Kill It With Magic: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 1) by J.A. Cipriano Page A
Authors: J.A. Cipriano
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seemed to lose focus bit by bit.
“I’m so tired…” I mumbled.
“Turn, raise Frost, and fight,” Mattoc’s voice cooed in my ear. I’d completely forgotten he had been with me the entire time. Sometimes I wished he wouldn’t hide when other people showed up.
I turned, and although I couldn’t feel him, I knew Mattoc was guiding my hand. The edges around my vision started to go black as I drew Frost up and struck outward at the onrushing flame.
Chapter 13
Water fell from the sky in buckets that left me soaked and lying in mud. I crawled to my feet, huddling within my sodden overcoat and shivering. I was mucky, grimy, and dare I say it, icky.
I shook my head and glanced toward a boarded up building a few meters from me. It would be enough to provide cover from the rain. Something might have lived there before, but as of right now, the place looked empty.
At least that feeling was familiar. I knew what being alone felt like. I had come into this world very different from the normal kids. They had picked on me. My hair was the wrong color. My mom was a crazy person. I grew too fast. I was Dirge Meilan reborn.
My accelerated growth had taken me from a toddler to a teenager in the space of a year. It was hard enough without being thrown to the wolves… literally.
The mud squelched under my boots, threatening to suck me under. I had always hated the smell of rain and mud. I didn’t know why but it always brought to mind the image of worms, slimy and revolting as they lay squirming on the pavement. Something brushed against my leg. I screamed.
“Why are you so afraid?” The voice shook me, and I stumbled backward and fell on my butt. The mud surged up around me, dirty and disgusting. “Are you not a Dioscuri? Are you not Lillim Cortez Callina, daughter of the vicious Diana Cortez?”
A scream ripped from my lips, and I struggled to crawl backward on my hands. My heart leapt up in my throat and tried to beat its way out of my body as my hands clawed for purchase in the thick, reddish mud. There was mud in my hair, under my fingernails, crawling up my skin as though it was alive… and yet I couldn't get away. Despite all my struggles, I had not managed to move even one inch.
“Mother?” My voice was low and shaky. “What are you doing here?”
Diana Cortez stood over me, eyes surveying me like a prowling lioness. Rain cascaded over her so that she almost shimmered. A delicate white and pink kimono shielded her body from view. Surely this could not be her. Surely I had to be dreaming.
Dream or not, she took a step toward me and shook her head. The look of disapproval on her pursed ruby-red lips was not something I’d want to take a picture of and keep in my wallet. I tried to calm myself, but the more I tried, the closer I got to hyperventilating.
She bent down so close that I could feel her breath on my face. Her kimono slipped off her shoulders to reveal flesh so marred with scars and burn marks that I shuddered. When I was little she used to trail her fingers along them, regaling me with tales of each hideous disfigurement. Her eyes tore me asunder, leaving me raw and naked before her.
“If it isn’t my dear sweet Lillim acting like an angst-filled sixteen-year-old brat. Are you digging more issues out of the couch cushions?” she sneered, the rain dripping down her kimono to pool at her feet.
“It isn’t hard to dig them up when you throw my face in the dirt. Is that why you’ve come, mother? Have you come to taunt me? To kick me further into the mud?” I regretted it before I’d said it. A tremor climbed down my spine, and I fought to breathe normally.
My mother fished a cigarette out of her pocket and stuck it between her lips. She placed a hand over her silver lighter to cover the flame. Water poured down her skin, her hair, her clothing, but she ignored it. With a single gesture she could will away the rain. She could call off the lightning and dominate the thunder.
“I'm going to
“I’m so tired…” I mumbled.
“Turn, raise Frost, and fight,” Mattoc’s voice cooed in my ear. I’d completely forgotten he had been with me the entire time. Sometimes I wished he wouldn’t hide when other people showed up.
I turned, and although I couldn’t feel him, I knew Mattoc was guiding my hand. The edges around my vision started to go black as I drew Frost up and struck outward at the onrushing flame.
Chapter 13
Water fell from the sky in buckets that left me soaked and lying in mud. I crawled to my feet, huddling within my sodden overcoat and shivering. I was mucky, grimy, and dare I say it, icky.
I shook my head and glanced toward a boarded up building a few meters from me. It would be enough to provide cover from the rain. Something might have lived there before, but as of right now, the place looked empty.
At least that feeling was familiar. I knew what being alone felt like. I had come into this world very different from the normal kids. They had picked on me. My hair was the wrong color. My mom was a crazy person. I grew too fast. I was Dirge Meilan reborn.
My accelerated growth had taken me from a toddler to a teenager in the space of a year. It was hard enough without being thrown to the wolves… literally.
The mud squelched under my boots, threatening to suck me under. I had always hated the smell of rain and mud. I didn’t know why but it always brought to mind the image of worms, slimy and revolting as they lay squirming on the pavement. Something brushed against my leg. I screamed.
“Why are you so afraid?” The voice shook me, and I stumbled backward and fell on my butt. The mud surged up around me, dirty and disgusting. “Are you not a Dioscuri? Are you not Lillim Cortez Callina, daughter of the vicious Diana Cortez?”
A scream ripped from my lips, and I struggled to crawl backward on my hands. My heart leapt up in my throat and tried to beat its way out of my body as my hands clawed for purchase in the thick, reddish mud. There was mud in my hair, under my fingernails, crawling up my skin as though it was alive… and yet I couldn't get away. Despite all my struggles, I had not managed to move even one inch.
“Mother?” My voice was low and shaky. “What are you doing here?”
Diana Cortez stood over me, eyes surveying me like a prowling lioness. Rain cascaded over her so that she almost shimmered. A delicate white and pink kimono shielded her body from view. Surely this could not be her. Surely I had to be dreaming.
Dream or not, she took a step toward me and shook her head. The look of disapproval on her pursed ruby-red lips was not something I’d want to take a picture of and keep in my wallet. I tried to calm myself, but the more I tried, the closer I got to hyperventilating.
She bent down so close that I could feel her breath on my face. Her kimono slipped off her shoulders to reveal flesh so marred with scars and burn marks that I shuddered. When I was little she used to trail her fingers along them, regaling me with tales of each hideous disfigurement. Her eyes tore me asunder, leaving me raw and naked before her.
“If it isn’t my dear sweet Lillim acting like an angst-filled sixteen-year-old brat. Are you digging more issues out of the couch cushions?” she sneered, the rain dripping down her kimono to pool at her feet.
“It isn’t hard to dig them up when you throw my face in the dirt. Is that why you’ve come, mother? Have you come to taunt me? To kick me further into the mud?” I regretted it before I’d said it. A tremor climbed down my spine, and I fought to breathe normally.
My mother fished a cigarette out of her pocket and stuck it between her lips. She placed a hand over her silver lighter to cover the flame. Water poured down her skin, her hair, her clothing, but she ignored it. With a single gesture she could will away the rain. She could call off the lightning and dominate the thunder.
“I'm going to
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