a demonic and lethal creature without warning her, and now he was