The Hunter and the Mage (The Raven and the Dove #2) - Kaitlyn Davis Page 0,150

increasing with the same steady momentum. She moved closer, floating over their wall of bodies then sinking until her spirit pressed against the surface of the stone. There was something inside, something moving, something—

Cassi jerked back.

A fracture split the rock and expanded across the widest part of the oval stone, cutting a white line through the black, growing and growing, until it snapped and the two sides broke open. Onyx shadows spilled across the sacred nest, flowing from the stone as the rest of the world fell still.

The shakes wracking the cavern stopped.

The priests and priestesses fell silent.

Even the ravens halted their crying.

In the eerie quiet, a man emerged from the spreading darkness, his skin rippling like the surface of a lake on a moonless night, nothing but rolling shadow. Two wings extended from his back, so wide the priests and priestesses stumbled to keep out of the way. Scales covered his skin, onyx shards refracting the light. His eyes, when he opened them, were black.

"Taetanos," one of the priestesses whispered.

They dropped to their knees before the creature, and for a moment, Cassi wondered if the people of this world had always had it right. Maybe their gods had saved them. Maybe their gods had sacrificed themselves. Maybe their gods were magic, possessing a more profound power than she could ever understand. Could this possibly be Taetanos, the god of fate, finally answering his people's prayers?

The deity stepped forward, shadows wafting off his frame to flow like a cloak in his wake. He knelt before a priest and lifted his arm to touch the man's chin. They rose together, one as inscrutable as darkness, the other luminous beneath his god's attention, hazel eyes wide and beaming. Black fingers covered in scales slid down the priest's chin to rest on his throat. Power stirred invisibly across the air and the priest's face went blank. A smile spread his lips as an expression of far-off awe overtook his features. The deity cocked his head to the side.

Snap!

It happened so fast Cassi didn’t understand until the priest’s body fell lifelessly to the ground, his head lolling against the dirt at an impossible angle.

His neck. It broke his neck.

Someone screamed. She didn't know who, but it didn’t matter anyway. As quickly as it came, the sound was cut off with unnatural swiftness. Another body fell, then another, the darkness stirring as it rolled from the creature, cloaking the air so she saw nothing but flashes. The briefest glint of light on a scaled arm. The curve of a sharp wing. A spray of glistening blood. The beast was unlike anything she'd ever seen, as though formed by magic, as if the power of the god stone lived inside of it. The fight was over before it began. The creature made no noise. Its wings hardly stirred the air. The darkness clung to it, as though made for it, and it moved with all the swift stealth of night.

A priestess broke free of the carnage and ran across the grove, jumping over roots as branches slapped her face, racing for the gate. Cassi didn’t even see the creature move, but there it was, standing before her in the shadows. It used one sharp claw to slit her throat. Another priest ran and another died, on and on, until the sacred nest fell completely still. The beast opened its mouth, revealing white teeth and pink gums. Its forked tongue darted out to lick the blood from its fingers. The black eyes surveyed the room, shifting between the bodies littering the floor. Power leaked from its pores as though it searched for something. By its feet, the god stone was nothing more than a broken shell, hollow and emptied of all it contained.

An egg, Cassi realized with a mental gasp, studying the oval shape and the fissured edges, the delicate fragility now on display. It was never a stone. It's an egg. They're all eggs.

Her mind raced down this new path.

The prophecy played across her thoughts.

Beasts will emerge, filled with fury and scorn, fighting to recover what from their claws we have torn.

It was the piece of the puzzle they'd always been missing—what had they taken from the dragons? What did they want? Why did they keep coming back to this world?

Eggs. We took their eggs.

Cassi stared at the creature, its back to her as its head continued a slow perusal of the cavernous grove. Those wings. Those scales. Those claws. They belonged to a dragon, and