A Spell for the Revolution (48 page)

The demon tried to bull past her, but she stepped into its way and slammed the knob end of her cane into its face. The white light hit the shadowy fire of the creature like water hitting hot oil. The sizzling crackle was followed by a burst of power that knocked everyone to the floor.

When Proctor pushed himself upright again, the baby was wailing, the demon was gone … and Magdalena lay broken at odd angles on the floor, surrounded by the shattered pieces of her cane. Lydia knelt over her a moment, then shook her head.

Magdalena was dead.

“God, dear God in heaven, what was that?” whispered Abigail. She sat in the corner, knees pulled up to her chin.

The baby squalled.

Deborah! Proctor lurched up and lunged to the doorway.
He flung it open. Deborah sat there in a pile of wet and blood-tinged sheets, holding the baby to her breast with the uncut cord snaked across the bed. Tears wet her cheeks.

“I wanted this to be a happy day,” she said. “I wanted this to be our happiest day.”

Her voice wasn’t sad or scared. It was angry.

A Spell for the Revolution
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Copyright © 2009 by Charles Coleman Finlay
Excerpt from
The Demon Redcoat
© 2009 by Charles Coleman Finlay

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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is a registered trademark and the D
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colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book
The Demon Redcoat
by Charles Coleman Finlay. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

eISBN: 978-0-345-51572-8

www.delreybooks.com

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